Category Archives: Edged Tools

Knives, axes, saws, machetes and any other tool with a sharp edge or point.

Restoring and Hafting an Old Axe

by Woodsbum

Having a nice axe around is pretty important for the bushcrafting type person. Unfortunately, they get really expensive for a good one. The best brands (Wetterlings, GB, or a custom) all run over $100. Even though it is a great price when considering the quality of the item you are getting, it is still over $100. This is where being thrifty and putting in a little elbow grease can save your tail. By watching for vintage axes on Ebay, garages sales, or thrift stores you can get a top quality axe head that just needs a little TLC.

Take these three axe heads for instance. Two were given to me and one was purchased for $.50 from a garage sale. The carpenter’s axe and single bit are both True Tempers and the hatchet is a forged head from Germany. All are great quality tools that will give many more years of service if restored properly.

Three axe heads ready for restoration

In the restoration process, the first real step is to get all the rust and patina off the head. Some people are really into the whole “vintage” thing and want to keep the product in an antique state for resale or collectible purposes. When you are going after a usable tool, you want to make it as close to new as possible, in my mind. This is why I get rid of all that and work to remove all the scaling, rust, and patina to get back down to a bare metal. There are several methods to do this. One is to use vinegar. By soaking an axe head in vinegar, the main rust and scaling will bubble off and be removed. It also, however, does what is called a “vinegar patina.” I am not fond of the look and it actually bugs me. The carpenter’s axe and the single bit above were both done with vinegar. As you can see, it darkens the metal and essentially makes all the rust pits more visible. The hatchet is getting a different treatment.

To clean off the hatchet, I soaked it in a strong penetrating oil for a week. I then took a wire wheel to it and all the nastiness came right off. Here are some pictures of a how well the wire wheel works on an old axe head. This one is an old Collins double bit.

Wire wheel descaling an axe head after a penetrating oil soak

As you can see, the wheel really cleans and polishes it up quite well. Here is the old hatchet after the soak and polish.

German hatchet after getting cleaned up

Once you get the head all cleaned up, it is time to haft it. The hardest part of hafting an axe is the sanding that needs to be done in order for the handle to fit properly in the eye.

Sanding the handle

Once it slides most of the way into the eye and actually FILLS the eye with no real gaps. You want it nice and snug, but not to the point where you are shaving the wood as it goes on.

Handle sanded to fit

Once you get it perfect, the head should be tapped onto the handle through the use of gravity. Smack the handle straight down on the ground to let gravity drive the head onto the handle. This keeps the head from twisting and binding onto the new handle. Once it slides all the way onto the handle and will go no further, you can go ahead and put in the wood wedge. The wedge is gently driven into the slit at the top of the handle. Use of a mallet rather than a hammer keeps the wedge from breaking or splintering. Remember that the wedge should fit into the eye just like the handle. If you have to trim a little bit that is fine.

Wedge in a double bit

Keep driving until you have completely filled the eye of the axe with the wood from the handle and the wedge. It should bulge over the edges of the eye a bit. “Muffin top” is a good way to describe it.

Wedge driven in

When done with driving the wedge in, trim down the excess. Leave just a little bit of the “muffin top” above the top of the head. This helps keep the head fitting tightly and also gives it a classy look.

Double bit wedged and trimmed

After all this is done, you can (if you want) put in a metal wedge to help keep the wood wedge from sliding out over time. The best way to do this is by driving the metal wedge in at a diagonal as shown in the picture below.

Handle totally done

There is a lot of pride and fun that can be found in restoring old axe heads. To date, I have redone several dozen and put them back in service. Seeing an old tool that was a step above useless suddenly come to life with a little TLC can make even the most hardened woodsbum get a little twinge of emotion. Even more emotion that what a double bacon sandwich cooked over a campfire can create!

Well, happy hunting and hafting everyone. Get out there and find your Collins, True Tempers, Black Ravens, Hultsafor Bruks, Plumbs, and Norlunds. Make them awesome again. Most importantly, have some fun!!!!

Knife Handles- MP Seax and Wolf Creek Forge Patch Knife

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by Woodsbum

I figured I would take the time to explain the whole process involved with putting a handle on a full tang knife. Even though it seems like a very scary proposition, it is MUCH easier than one would believe.

The first couple steps in the process involve getting the right materials collected. You will need:

Some sort of epoxy to glue the scales down.
A couple of pins for the handle.
Use of a drill press.
Some wood working clamps of some sort.
A belt sander.
A couple of fine tooth files.

The first step with putting a handle one a knife blank deals with cleaning up the tang and making sure the scales are squared up enough to drill with your press. I used some sand paper to clean up the tang and get rid of all the black scaling left over after the forging process. Once I got it down to a decent metal, I then scored up the tang a bit with a grinder (my choice and not needed) so that there was a rougher texture for the epoxy to adhere.

Then, I lined everything up and drilled the holes for the pins. The secret that I found with regard to getting straight and properly drilled holes was through the use of good scales to begin with. Each time I used a set of wood scales that were not squared up well, the holes would be off enough to leave a huge gap between the scales and the tang. When I finally used decent scales I got a good fit. Only went through a couple chunks of wood before I figured that out.

Next, contour the front of the scales where they will meet the blade. If you do not, you will have to sand right next to the blade and potentially remove some of the dark scale left after forging. If you want to keep this look, it will not last when sandpaper hits it. Please look at how I removed some of the dark coloring on this Wolf Creek Forge because I didn’t contour the handles before I epoxied them on.

Wolf Creek Forge with rogue sanding marks

When you get your holes drilled, the edges that will meet the blade are contoured correctly and all looks good, bust out your epoxy and get things glued together. I put the pins in during the epoxy/glue process so that the pins get permanently attached with epoxy the same time that scales get glued as well. Once all is glued up, grab some clamps and squeeze it all together. don’t worry if you get some epoxy that squishes out the sides. That will come off during the sanding phase. Do clean up the part next to the blade where you won’t be sanding, however.

MP Seax getting scales

Here it is from a different angle. Notice how there is a thin line of epoxy that has squeezed out along the line between the scales and the tang.

MP Seax all glued up

After the epoxy dries you can remove the clamps, saw off the excess pin stock and start to shaping the handle. Now I did most of the shaping through the use of a belt sander. If I had a band saw I would have used that to remove any excess handle material. Since I don’t I just went to town with the sander and let the dust fly.

When you get to the point where you are trying to take the pins down a bit you can use a fine tooth file and then smooth things out with sandpaper afterwards. It worked quite well and didn’t leave any major marks on anything. I did learn something about the use of pins, however. Matt from MP knives showed some pictures of his process and it seemed to make sense. He peens the ends of the pin so that it works like a rivet to hold the handles on better. If you look at this picture you can see a touch of a gap around the pins on this knife.

MP Seax

If I would have known about the peening thing, it would have been a much cleaner handling job.

Here are a couple more pictures of the handle after I was done with it.

MP Seax with a touch of epoxy still on the tang.

MP Seax with a good look at the contours

As you can see, I did a lot of contour work on this to make it really fit the hand for those long hours of bushcrafting. This bad boy ended up being the most comfortable feather/fuzz stick maker I have ever used. The contours just made holding the blade almost effortless and like everything Matt makes, it is incredible at cutting. This baby is an absolute dream.

Now other than the peening of the pins and ensuring that the front of the handle scales are contoured before they are glued into place, these two projects were actually quite successful. I was quite pleased as was GunGuy, who’s Seax is pictured in this post. My last bit of advice is to use the long drying epoxy and not the 5 minute stuff. The quick drying stuff seems to be more brittle and I had to reglue the handle on my Wolf Creek four times until I was smart enough to try a longer drying epoxy. The scales would crack loose during the sanding if it chattered at all. This was not a problem with the long drying time epoxy.

Now that you have a good idea of how this process is done go get yourself a quality knife blank and get to playing around. I love my knives that the makers fully built, but somehow I have a soft spot for those that I handled myself.

Go get dirty!!!!

Black Leatherman Wave with Nylon MOLLE Sheath

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by GunGuy

I’ve owned about half a dozen Leatherman multi-tools since my days in the Army. In the 90’s while a soldier with limited access to tools I put the Leatherman’s through their paces. I managed to break quite a few of them doing really stupid things which they weren’t designed for but the company always replaced the tool no questions asked. During my younger more adventurous days I bought a couple of Gerber multi tools as well but they broke a lot faster and their lack of a needle nose pliers made me become a Leatherman fan.

My most recent edition is a black Leatherman Wave with a MOLLE sheath for $90. I mounted this tool on my training gear so I always have a Leatherman handy when I go out. The two features that made this a must have was the MOLLE sheath and the small flat head screw driver that I can use to adjust locking screws on sights and my glasses. If you have glasses and are about to lose a screw you know how important that option is.

The overall fit and finish of the black Leatherman Wave is good. It’s a little stiff at first but that goes away with use. The black finish could be better and it comes off on your hands for the first few dozen times you handle it. That too will go away after a break in period. When I was reading the reviews on this multi-tool some people said as much and suggested getting the stainless steel one but you know the old adage “Once you go black you never go back.” Tongue in cheek jokes aside I’m very happy with the black version of the Leatherman Wave.

Gear Check Meetup (Part 2 – Neck/Camp/Chore Knives)

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by Woodsbum

In the second part of the “series” I have broken down a few of the knives that we discussed.

Neck/camp/chore knives, by my definition, are those knives that usually hang around one’s neck for use in cutting things around camp: rope, food, packets of sheer nummy-ness, etc. They can also be used for feather and fuzz sticks or just to whittle yourself a spoon. I commonly refer to them as “camp knives” although many have adopted that term to be used for the large bladed knives that resemble the old Hudson Bay knife. The knives that I am referring to are not as thick and heavy as your hard use type knife and even patch or game knives work well for these tasks. The main thing is that they need to excel at the chores that your hard use knife doesn’t.

To be perfectly fair, you can call these “Steve” knives, hot dog stickers or thumb jabbers for all I care. The important distinction is specific to their use and not the nomenclature.

Many people feel that these knives are just as good as any other heavy duty knife and can do anything that those others can do. The big thing to remember is this: Most bushcrafters carry multiple sharps. Many do a Nessmuk trio, while others do more of a Kephart style combination. Even if you do something completely different and pair saws with knives, tomahawks, or the sort you will need a knife that you can do the more intricate work with.

Morakniv Classic

Morakniv Classic 2

Morakniv has been almost synonymous with bushcraft for many years. Their knives are razor sharp right out of the package, are carbon steel so you can get a good spark if you square off the spine, and are very inexpensive. The problem is that they are not a full tang and you cannot depend on them during heavy use such as batoning or chopping. Moras do, however, make one heck of a feather or fuzz stick. They are highly recommended as a neck knife or for lighter use as a camp/chores knife. For those that believe that these never break, please check out the multiple images here.

Morakniv Companion

Condor Woodlaw:

Condor Woodlaw

This knife was on the previous page as a hard use knife. Depending on the other items you carry, this could actually be used as more for camp chores if you bring an axe to do your major chopping and fire preparation. The thing to remember is that you want one really sharp knife in addition to something you can drive through a tree if you need to.

ESEE 3

The ESEE 3 was also on the other page. Again, it really depends on what your other tools you carry. Like I have mentioned before, stay clear of the serrated blades. Because of the changes in blade shape serrated edges make it difficult to judge cut depth and direction. Some people practice up and can use them quite effectively, but it is going to be a practiced skill and not something that will be easily transferred from knife to knife. I am not saying that people can’t do it or don’t love them once they get used to them. It is simply an added difficulty that newer bushcrafters should steer clear of until the get more established and transferable skills developed.

Helle

Helle Eggen

Helle knives are absolutely remarkable and a dream to use. Their Scandi grind keeps the edge hair popping sharp and they are a full, but hidden, tang. For a knife that can be used for many years without worry or failure, Helle would be a great choice.

Sargent Edged Tools

Sargent Model 1

Sargent Edged Tools is a custom knife maker that builds a great knife. His designs are very simple, but elegant. They are a bit more expensive than many other options, but are definitely worth the price.

As you can see, many of the knife choices are more Scandi ground with a bit smaller blade. They all tend to be smaller and lighter. This allows the user to use a cutting edge closer to their hand for better control. It also allows for more exacting use during activities such as carving or shaping wood.

No matter what you end up getting, make sure you have a tool for each job that will be presented to you in the field. Cover all aspects of chopping, splitting, carving, and general camp chores so that you don’t end up using the wrong tool to complete a task. This can end up being a dangerous situation. Just ask anyone that had to hike back out of the woods to get stitches.

I hope that you find this informative. Happy bushcrafting everyone!!!!

Gear Check Meetup (Part 1 – Hard Use Knives)

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by Woodsbum

It is a long story, but just suffice it to say that I ended up taking over a Meetup.com Bushcraft, Survival and Tracking group here in the Portland, OR area. Many who know me are probably blowing coffee out their nose and onto their keyboards at the moment. You’re welcome……

Well, we did a meetup last night. The topic was gear and what was truly needed to be able to go out bushcrafting. It was a decent turnout and there were a few new faces. That is always refreshing and exciting to see.

Without further ado, here is some of the gear that we showed and talked about:

First category is the “Hard Use” Bushcrafting knife. These knives are built to baton wood, pry out chunks of wood for notches when making things like pot hooks, and chores that would make any hidden or partial tang knife shudder.

This is the Condor Bushlore:

Condor Bushlore

This knife is a full tang and can take a beating. I have had one for years and know others that have them as well. Really truly, it is a hard use knife for the money. It is made of 1075 high carbon steel and has a hard wood handle. I have found that you will probably need to do a finish sanding job on the handle if you are as OCD as I am, but it is a great starter knife to learn with. This would be the knife used when you baton wood for fire prep and general, hard use type chores.

Here is the Condor Woodlaw:

Condor Woodlaw

When you are looking for an inexpensive knife to carve as well as do fire prep, this is a great choice. The thinner point works well for making holes or getting into those tight spots where the Bushlore just seems to not quite reach.

More Condor products that rate an “honorable mention” are their Kephart, Nessmuk, and Bushcraft Basic.

Then there are the Beckers. The Becker line can all take one heck of a beating and have gained a tremendous following. There are some die hard fans out there and rightfully so. There are very few production knives that can perform as well as the Becker line can.

Becker BK2

The BK2 is a solid performer, but commands a higher price than the Condor line. This solid knife will take about anything you can dish out without hardly a scratch. One thing to note, however, is the coating that is put on the blade. To use this knife with a firesteel this coating needs to be removed. That is no big deal, but it needs to be mentioned.

Becker BK5

The BK5 is also a good option, but the point is more pointed and tapered. This helps with carving chores, but makes it a bit more susceptible to breakage when driving it through things. Most people don’t do such things with their knives, but it can and does happen.

Becker BK16

The BK16 is also a favorite knife among many bushcrafters due to its durability and nimble feel during use. When using a pinch grip it is not as exacting as many other model knives, but it is a great all around choice.

There are many other options in the Becker line. If you do an Amazon search for them, you will see the other models. About anything in this line that doesn’t fall under the “combat” moniker will perform quite well for you.

In any bushcraft knife discussion ESEE knives will be brought up at some point. They have a phenomenal reputation and are really a tough knife that can take a beating. Now remember that there are two models that resemble each other. Ontario and ESEE both have knives that look almost identical. Many will argue that the Ontario is just as good as the ESEE. I personally like the ESEE better and have had much better luck with them.

ESEE 3

The 3 is a great knife, but a little small for many people. It will, however, take a beating. It’s bigger brother, the 4, is much more suited to hard use chores because of its added size.

ESEE 4

The ESEE 4 is the knife I use as my survival blade while hunting. It is lightweight and you can get several really nice Kydex sheaths for it that make it a phenomenal neck knife. I even have a firesteel loop on my configuration. Like the Beckers, you will have to take off the coating on the spine of the blade if you plan on using it with a firesteel.

ESEE also makes variations with larger blades. Their ESEE 5 and ESEE 6 are great choices as well.

My personal preference is to stay away from the models with serrated edges for hard use. They are great for EDC type knives like the Spyderco. When used with a baton or when trying to make feather sticks the variance in the edge make it difficult to properly assess the depth and direction of the cut.

ESEE Junglas

The Junglas is a chopper among choppers. Having only had a few chances to use one it quickly made my short list for future purchases. I am currently using a custom MP Knives Direwolf for chopping and heavy camp work, but the Junglas might become my “second” for the task.

Customs:

There are many custom knife makers out there that make a great knife. I have several from various makers such as MP Knives, Wolf Creek Forge, Adventure Sworn, SLP Knives and Wild Boar Forge. They all fit the bill and can be made specifically for your desired purpose.

Here are a couple pictures.

MP Knives Direwolf

AS Mountaineer

The amount of money that you spend on a good, hard use knife is only limited by your budget and desired configuration. I used to think that any knife was ok as long as you could get it sharp. After having broken several and then used some customs my thoughts changed. Spending $100’s of dollars on a knife is as much of an investment in your safety as it is in the beauty of the tool. Either way or no matter what you decide to buy, just make sure you get as good of a quality item as what your budget can afford.

The next part of the series will be on your general use camp knife.