Homestead Axe refurbished!
As an update, to my previous post here and here, I have cleaned, blued and rehandled my Mann Homestead axe. With the handle removed and eye cleaned out, the weight was a few hairs under 3.9ibs. Unless the handle is included in all other discussion, it appear to made by Mann and not Collins. Again and again, tracking down specific links was nearly impossible, this is mostly based on what Google AI believes based on posts from various forums, etc.
I put the finished product first to see if the image would show on the forum link (Edit; doesn't look like it did, lol). I did three rounds of bluing. Scrubbed everything with dish soap, ran over hot water, then poured boiled water over it, then blued. Then scrubbed with 00 steel wool, then repeated 2x more times. I work nights so I was up and did the first linseed oil coating at about 2am before hanging. Hanging was done about 9am and the handle felt bone dry. So I added another coat and let it sit in the sun for a few hours. Did another coat the next day and it's currently sitting outside with a forth. I'll likely do another post after a month or two because that handle is just looking better and better. Purchased from HouseHandle.com. This is the one recommended by them based on the size I wanted, and the quality was "AA Handpick + No Lacquer". I kept the size I originally found it in because I enjoyed using it to split kindling.
Backside;
Not sure if the cleaning process was incorrect, but I used Cleaning Vinegar. Let it sit in dish for 2 hrs, pulled it out, then cleaned with 00 Wool (it's what I had at the time). Then continued the process most of the day and stopped somewhere around hour 8. I then polished the head with SemiChrome. It's covered in EEZOX gun oil. After listening to the feed back about covering with linseed oil, I decided to keep doing what I've been doing with my GFB Small Forest Axe for over a decade now.
If you let EEZOX sit in the sun, it dries fairly well. Wipe off the excess and it looks clean.
I'll let you all tell me how bad it is, but other than the small atrocity that is the eye, I'm fairly happy with everything. Some learning moments here and there. I sanded the head of the handle too much in one area, but everything filled out fairly nicely. And I swear I marked dead center where the wedge was gonna go, then as I hammer, it shifted hard.
That's my story, thanks for listening. Any feedback is welcome. And at this point, I very much want to find another old axe and do this again.
Edit; Grammar and stuffi