Go get the axe (part 1)

June 17: The Axe

There’s nothing more hipster-manly than restoring an axe. Just the thought of shining up an old tool I’ll never chop down a tree with makes my beard bristle. My moustache yearns to be turned up at the sides. My homebrew bubbles just a little harder. And my axe? It will shine like the mother of pearl buttons on my vintage flannel shirt. This is serious business.

The project starts with a rusty old double bit axe head I found in the barn behind my mother’s house. The handle is missing, which renders it useless for axing, but useful for restoring. At first inspection it looks pretty rough, but that’s mostly surface rust. There’s no big chips on the cutting edge and the pits look small. The presence of wood stuck in the axe head tells me that it hasn’t been in a fire, which means the steel still has its temper and will hold an edge.

At the end of this project, this rusty axe head will have my name etched into it, it’s handle will be custom made, it’ll have a leather blade protector and it’ll have it’s own canvas bag so It won’t scrape against my raw denim while I’m riding my fixie.

But that’s all big picture stuff. I’m missing the trees for the forest. What I really need is get this old piece of metal ready to go.

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Step 1, today, was to drill out this wood and put the head on a wire wheel to remove the rust. I really wanted to try the electrolytic way of rust removal, but I would need to buy a battery charger, washing powder and a piece of rebar for something I can do in a few minutes on a wheel. I’ll try that project later with a different piece of rusty metal.

The research I’ve done so far says that I should sharpen the axe head at this point. I’ll sharpen the blade to some sort of an insane edge you can shave with, but I’m not done screwing around with the axe head yet. To save my fingers from dephalangification, I’ll sharpen it later.

I started to remove the wood with a battery-operated drill, but this wood is too old and too compressed to budge. I needed more power. The Bridgeport at work, designed to cut steel, did the trick. One big hole and a few smaller ones and the old wood fell right out.

I really debated the best way to remove the rust. There were all sort of options, from the cool electrolytic bath to the mundane vinegar soak to the obvious and practical wire wheel. I went with the wheel. It was sitting there right next to the bridgeport, calling me. It worked pretty well, but all it did was remove the rust. There’s still a patina on the steel that I’d like to remove. It looks a lot more like factory bluing than oxidation, but I wanted to remove it anyway.

I figure the best way to do this is with 220 grit sandpaper and a random orbit sander. I don’t really want the axe to be perfectly smooth. I like the look of the little pits and scratches, but it does have to be shined up if I want to decorate the axe head. What I've done here isn't perfect, but it will get me through the next step.