Old Tool, New Life

I have posted several times about tools that were my grandpa's or great grandpa's, but here is another. My favorite hatchet to carve with belonged to my grandpa. It had a handle on it that he had made himself.

Here is Grandpa's hatchet with the handle grandpa had made

I wasn't knowledgeable enough about axes/hatchets to know how to correctly fix the fact that the head was loose on the hatchet. I would typical bang the bottom of the handle on a stump to try and tighten it up while working, One day mid winter while splitting some kindling to get the stove going the head broke off the handle. I was sad that I had broken something my grandpa had made. I then did some research on the correct way to fasten (hang) a head on an ax or hatchet.

Hickory is the wood of choice for ax and hatchet handles. After digging in the wood rack I found some Hickory. I rough cut the overall shape on the bandsaw and then did all the shaping with rasp and files.

While making the handle and studying the hatchet head I realized that one side of the head was flat and the other side was beveled. After looking online and talking to some friends I decided that originally the hatchet head had a single bevel and would have been for hewing timbers, and that some point someone sharpened it putting a bevel on both side. I decided to reshape the head and sharpen it back having a single bevel. I didn't want to remove all the pitting and patina on the blade so I didn't grind the sides, and focused my work near the cutting edge. I did the majority of the reshaping using the old stationary belt sander that I had gotten from grandma. With a 60 grit belt I established the single bevel cutting edge and with a little filing it was sharp enough to shave. I plan to polish the cutting edge more soon.

The flat side of the hatchet 

The curved/beveled side

I hung the head on my hickory handle and then finished it with boiled linseed oil. The hickory really came alive when I applied the oil. I shaped the handle where it had a nice place to grip right under the head for detailed work and made a nice palm swell on the bottom of the handle to give a good grip when taking a full swing. What I have learned while doing this has made me want to restore some other axes and make some more tools.  I am very  glad to have grandpa's hatchet back to usable condition. I really enjoy using these old tools, thinking about what was built using them. I hope that someday someone in my family will be using these tools and some of mine also and thinking back about me.

A photo essay of what I've been doing

Turned a mallet from a piece of maple firewood

pallet wood planter

Mother's day planter made from cedar fence picket

Raise bed garden built from cedar fence pickets (6' by 3')

My wife and I built this clock for our back porch

Turned my first yo-yo

This froe belonged to my great-great great-grandpa

more family tools

My Great Grandpa built this table, I plan to clean it up and fix the loose joints. 

This saw was my uncle's grandpa's.

The spoon on the bottom is Red Bud and was carved for my Mom's Birthday

Zebra wood pen

Me at the age of 4 helping Dad build his garage

Tigerwood bolt action pen

Old Craftsman block plane that belonged to my grandpa

My co-worker was remodeling a 140 year old building and gave me some wood from it.

Wine bottle holder made from the 140 year old wood.

I finally got around to build some wood working for mere mortals inspired clamp racks

Pumpkin decoration to pain with the kids