Dad's old axe

[ohiofarmer 3,496]

I have been messing about with an axe from the farm that was always around the place. That hickory handle has a shape and a feel you just cannot find today.

   The tool I used to clean the head is a harbor freight poly brush of which I do not remember the proper name.The two small he ammers looked pretty rough so about five minutes of cleaning the heads with the tool and then heating the wood with a torch to blacken it ( in stages so it does not dry crack) and then scraping and sanding it makes them into really nice hammers.  After light scraping and sanding the blackened surface you can wet sand with linseed oil to turn the black into a chestnut reddish patina that's just beautiful.

   The larger ball peen hammer has the original crap varnish from the factory.

    The two framing hammers were signed up with the tool as well as the Doyle titanium which is a challenge. The cut down one is what I wanted for a bench hammer and body hammer. Those were both Harbor Freight and I reshaped the heads to smooth out the lines. 

    Optional step is to run many coats of Danish oil into a scraped and sanded hickory handle and then sand it down flat and start the hand rubbed coats of linseed oil.

    The old gunstock guys would often use abrasive rotenstone in with the hand rubbing to polish the wood to a higher sheen. 

    Thus is to no great purpose except to practice wood and metal finishing for other projects.

  I like the fact that oil finishes do not require anything special in dust free or temperature control. The tool gets into small corners and is s not prone to catching or throwing bristles. I stock up on them during thirty percent off on all items under ten dollar sales at harbor Freight 

 

[rjg854 13,384]

My boss bought a hammer that looked much like that Doyle. And he was showing us just how great he thought it was going to be, so he was going to pull a coated nail out out of a stud, and the handle broke off just below the head. We just couldn't stop laughing.   He bought a titanium hammer after that fiasco 

[ohiofarmer 3,496]

3 hours ago, rjg854 said:

My boss bought a hammer that looked much like that Doyle. And he was showing us just how great he thought it was going to be, so he was going to pull a coated nail out out of a stud, and the handle broke off just below the head. We just couldn't stop laughing.   He bought a titanium hammer after that fiasco 

That Doyle is a titanium head. Maybe you are saying your boss has a titanium handle as well.

    In any case, a straight claw  hammer pretty much sucks to pull nails. People hook them in and twist to the side to gain leverage and the grain is running the wrong way and she snaps off. The Doyle and even the Pittsburgh hammers can be returned to the store and they give you a new one for life. I probably took ten Craftsman broken hammers back for free ones

    I have a hundred year old English pattern hammer with a very steep claw angle and the wood tapers to about an inch where the head joins on. Still in the original hickory. Amazing how easily that little thing pulls nails 

    Titanium is s not what it's cracked up to be. If you swing it very fast it will perform well. Fast can lose accuracy as a lot of the online videos prove. Maybe one guy out of ten shown swinging one looks productive with the rest missing and bending nails. Too heavy can mess with your elbow.

  Sixteen to nineteen ounce fits my body and strength level. The kids with their 400 dollar hammers use a nail gun so much that it's their wrist and not the elbow that suffers IMHO.

      I have been driving nails since before nail guns showed up . The fun stuff was driving in old oak barn bems or worse yet beech wood horse stables Sorry I wrote a book about hammers again.

[rjg854 13,384]

Yes handle as well, sorry I didn't explain that better. I've only ever used Estwing hammers. I have all my dad's hammers, one set of leather grips and a set of the poly type. My preference was the 20 oz for framing and a 16 oz for finish work.

[pfrederi 21,190]

When I framed in the walls for my unfinished basement I did it all  with screws.  Hammers and i do not do well together.

[Handy Don 17,502]

Good to see the attention to these traditional tools!

My Dad was always building something and I was constantly drafted to help. Consequently, I got to do a lot of framing work. Wasn’t too keen at the time but I look back and realize what a gift all that training was. 

But getting back to hammers...I recently tried out both 16 and 20 oz hammers and marveled that I once could use either one productively and accurately for hours. Now my 12oz Dewalt and short sessions are the rule. My days of spending six hours with a splitting maul are probably also behind me. 🫢

[ebinmaine 80,777]

On 10/17/2026 at 6:08 PM, pfrederi said:

When I framed in the walls for my unfinished basement I did it all  with screws.  Hammers and i do not do well together.

 

 

Same!