Axe Restoration / Resteeling

Drawing on my love of axes and my knowledge of blacksmithing and axe making I have often been asked to restore old axes in need of some TLC. I may have even developed a bit of a reputation (grin). I want to be very clear that I am not an expert on old axes. I know a Spiller from a Black Raven and a Maine Wedge pattern from a ‘Conny’ or a Hoosier but I would not be the person you’d want to ask if you were looking for an appraisal. I say this because I leave it to the clients discretion whether the axe should be restored. This brings us to the first question on the FAQ sheet:

Q: What axes should be restored and what axes should be conserved?

A: If an axe Is unique or very rare it may have worth beyond collectability or cash value. It could be important as an artifact of axe making history, it could hold information about the materials or techniques employed to make it or may have some other intrinsic or innate value. An axe like this should be conserved.

If an axe is nice, but not super rare or unique, and you’d like to preserve it as a functional tool, by all means restore It!

Q: Ok, so what is the difference between conservation and restoration?

A: With conservation nothing is done to the object that cannot be undone, and ideally if that object is unique or valuable enough everything that is done to preserve it in its present condition (even if it’s just spraying an axe head with a rust inhibitor) is Documented. With restoration, an effort is made to “restore” the object to its original (or at least an earlier) condition; the crux though is that restoration changes the object in ways that cannot be undone.

Here is a hypothetical that might further illustrate the difference:

Let’s say you find an old axe head at a flea market- it’s in good condition but there’s a little surface rust, it could be sharper, and it’s missing the handle. You take it home spray a little WD-40 on it and hang it on a new hickory handle. Since at this point you have not altered the axe head in any way and since you made an effort to prevent it from getting any rustier you could conceivably say that the axe has been conserved.

Now let's say that when you brought that axehead home you wire-wheel it to get all the rust off, and when you hung it you noticed that the eye was a little pooched out because some jackass used it as a splitting wedge at some point. So you beat the eye back into position with a ball pein hammer. Once the glue on the wedge is dry you touch up the edge with a belt sander and maybe knock down a few burrs that formed on the poll- presumably when that same jackass was beating it mercilessly with a sledgehammer trying to get a piece of knotty white oak to ‘split already.’ Because material was removed and/or because the shape of the axe was changed (by grinding and re-shaping the eye) the axe may be said to have been restored.)

Q: Are you saying that I screwed up when I wire-brushed that Lincoln double bit?

A: I don’t know, I’m not an expert. I'm only saying that technically speaking you’ve crossed into the realm of restoration. Some interventions are more major/invasive and may* destroy the value of an axe while others are ‘no biggie.’ If you suspect you may have a very special/valuable axe, and are having second thoughts as you are bringing down that spinning angle grinder… ask an actual expert.

By the way if you have some ‘crappy bargain basement’ axe- but it was your grandpa’s and it reminds you of your days “upta camp” and you really really want it restored- ask me! I'm only too happy to help. I evaluate and quote axes based on the shape they’re in and what I think I can do for them, not on how much they’ll fetch on ebay.

Q: Ok so you restore axes what sorts of things can you fix?

A: I can fix all manner of cracks and chips, pooched eyes, galled eyes, mushroomed polls, tidy up profiles, and I can restore hardness/ temper those axes that have lost it, and I can even re-steel badly damaged or worn bits.

Q: Are there any repairs that you can't or won’t do?

A: I do not do any alteration or restoration of stamps, maker’s initials, dates, weight marks or other proprietary markings beyond what is altered in the course of restoring another part of the axe. For example if an axe comes in with a badly mushroomed poll and it has partially crushed a maker’s mark that mark may be altered somewhat in the course of forging the mushrooming back into position- sometimes this makes the mark more legible, sometimes not.

Q: A lot of the value/ uniqueness of these old axe heads is in those stamps, initials, dates and weight markings. Do you try to preserve them?

A: Yes, absolutely! Every effort is made to preserve those markings. However, some may change somewhat in the course of the work.

Q: So the stamp, marks and/or patina of my axe will change?

A: Almost certainly yes, the majority of the repairs I make on old axes require me to heat the axe head up above 1500℉ when this happens oxygen in the air reacts with the surface of the steel and creates black iron oxide (known as fire scale) this usually flakes off during forging. If enough firescale flakes off it can appreciably alter the appearance of these marks though rarely obliterates them completely. Minor repairs like a gentle reshaping of a pooched eye may barley affect markings while repairs requiring lots of high heats (like re-steeling) may reduce its crispness subjectively 10-20%

with axes that have particularly elaborate or intricate stamps I take the extra step of coating the stamp (which is technically an etching BTW) with an anti-scale coating which helps. I also use rawhide or hardwood mallets whenever possible if I'm hammering directly on a stamp.

Furthermore I do my axe repairs in a coal forge which keeps the firescale lower and the heat more local to the areas needing repair. Propane forges generally create more scale and the heat is more diffuse so the whole axe tends to scale even if you’re only working the edge.

This stamp on this Bigelow axe was covered with antiscale coating and it retained much of its crispness despite being resteeled.

Q: So, what is re-steeling?

A: Re-Steeling is when a badly worn or damaged axe has a new piece of high carbon steel forge-welded to its edge. This is typically accomplished in one of two ways; either by laying the new piece to one side of the warn/damaged bit or forming the new steel into a taco shape and inserting the warn/damaged edge into the cleft. In either case the two pieces are then forge-welded and hammered to fill out the presumed original profile.

This Kelly Registered was badly worn. It was given the Taco treatment thus a weld scarf can be seen on both sides. When viewed from the top you can see how well the new steel has blended with the original.

Q: If the edge of my axe is in good shape except that the heel or toe is badly chipped, can you do a partial re-steel?

A: there are no half measures in re-steeling something is re-steeled or it’s not. I don’t want forge weld boundaries to cross the edge if I can help it and neither should you.

Q: What kind of steel do you use to re-steel?

A: I typically use 1075 or 1084 for re-stealing an axe, these steels are low alloy and high carbon, so they weld readily to the axe head. When quenched and tempered they make for an excellent hard, sharp and tough edge comparable or superior to the original steel edge in most cases.

Q: Do you use any other kind of welding when repairing axe heads?

A: Yes, I sometimes use mig welding to repair cracks in mild steel axe bodies or oxy acetylene welding on wrought iron or questionable axe body steel. However, I never use either to permanently attach new edge steel -as they can leave the steel grain large and coarse which can result in brittleness or weakness. For permanently bonding edge steel to an axe bit only forge-welding will do. Even when I'm only repairing an axe body, extra steps are taken to refine the grain of the welded area to minimize future failures in the steel.

Q: What if I'm not planning to use my axe? I just want it as a ‘wall hanger’ . Can I save money by having cosmetic rather than functional repairs done?

A: I generally only take on axe restorations where the client wants to make the axe a functional tool again. I wouldn't want any axe I repaired to end up with someone who didn’t realize they were getting/buying a wall hanger. So, if you only want a cosmetic repair, you may or may not save money…by asking someone else to do it.

Q: So what does an axe restoration generally cost?

A: It varies quite a bit. If that axe just needs to be sharpened and honed it could cost as little at $50 a full re-steel starts at $175 but may be more if the axe is especially large or complicated. Usually if the axe needs to be re-steeled I’ll throw in other repairs such as a pooched eye or mushroomed poll in gratis.

Q: Can you re-hand (haft/handle) a repaired axe head?

A: Yes, for an additional charge and additional shipping.

If you have any other questions feel free to drop me a line at downingarts@gmail.com or (207)358-0077