Grandad's Collins Homestead Axe

This year my grandfather turned 92 years old.  On April 5th, we went through a few tools he had which he felt he no longer needed and wanted me to take.  One of them, was a Collins Homestead axe.

The axe was laying on the dirt floor of a shed in a pile of wooden handled tools.  The axe head was rather rusty but otherwise in good condition.  The handle was very dried out and the portion in the head had started to rot such that the head was barely held on.  I decided to take it home and put a little work into it to see how it would turn out.

I removed the head from the handle and spent some time working to clean up the head with WD40 and some steel wool.  The head cleaned up better than expected.  I certainly could have cleaned it better with other methods but I wanted to keep the appearance and the Collins label.

The Collins Homestead label on the axe is a little difficult to see in the pictures as it is faded and scratched up.  However, the following image shows what the label detail better.

With the head removed, I was able to turn my attention to the handle.  I placed the head on the handle numerous times and slowly removed material from the handle allowing the head to fit lower than before.  This took a considerable amount of time but I was able to drop the head down about an inch which allowed me to cut off the rotten portion of wood while keeping the original handle.

I worked on sharpening the head using a few different items.  The grind was still present to I worked with it so that as little material as needed would have to be taken off.  I started with a file, then used sand paper mounted to a flat piece of wood (220, 400, and 1500 grits).  I was able to get to a polished sharp edge but the metal does not need to get as sharp as other axes I've sharpened.  While I expect it to get the job done, I think the metal quality is not as good as my Kelly Perfect or Kelly Flint Edge.

I put several coats of boiled linseed oil on the handle.  The handle has a very nice aged look to it.  This is accentuated by a dark black mark on one side.  I'm not sure what it is but it does not come off with light sanding.  I suspect it is some type of stain which was slipped on it at one point.

My grandad worked at Payless Cashways for a number of years mostly in the 80's.  He purchased most of his tools there at a discount.  Many items he picked up were returned for one reason or another.  I suspect he purchased this there during that period of time as I believe the Homestead line is one of the more recent lines of axes produced by Collins.

I've several good quality axes.  I feel a little bad as I don't use them as much as you would expect but instead just look at them.  Since my brother does not have an axe and did not get many tools from my grandad, I decided to let him have this one.  While it is not exactly a Christmas present, I decided to give it to him when we get together for Christmas this year.  I decided to take pictures and document the axe so I can look back on it as I wish in the future.

I'll end this with a few more pictures of the axe taken today.