Axe Restoration

Having fires is a big part of living in a colder climate. A proper axe is an absolute must to keep your wood pile stacked and your wood stove burning.

In this Instructable, I will restore an old axe. I will also showcase necessary maintenance required for this tool;

• Fitting a new handle.
• Sharpening the blade.
• Preventing corrosion.

Follow the steps below and for further clarification, reference the attached video.

Supplies

Materials:

• old axe head
• axe handle
• boiled linseed oil
• scrap wood for a wedge
• wood glue

Tools:

• knife
• belt sander
• palm sander
• skotch-brite
• electrical tape
• hammer
• punch
• cordless drill
• drill bit
• latex gloves
• sand paper
• vice
• band saw
• file
• mallet
• angle grinder
• flap disk
• wire wheel

Step 1: Repair Axe Head

• Remove old handle wood that is stuck in the eye.
• Drill a couple holes into the wood and punch it out.
• Remove rust and paint with a wire wheel.
• Remove dents with a flap disk, belt grinder, palm sander.
• Apply a chamfer on the hammer end of the axe head with a metal file.
• Use a fine grit metal file to sharpen the edge of the axe. Run it along the edge of the blade on both sides. Make sure to maintain a 30-40 degree angle.
• To clean off the file marks and sharpen further, wet sand the edge of the blade with 400 grit sand paper. Wrap the sand paper around a small, flat piece of wood and sand in a circular motion along blade tip.
• In the last three pictures you'll see I polished the tip of the axe blade - utilizing electrical tape to mask and skotch-brite to achieve a semi polish. This was for aesthetics and not necessary.

Step 2: Prepare Wooden Handle

This specific axe head falls into the 'camping hatchet' category so the appropriately sized handle was selected. These handles are coated with a Polyurethane from the factory and that is not good for grip, so we need to remove that coating and expose the bare wood.

• Using a sharp knife manually scrape the entire surface of the handle to remove the factory coating.
• Smooth the scrape marks with sandpaper.
• File the top of the handle to fit the eye of the axe properly .
• Slowly remove material with a file until the handle will go into the eye the slightest bit.

Step 3: Assemble

• Fit the axe head onto the handle so that it is snug and will not fall off.
• Tap head onto a wooden work surface until top of wood handle is flush with top of eye on axe head.
• Hang the axe with one hand and with a mallet, hammer the butt end of the handle. The force of the blow with bring the axe head closer up to the shoulder of the handle (refer to video for a better visual).
• Trim excess material on the handle to about 1/2" from the axe head.
• With a small piece of scrap wood, create a wedge with a belt sander. You do this by placing the scrap wood against the belt sander and applying force to one side. This will create a wedge shape. The wedge is a safe guard so your axe head will not fly off the handle.
• Apply wood glue to wedge and insert into the kerf on the handle.
• Hammer in the wedge until it basically won't go in any further.
• Trim excess with a band saw.
• Sand smooth with a belt sander.
• Apply boiled linseed oil onto axe head as well as on the handle (ensures no rust will form and wood will not dry out). Wipe excess oil with a rag.

The axe is ready to be put to work now! Thank you for following along.

Step 4: