My friends and I love restoring old, rusty tools that collect dust in workshops or sell at vintage or antique sales. We decided to launch a YouTube channel doing just that!
For our very first video, we’re restoring a rusty double bladed Keen Kutter axe. The handle broke years ago while chopping wood and the axe head has been collecting rust in the corner of our garage.
Time to RESTORE THE AXE!
Our process was pretty straight forward…
We dissolved the axe head rust in Metal Rescue Rust Removal Bath for 6 hours. While waiting for the Metal Rescue to work its magic, we found a large branch that came down in a storm and began to turn it into the axe handle. We crudely squared the branch with a reciprocating saw and then further refined it with a wood planner. We then roughly shaped the wood into a handle with a band saw and belt sander. To finish it off we hand sanded it to 220 grit.
A few hours later, we removed the axe head from the Metal Rescue solution and cleaned it up with a wire brush. We then took an angle grinder with a flap disk to the axe head to further clean and polish it. After that, we moved to the belt sander to work on the cutting edges. We hand sanded the axe head to 2000 grit and then buffed and polished it. The axe head cutting edges were further sharpened with sharpening stones from Sharp Pebble. After a few hours, the axe head was sharp enough to cut through paper and shiny enough to use as a mirror.
All that was left was to attach the axe head to the handle. We shaped the handle head to fit the axe head opening and then split it using the band saw. We hammered in our splint and glued it for extra strength. Final step was to apply a few coats of Watco Danish Oil.
About 8 hours of work and our axe was ready to split wood. We absolutely love the look and feel of the axe handle and polished axe head.
This axe restoration project was a ton of fun and we’re really excited to create more videos just like this one. So please, share this video and subscribe to our channel for more weekly, awesome content from the Rust Rangers!
SUBSCRIBE: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCchqltvTcRi3ewwyke4PkJQ
TOOLS USED IN WORKSHOP:
DeWalt 13" Planner — https://amzn.to/2CjRTIG
DeWalt 12" Sliding Compound Miter Saw — https://amzn.to/2XUozBP
DeWalt Compact Table Saw — https://amzn.to/2VYIUDZ
Grizzly 9" Benchtop Bandsaw — https://amzn.to/2HupnaB
ShopFox 8" Variable-Speed Grinder — https://amzn.to/2O1SaEG
JET 2"x42" Bench Belt & 8" Disc Sander — https://amzn.to/2O2h5bb
WEN 12" Variable Speed Drill Press — https://amzn.to/2VWSFCD
Grizzly 6" Bench Vice with Anvil — https://amzn.to/2TxmZqK
Milwaukee Cordless Sawzall — https://amzn.to/2UvZ1ZC
Dremel 4300 Tool Kit — https://amzn.to/2O2iWg9
Seville Rolling Workbench — https://amzn.to/2FamCK4
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#restoration #axe #DIY #howto #tools #keenkutter