Had an old Soviet broken hatchet. I broke/cracked it where the handle attached and realized that the hatchet had been tempered as a whole head and not just the blade edge of the hatchet head. Thus two years after I broke my favorite hatchet….I decided a few weeks ago to act like I knew what I was doing…

I studied a bunch:

Burned up the data on my sim card and learned and learned and learned…

First, I removed the temper of the hatchet head. I built a fire and made a bed of coals and simply ruined the heads temper. I made it soft again and basically I had to. It was tempered from top to bottom and could not take impact shocks, as in driving nails with the backside and cutting hardwood with the blade… (This was first one of a dozen fires I built to work the head!)

Second, I welded (blessed that I had a welder to use) the hatchet head back solid. It had resonated when I used it and literally cracked in half. Then I ground the head to the shape I desired and removed the edge completely. Then I took a very small ball peen hammer, regular hammer and even a damn brick plus a rock at one point and as I reheated it, beat it to death and roughed, yet also smoothed the surface all over….during all this, I cut a new edge (about 30 degree angle???) for the blade. This was all done by a dremel tool and various grinding bits…no vise, no anvil, no nothing but hammers, fire and the ground and a wonderful dremel tool…

Third, I heat treated only the blade edge and oil treated it. Ground my final edge the hatchet blade and I left the back hammer plate soft and will not use too many big nails with it….I wanted the surface to go all the way to the very final cut edge on the head and I did it my way at that point. It seemed to work…

Fourth, I hand filed and stoned the edge sharp…

Fifth, The hatchet head was shiny but very very rough in look (as in mountains and valleys). I decided that I wanted to have a finish to it. Was not sure what, but I wanted an old look to it. I discovered an article about soaking the head in very strong black tea. Thus, I went and soaked it for three days, in very very strong tea….then hand sanding and dremel sanding it to polish/grind the high spots and leave the dark deep areas untouched. Then again I ground the edge that I wanted shiny…

I was amazed at the results. The tea stained it deep into the metal and will not come off, unless you grind it…

Sixth, I used my trusty dremel tool and made a handle from a piece of hardwood laying around. Used pine stain to seal it with…

After weeks of work and lots of cussing, I ended up with what the images show above…

The original blade was very smooth and brittle. I hope it will work and if it does not? I will keep trying…

WtR

I remember there was a time were I had friends that told me they watched a movie that was based on a true story. I asked them how do you know it was a true story? They told me it said, “Based on a true story.” in the beginning of the movie so it must be true…

Now we have literally whole populations of people in countries saying, “They said it was based on a true story!”

Wake up people…

WtR