Axe restoration thread

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Wow, beyond my pay grade. I used to throw doubles and thought it was easy. I tried throwing my Plumb that Multifaceted hung for me. When I released it, I saw it fly in slow motion, and complete half a turn, and hit square on the end of the handle. It drove it about an eighth of an inch farther on the handle. Then I was scared to try again. Didn't want to mess up that beautiful handle. So, I bought a brand new Collins double and threw it. Exact same thing, half a turn, and hit on the handle. Haven't tried since.
 
I've been buying from House Handle Co for a while now. Sometimes it's a home run, other times it's a disappointment. Today, another disappointment for my "hand picked" hafts with 'No Laquer'... Just figured I'd share...

Seemingly normal looking hafts, perhaps the house axe haft looks a little thin on the palm swell...
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Indeed. It appears that they took a laquered haft and turned it again to remove the laquer, along with a substantial amount of wood...
6cCyYbj.jpg


Thumb for scale...
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The DBA haft grain is acceptable:
ENDuFLj.jpg


Until you check the alignment.... whoever turned this on a lathe must have had a big lunch or too much to drink the night before...
WUXtwIO.jpg

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I'll be able to correct the DBA by thinning the haft as I typically do, but I'm pretty disappointed with the 19" house axe haft, I really do not think that is acceptable. Not worth my time to try to exchange it or send back, might try and sculpt it to fit, but I doubt it.

This is strike three for House, will probably not buy from them again...
 
Crazy thin!

Is that my head in the pic?

I was wondering who that was hanging out in my shop! ...j/k

Indeed it is, still need to work the grind after removing the chips and correcting the extreme bit curvature. After that I'll decide on a finish, then hang it. The bits have been ground down a lot over the years, but there's still plenty of hardened steel remaining. It looks a little silly on a long haft, but it still has some weight to it, so I chose a 30" haft which I'll thin out for good purchase. I'm inclined to think that when it's done this will be a nicely balanced axe, somewhere between a full sized DBA and a cruiser.
 
Here are the axes and some first pics of head shots, before any clean up or anything has been done to them.
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Some of them have been beaten on, many will need new hafts, ( do two hafts make a whole?) unwrapping tape from handles will probably reveal problems. A good number of these hafts have been thinned down and are much skinnier than new ones come. Who'da thunk it? I guess I missed that lesson. Still not sure, with bigger hands, if a little thicker doesn't fit better, but for all I use an axe, I would end up with blisters anyway.
 

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