Antique Hatchet Restoration. SORT OF...

Alright, how would you call this experiment?
Hatchet restoration? Makeover? Wrecking an hatchet head?

Yes, I know this kind of handle doesn't make any sense: it's heavy (1.4kg or 3lbs), slippery and so unpractical to make.
This project is just for fun, my hope is to inspire others to make something just for fun.

The hatchet is not branded, bought it for 4€ at flea market. For me it's totally worth the experiment and fun of it!

As you can see the mold I made failed, that's why one side of the handle (the one facing up in the mold) is not as clean as the other. I guess making a taller mold with way more sand would have made it much better. Next time!
It still came out real solid, I've beaten that as hard as I can and it had no sign of weakening at all.

I just started to list some of the stuff I use for my projects in this amazon storefront:
It's affiliate marketing, so if you order something from here you'll help the channel for free! Thank you!

Index of operation and materials:
1:03 Electrolysis: water and sodium carbonate solution, parts connected to negative side and steel sacrificial anodes to positive sice of a DC power supply (car battery charger). 2-3 hrs at 10amp.
2:15 Hot wire foam cutter machine and high density foam (kind used as home insulation).
3:53 Smoothing the foam with 320 sandpaper.
4:13 Gluing foam piece with hot glue.
4:40 Regular white plaster brushed on foam to help with cast quality.
5:20 Lost foam mold preparation by sifting fine sand (I'm using burned out petrobond sand but any fine and dry sand would work)
6:22 Adding sodium carbonate as degassing agent and "lite salt" (a mix of potasium cloride and sodium cloride) as flux to the molten aluminum.
11:15 Peening a 10mm round stock pin.
11:49 Polishing the handle (previously sanded to 400grit) with coarse and fine polishing pompound on two cotton wheel (only coarse polishing shown in video).
12:27 Re-grinding bevels and sharpening on 200 grit belt.

For those of you worried about the molten aluminum tempering the hatchet steel:
I tested the edge with my hardness test files and it results between 45 and 50 Rc.
Unfortunately I forgot to record the testing before uploading the video (actually a friend on Patreon remembered me about that) so if you don't trust me here are some considerations:
The hatchet is most probably made of something like 1050 steel. These steels are tempered between 400-1000°F (200-540°C) with hardness going from 50 ro 30 on the Rockwell scale accordingly.
Considering that aluminum melts at 1200°F (650°C) I think it's safe to say it can't possibly heat up the steel more than 800°F (420°C) or so, in color temperature terms just over blue, and I think the edge can't even go above brown that is around 480°F (250°C). So at the end I think the edge does get tempered by the aluminum but not that much to be a problem. Also, the fact that the steel was already tempered does not make any difference in the steel structure, tempering depends (after a minimum time) all on max temperature reached instead of time at temperature or thermal cycles.

That's all!
Thank you a lot for watching. See you next week!

★Patreon★

★Website★

★Follow me★

[BlackBeardProjects]

Be sure to check description! All sort of interesting information there as well as index of products and tecniques used. And while you are there check out my Patreon page too for early access and voice-over edit of my videos. If you like what I do consider supporting me so I can keep on making:

[crimson]

I love how it is peaceful, no talking and no annoying music.

[rodrigosimoes]

I am mostly impressed on how you have 10 fingers

[zahidovan]

Crafting level 99
wood cutting level 2

[ricardogrimaldo]

Man i spent a few years without watching your videos, then i come back and I see 50M of views like this video and how your channel grow up and im so glad for you congratulations you deserve it!!

[weg]

“Felt cute, might restore a antique hatchet later idk🥰”.

[HussaRAirsoft]

1:34 so that's how they make those scary suspense sound effects

[greenlion]

Like everyone else, I was horrified when I noticed he wasn’t going wood.

[DarkGT]

That wood handle was in good condition.

[shellyskye]

Does anyone but me wonder why this guy is so fascinated by using hard, cold metal in place of wood? I can imagine the harshness of using this tool for the purpose it was intended.

[berci]

Black Beard: makes a metal handle for a hatchet

Also Black Beard: destroys the piece of wood which he could have made the handle of

[catsarefun]

For the majority of this video I was confused but then at the end I was just really impressed lol

[ashiscrazy]

Once he hits something hard with that axe... his whole body is gonna vibrate

[alejandroquinteros]

A veces, uno encuentra un vídeo como éste sin siquiera saber cómo llegó, y descubre un trabajo que da la sensación de ser casi perfecto, me suscribo de inmediato. Gracias.

[tania]

I'm a bit disappointed that a lot of people complain about what the person did. it's theirs, so it's really their decision to do whatever...

I mean, yes, he could have used something else for the handle, but he wanted to try something else-- he was experimenting...

edit: as his pinned comment says, read the description.

[toughcloud]

Ide like to think someday someone’s gonna restore the tools he uses

[DankMatter]

Damn, just imagine if someone found a very old hatchet, worth a lot of money, and did exactly this

[EruIluuvatar]

Really impressed with the result. I wouldn't have thought the polystyrene handle in sand mold would have worked so well (despite the exploding sprue :)). Incredible job!!!

[Road-]

Спасибо за видео. Прекрасный был топор ;) К нему отлично бы подошла ручка из благородных сортов дерева.

[RileyWuzzHere]

He literally shaped the handle by hand! 🤯👏🏽👌🏽