Keen Kutter hewing hatchet

Compared to a friend of mine I have a very small collection of axes and hatchets. For the past few years my friend has been haunting flea markets, estate sales, auctions, and even the local scrap metal recycling yards for old tools. His storage room contains piles of old rusty treasures waiting to be cleaned and restored. One day he showed me several of his newest finds; a couple double bit axes, a splitting mail, and about three chewing hatchets of varying condition.

My friend notice I took interest into one of the hewing hatchets, it was rusty but no pitting. I could barely make out the words "Keen Kutter" and knew he had a nice little gem. Few months later my friend asked me if I was still looking for a hewing hatchet and I told him I was still looking not being able to find one in decent shape he presented me with the Keen Kutter hatchet now cleaned up and handled, the handle was a cheap one that used to learn how to hang such a odd head shape.

My first task was to remove the handle he used. The grain was oriented wrong and it was just a overall piece of garbage. I worked the steel wedge out, chiseling around it to work it free. Chiseled the wood wedge out and had the head free from the now piece of firewood, might hold onto it in case I need to make something small.

For the handle I went to three different hardware stores to find one that was decent grain and shape. This reminds me to pick up decent handles as I find them even if I don't need them at that moment.

Now comes the labor intensive task of shaping the handle to fit the eye of the hatchet head. I started with the end rasping it down to just inside the eye. With that done I slowly worked the handle down until it was all the way through the head. I shaped the shoulder of the handle to match the profile of the lower ears. I seated the head on the handle and prepped the wedge, it was the one that came with the handle and I'm debating about removing it and replacing it with a longer taper wedge. Wedge was coated with boiled linseed oil and started into the handle. I worked the wedge down with a block of wood and a mallet until it stopped.

The handle is about 3/4" above the actual eye only surrounded by the upper ears. I checked and there is roughly a inch of wedge inside the head, it has not bottomed out in the saw kerf. I stopped pounding the wedge in because it was bulging the handle out around the ears and even cracked one side of the handle. I haven't put a metal wedge in yet since I haven't decided on removing the wood wedge or leaving it alone.

The handle sanded to remove machining rough marks and raised grain and was stained to match my other axe handles and allowed to dry over night. Couple days later I checked on it and the stain had dried. I wiped the handle down boiled linseed oil. I learned the next day that I should have wiped all the excess oil off because the handle was now a sticky mess. Using mineral spirits I wiped the handle down softening the excess buildup and removed it by wiping it with a clean towel.