The Best Made Company Axe Restoration Workshop
Join us at Best Made Company headquarters for a hands-on workshop on axe restoration and maintenance. Register early as space in extremely limited and is sure to fill up fast.
More details to follow for those that register.
Clotheslines, by Charlotte Sullivan, Best Made Guide to Urban Homesteading
When making a list of all the things there are to love about spring (polychromatic color palette, above-freezing temperatures, asparagus), the clothesline should not be forgotten. Like the thrill of seeing the first crocuses come up in March, there is cause for celebration when you can finally hang your clothes outside to dry.
There is simply no reason to use a drier if you have access to a clothesline or drying rack in your home. Understandably, city dwellers who use laundromats probably don’t want to lug their damp clothing home just to save money and energy on the drying process. As more of a country-dweller I enjoy the luxury of having a washer/drier in the home (and clothesline in the backyard) - but then, I miss out on people watching at the laundromat. Not to mention the meditative opportunities offered by the front loading washing machines. Clearly there are pros and cons to each set of laundry-related living conditions.
Here are 5 reasons I’ll share in support of air-drying your clothes:
1) It saves you money: Over its expected lifetime of 18 years, the average clothes dryer will cost approximately $1,530 to operate. (This number is based on individuals that do laundry in their homes, not laundromats, where the cost of drying clothes is much higher). Source: Flex Your Power: California’s statewide energy efficiency marketing and outreach campaign.
2) It saves energy: In 2001, about 5.8% of residential electricity went towards using a clothes drier.Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration. If all Americans would use clotheslines or drying racks, the savings would be enough to close several power plants. Source: Project Laundry List
3) It is not noisy.
4) Your clothes will smell amazing.
5) The clothesline presents an opportunity for creative expression. There are many ways to hang your clothes out to dry, for example:
a) Totally random: you just hang out to dry your clothes in whatever order you happen to pick them up.
b) By type (ascending/descending order optional): First socks, second short sleeved shirts, third long sleeves, fourth pants, etc…
c) Rainbow: Arrange your clothes in a rainbow spectrum or some other color coordinated way.
d) Whites: For those that separate their laundry, an all white laundry line is always stunning.
Best Made Axe Restoration Series: PostScript, Finishing
After we’ve hung our axe with a new helve we move on to finishing both the helve and the head. This is done not only to protect the wood and steel against the elements, namely water, but also for aesthetic purposes.
There are two choices for protecting an axe head: wax and oil. They both serve to protect the steel from moisture by forming a water repellent layer over the axe head. Gun oil, used to protect firearms is a popular choice as is linseed oil. In the wax department we use plain old Johnson wax in the metal can. Beeswax can also be used. Wax it just like a car. Apply the wax liberally, allow it to dry, then wipe the excess off with a cloth. We even know some folks who mix wax and oil together by heating the wax, stirring in linseed oil and letting it form a paste.
The most common finish for helves is linseed oil, but wax is also used on some. We prefer the feel and finish linseed oil gives. For our restored Jersey bit we used Watco’s Danish Oil Finish, which is simply linseed oil, pigment, and a solvent that speeds the drying time. One of the nice things about using an oil finish is that it can be reapplied and sanded as needed. We also periodically apply linseed oil to the end of the helve in the eye of the head because if the wood dries out too much it will shrink and the head will become loose.
We’ve painted a portion of our Jersey bit with a synthetic lacquer based paint and sealed it with polyurethane.
The last thing we do is christen our axe with a name. We think a name makes each axe just a little more special and personal. We’ve also found that folks tend to take better care of items that they’ve named. We’ve give our Jersey bit the name Melody Maker, after the lovely and talented musician and singer Melody Gardot.
We’ve included a photo of the head as we originally acquired it. Let it serve as a testament to how far gone into neglect and disrepair an axe can go and still be brought back to life.
We’ll be sharing other restoration projects here in the future. If you have questions about this restoration, or a restoration project of your own, feel free to drop us a line at nick (at) bestmadeco.com, with “Restoration” somewhere in the subject line.
Best,
Nick Zdon, Best Made Minnesota Outpost
Best Made Co. Sharpening Jig, Mark I
Anyone who’s sharpened high-quality, high-performance woodworking tools, such as planes and chisels, will tell you that consistency is key. Axes require the same level of attention and detail to reach their full potential in use. While jigs for plane blades, chisels, and other woodworking tools are common, and easily accessible, there are no such jigs available for axes. At least none that we found. So we set out to build one ourselves. Combining the research of a few homemade models built by others, our own knowledge of edge sharpening, and a few items we had in the shop, we concepted and created the first prototype of our own sharpening jig.
Our jig is attachable to the DMT diamond sharpening file we’ve just recently added to our store at shop.bestmadeco.com
Results so far have been very promising. Although we still have a few changes to make on our next version. Stay tuned for more details as we make further improvements!
Axe Restoration Project, Part 6: Hanging
One of the last steps to fully restoring our axe is to fit it with a new handle (called a helve). This process is called ‘hanging.’
The tools needed are shown in fig. a. Clockwise from left to right: our replacement helve, wooden wedge (should come with helve), axe head, bastard file, coping saw, and dead blow mallet.
We’ll be showing a Dayton patterned head first in this post. Our Jersey pattern will come a little later in this post as its replacement helve needs more work for for proper fitting.
When choosing a new new helve, there are a few things to look for. The first is grain direction. The grain direction should run as parallel to the bit as possible as shown in fig. b. This type of grain direction will give the helve the greatest strength. When purchasing a new helve, take a look at the end of each one and purchase the one with the best grain direction. Many hardware stores will carry replacement helves for axes, and there are online resources as well. It may be a good idea to bring your axe head with you to the hardware store to ensure that it will fit the helve you purchase, as some antique axes may have differing eye dimensions than modern day axes. Helves range in length from 20” up to 36”. The length you choose is primarily a matter of taste. Although, smaller heads typically get shorter helves. A hudson bay camp axe usually gets a 28” helve, while larger single bit and double bit axes tend to be in the 32” to 36” range. The axe we’re showing is a Manhattan Axe Co. Dayton pattern. We’ve selected a 32” helve for its replacement.
We begin by test fitting our head. Firmly pressure-fit the head onto the end of the helve, it most likely won’t seat all the way to the shoulder of the helve (fig. c). Then invert the whole thing so you have the end of the new helve in one hand with the head hanging towards the floor. Strike the butt end of the helve with the mallet (fig. d). This will drive the helve down into the head. It may not seem like it should work, but it does. Pound just until the helve stops going any further into the head. Don’t worry if the helve is not fully seated into the head. Remove the helve by tapping on the bottom portion of the head. Do this cautiously as a good blow from a mallet (especially wooden or leather ones) may deform the steel.
After the head has been removed from the helve take a look at where the two came together. The dark areas on the kerf end of the helve will show the points of greatest contact (fig. e). Using sand paper, or a file, remove the markings, and test-fit again to see if the head seats any lower on the helve. You may need to repeat this step a number of times before the head seats low enough on the helve. Fig. f shows the final contours of the helve.
For our Jersey head we’ve selected a 36” replacement helve. Because of the triangular ‘lugs’ that extend below either side of the eye we need to thin out a good portion of our new helve so that the head will seat properly. Heads with lugs, such as Jerseys and Rockaways, will not seat on a helve that has shoulders like those shown in fig. f. We thinned out the helve using a small hand plane (fig. g). It should be noted that it seems that axes and helves has gotten thicker over the years. Bits seem to have swelled, and helves especially have gotten thicker. If you have the original helve that came with your axe compare it to your new one. We’ll bet you even money that the older one is thinner than the new one.
Once the head is seated well on the head it’s time to drive in the wedges. First, if you have more than a half inch or so of helve extending from the eye of the bit saw it down to about a quarter inch. This will allow the wedges to drive as deep as possible. The first wedge is wooden and should be driven straight into the kerf slot (fig. h). Some wedges come very thick and you may need to whittle it down to get it to sit as deep as possible. A deeper thinner wedge is better than a shallower thicker one. We apply a little non-expanding wood glue to our wedges to keep them seated. There’s also a product called Swell Lock, that, when applied to the wedge will make it swell and tighten in the kerf slot without any adhesive. Once you’ve driven the wooden wedge in as far as it will go with the mallet, use the coping saw to cut both the helve and the wedge off flush with the top of the axe head.
Most helves these days come with a secondary metal wedge meant to be driven into the top of the helve perpendicular to the first wooden wedge. There are people who feel this is a good idea and those that disagree with it. We feel that the common sight of screws, coins, and shelf brackets driven into vintage and antique axe helves shows that a secondary wedge of some kind is needed. If you decide not to put it in, at the very least hang on to it so you can install it later if needed.
Finish up by sanding down the top of the head and helve so that they are smooth and flush. Fig. i shows our final Jersey pattern with the metal wedge inserted. Apply linseed oil to the end grain of the helve in the eye. The wood will soak up the oil and will expand and tighten inside the eye.
For a more in depth look at how to rehang an axe we highly recommend “Getting the Hang of It” over at the U.S. Forest Service’s website.
Best Made Inspiration: George Plimpton (Birthday Today, March 18th)
On this day in 1927 George Ames Plimpton was born in New York City, New York. He is best remembered as a journalist who took it upon himself to actually participate in the the things he was writing about. He pitched an inning against the National League baseball team prior to the 1960 All-Star game, attended preseason training with the Detroit Lions, trained as a goalie with the Boston Bruins, and sparred 3 rounds against Sugar Ray Robinson.
In 1953, prior to his participatory sports journalism career, he joined The Paris Review, becoming its first editor in chief. It was Plimpton’s vision to feature ‘the quality lit scene’ that the magazine is now known for. He edited the influential literary magazine until his death in 2003.
And the list goes on. There is hardly enough space here to list all of George Plimpton’s accomplishments. Suffice it to say that Plimpton was a man who lived his life to do and make as much of it as possible.
Axe Restoration Project: Part 4, Surface Treatment
In our last installment we had just finished cleaning 3 different axe heads in vinegar and had assessed their individual pros and cons. Of that group of 3 we decided to move forward with the Jersey head. This head was in need of a very aggressive surface treatment in order to remove pitting in the steel as a result of rust. We’ll basically be removing a layer of steel from the entire head and exposing clean new steel beneath.
We begin by sanding down the entire head using a disc sander and 100 grit sandpaper discs. This is a relatively laborious task as a good portion of the head needed the removal of up to a millimeter of steel. Fig. a shows the the head about a quarter of the way through the first sanding process. It should be noted that we find sanding preferable to grinding. Grinding wheels tend to remove too much material too quickly. They also heat up faster and hotter than sanding discs and belt sanders. This excessive heat can damage the temper of the steel, especially where the steel is thin at the bit edge. In fig. b the head has been completely sanded using 100 grit. From there the sanding grits get progressively finer, from 100 to 120 to 200. After 200 we switch to hand-sanding using 220 grit, then 320, then 400, and finally steel wool. Fig c. shows progress after hand sanding to 320 grit. As I said before this is a rather aggressive and time-intensive treatment, but the results are worth it. It’s possible to continue sanding and polishing until the steel shines like a mirror, although we think this is a bit excessive. You’ll notice in fig. c that the edge of the bit has been left unsanded and some pitting is still visible. This is because in this particular case the bit does not need any reshaping, just a good sharpening, and we prefer to tackle that job with our sharpening tools. In the case of badly misshapen bits it would make sense to use a sander to reshape the bit edge. In extreme cases a grinder might be used but only slowly, carefully, and with a frequent dip in a pail of water to keep the edge cool.
80 years ago today the Star Spangled Banner was made America’s official national anthem by then president Herbert Hoover. Before 1931 Hail Columbia and My Country ‘Tis of Thee served as de facto anthems at various functions. The video above is one of our favorite renditions of the national anthem; Jimi Hendrix playing the Woodstock Music Festival, 1969.
Best Made Invention: Lewis Carroll’s Wonderland Postage Case
In addition to writing some of the best known classic English literature, Lewis Carroll (who’s birthday also happens to be today) was also an inventor. He invented numerous games involving words, language and logic, one of which was an early version of Scrabble. Often times being struck with inspiration in the middle of the night he invented a form of shorthand writing, along with an accompanying tablet, with which he was able to jot down ideas and thoughts without the aid of too much light.
One of Mr. Carroll’s inventions in particular caught our attention. Invented in 1889, the Wonderland Postage Case consists of a simple envelope of stiff cardboard with various slots listing the various denominations of available stamps. Carroll’s intention with the Wonderland Stamp Case was to promote letter-writing (a worthy cause, we feel, even today) by way of inventing an easier, and more pleasurable, to use stamp case. Included with the Stamp Case at the time of purchase was a small treatise by Carroll himself called Eight or Nine Wise Words About Letter-Writing, which offers various thoughts on writing, receiving, and answering letters. For instance Mr Carroll recommends: “When you take your letters to the Post, carry them in your hand. If you put them in your pocket you will take a long country-walk (I speak from experience), passing the Post-Office twice, going and returning, and, when you get home, will find them still in your pocket.”
Not only is this amount of consideration towards correspondence refreshing in the current age of email and “txt spk”, but that same consideration is evident in the design and thoughtfulness of the Wonderland Stamp Case itself. The uniqueness of the illustrations, the clarity of the denominational markings, and even the portability, all reflect a deep connection with the act of letter-writing. Even with his obvious reverence for letter-writing Carroll saw it as an important act of daily life, and wished to inspire the same idea in others.
As we’ve mentioned before we find inspiration in all types of boxes and cases, and the Wonderland Postage Case is a shining example. Who knows, we may just start our very own letter-writing campaign.
Best Made Eye Candy: Eiffel Tower under construction 1888-1889
