All About Pocket Knives

Some clean-up and rust prevention on my axes.

A few new axe finds of the day....

I pulled out some of my 2xBit axes to clean up and do some oiling and work on the handles... ... and these are just the "extra" ones I back in a storage room.....

Older 3.5 pound Council with a new handle. Thus sucker has been on the back burner since my teens. I found it as a part of a pretty sizeable pile of axes on a property we leased at the time.
Last month, I took it off the back burner, after the handle sat around a couple years and I had no idea where it went and then I found it cleaning out my shop. It got dunked in Evaporust, which removed a healthy layer of rust off it. I fitted the handle this week.


I followed Council's suggestions to taking the old handle stub out. I drilled a bunch of holes, then hit what was left with a punch (several times). Council apparently used really good wood for the handles and may have glued it in also. Ended up having to put a gasket scraper (the Wilde-made one from Wally World) between handle and head and chisel the old handle out by hitting it with a hammer.

Some strange ptting petterns. Deep, but hopefully not bad enough to weaken the integrity.

The pattern on the mark side is a little strange. I don't know if it was from rain, or perhaps a shotgun?
To do:

Install wood wedge (maybe a couple steel ones too). The wedge is longer than the handle if I put it in flat side up like most handles. Bowman Handle apparently shows it being put in like most, so they may have included the wrong wedge here.
Sand and apply linseed oil. I hate the feel of this handle--it's pretty rough despite being pricey ($25 in 2022!).

And, of course, sharpen the head. I am finally getting to where I can put a good edge on an axe with a proper file (mostly pretty darn old US-made Nicholsons) and a 200/400 grit DMT diamond sharpener.

Either buy Council's edge cover or have a guy a couple towns over make me one.

Once I'm done, I think I'll have the best felling/fence on tree removal axe I've got. My next-largest axes are basically boy's axe patterns, so 3.5 vs. 2-2.5 lb. coupled with a three-foot long handle should mean it will be much more efficient than hatchets or boy's axes. It will be replacing a 1KG Stihl (Ochsenkopf) in the UTV.


Also, I'm buying a few more Council axes. Their sledgehammers are awesome (most of what's in the shop. actually). The mine supply carries a Jersey-pattern Miner's Axe (basically my 3.5 lb. head on a shorter handle), and the entire Echo-branded line of axes are made by Council. Nearest Echo dealer is down the road from my Kawasaki dealer, and as I fix up the old Bayou, I'll be by there a lot.

I had a customer from our deli see my whittling projects and we struck a deal to trade a whittling of him for a carving axe. I got my part done, he sourced a axe head(sadly un-marked) but old that he then restored for me and had and hung a custom handle in it. I’m happy with the trade and am watching some videos and reading up on axe carving. I’m right handed so it has a bevel on the right side and flat on the left side with a slight off set. He has a YouTube channel, here is a link to the handle build. https://youtu.be/6OHQywCn6Tw

Great trade. Love your little axe man and the handle on the axe.

doglegg wrote: ↑Wed Jun 04, 2025 1:14 am Great trade. Love your little axe man and the handle on the axe.

Thanks! The video on the handle is long but fairly interesting. I’m working on his pet dog now.

C-WADE7 wrote: ↑Wed Jun 04, 2025 1:00 am I had a customer from our deli see my whittling projects and we struck a deal to trade a whittling of him for a carving axe. I got my part done, he sourced a axe head(sadly un-marked) but old that he then restored for me and had and hung a custom handle in it. I’m happy with the trade...

Wow! Cool!

.... My latest pickup: A Walters*..... I'll do a li'll clean up on it and maybe take it up north with me this year .....


*The Walters Axe Company in Hull, Canada, founded in the 1850s, was in continuous operation, passed from father to son for over one hundred and fifteen years. Morley, son of Henry Walters, inherited the business and was still running it at the age of 96 when it shut down in the early 1970s. The closing of the Walters plant signaled the end of the one-time flourishing axe industry in the Ottawa-Hull area.