My grandfather used to drill a hole in the end of the shovel handle put a 50/50 mixture of turpentine and boiled linseed oil in the hole and plug the hole with a dowel. They used this same treatment for axes and even fence posts. Some of those same wood fence posts are still standing 5 generations later.

Got a rusty camp axe with a rotten handle a few weeks ago. I restored the head, and hand carved a new handle from vine maple, finally finished putting it together today, and I just started sealing the handle with boiled linseed oil because I remembered watching this video a while back. Thanks for all the great videos and information!

Sir, I have come to respect you greatly! My Grandfather taught me this, when using oil: Once a day for a week; Once a week for a month; Once a month for a year; Once a year forever. God Bless!

"Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe." Abraham Lincoln Saw this quote posted on the wall in the hall in my kid's highschool and I like what it's saying about being prepared to take on a task.

Hello, I enjoy your videos on the tools and how best to maintain them. I recently replaced two ax handles using many of your methods and I thank you very much!! I watched your video "How To Care For Your Ax & Other Wood Handle Tools" and followed instruction on using Boiled Linseed Oil to preserve the new wood handles. Well I wanted to share that Linseed Oil on rags can Spontaneous Combust and has caused many fires. I was fortunate that the rags didn't combust in my basement but did discolor and char. People need to read the manufacture instructions and warnings on the product containers. I thought this learning was important enough to share with your veiwers and hope they use caution with the used soaked Linseed Oil rags. Again Thanks for sharing all the information!!

PSA: Linseed oil is great, but use it carefully. It CAN spontaneously combust while drying because it produces heat while reacting with oxygen to dry.

It's funny how axe handles are made of wood. It's like the ultimate 'Fuck you' to trees.

My old landlord used to refinish antiques using boiled linseed oil and Turpentine, a 30/70% mix, the oil = 70%. The Turp helped the oil penetrate far deeper into the wood fibers, important in OLD wood and helped in drying quickly. Smelled beautiful too!!

Before watching your channel I knew very little about tools . I really appreciate the time you take to explain things for guys like me. Ty brother and God bless.

Good job Cody, nice clear presentation. Really helpful tips and thanks for sharing the story you told that your Grandfather passed on to you. My own father is a wonderful story teller and I could almost finish his stories for him at this stage but I love hearing them from him, and now my daughters hear them too. It is amazing what realizations a person has when they mature. If I'm ever half the man my Dad is I will be happy.Thanks again for sharing.

I love fixing up old tools. Working on a crosscut saw right now. Good video.

I inherited several tools from my father in law. thank you for putting up this video. I needed some advise to help me take good care of them. knowing how to protect them and use them properly will stretch out their life span so hopefully my boys can use their Opa's tools in days to come. thanks again Cody

Cody, I cant tell you how much i appreciate your videos! Great Stuff!!!

My grandpa used to work for TrueTemper here in Charleston, WV. He said when they demolished the building, the workers founds heads and tools stashed all over by employees.

Learned a lot from you sir, reconfirm my a few practices I have already use. A great informative yet humbled video. Thank you much

I was not aware of this. I don't know a lot about the man. I have seen a few of his videos and really enjoyed them.

Thanks for your videos. I just restored a Zenith Marshal Wells axe today and am excited to go use it!

60 years ago, my grandfather would prepare his tools for chopping cotton each May. He started with a broken Coke bottle. The extremely sharp edge was used to scrape the wood to remove the palpable grain in the wood from swelling and shrinking as the water content changed. After he had the handles smooth, he put on boiled linseed oil as you did. Of course, he then sharpened the tool.

my great grandpa used to be a black smith and when he passed my dad wanted to junk every thing in his shop, and I told him before he did that to let me come down and see what I can salvage out of there. I found the holy grail of double bit axes I found four sager chemical heads and about thirty true temper but most of the true temper ones have a lot of dings and chips off the edge. So I ended up paying my dad for the heads I paid junk weight for them which here in Missouri is about 200 a ton.

I did this with my old pick! Man it really would hurt my hands but its so much better now! thank you

Thank you Sir, I brought my dads old axe, choppers & hand axes with me when he died & they were just left in the shed. I just went out and bought some boiled Linseed oil & will begin the process of bringing them all back to life. I recall dad buying them 58 years ago!!!Thanks again. Chris.

7:34 is an ominously accurate warning.

thanks to you i managed to get 2 hatchets and 1 camp axe all american made from ebay, i got replacement handles and sanded off the shellac and treated them to boiled linseed oil, they are fantastic now. my thanks Cody - Dave

Sage advice Cody! Ever since I was a little boy I've loved splitting wood and the maul is by far my favorite, but we a ton of oak.

Nice video Cody. I have found that cutting Linseed oil with about 50/50 with Gum Turpentine will give you a better penetration into your tool handles. It does require 2-3 coats but the Turpentine penetrates the wood much better than the pure Linseed oil.

Excelent videos, I like very much to see the wood works you've posted. Regards from Argentina

A hint to help speed the drying. Cut your boiled linseed oil 50/50 with Gum turpentine (NOT Mineral Turpentine) apply it in the sunshine, it helps the mix penetrate into the wood and the turpentine speeds the oxidation of the oil so that it solidifys inside the wood cells and prevents shrinkage. Also as Jusb1066 stated paint or soak the wedge end. I build a dam around the wedge end with linseed oil based window putty and fill it with 10 - 15ml of the linseed oil mix at a time, keep refilling until it stops sucking it in.. I believe it should be at least a couple of times a year for the first few years then its just maintaining the oiled finish.It's worth the effort to load the wedged end with oil. All the best to you.

Great video! Solid info on the pulaski... although what you have there is not a pulaski, it's actually a cutter mattock.

your answer to survival919 answers my question thank you Cody ... i just got my first Grandfores Burks small forest axe so excited in my first real axe ...well hatchet lol investment (plan to get the others also) I have same splintery feeling and dry looking handel issue , I was searching for this answer and I should have came straight to your channel right away ... thank you. and enjoying your new book also blessing to you and yours. Emmaye

I’m watching these in a kind of catch-up mode. It’s always fascinating to see how some things change in six years (it’s now 2018) and how some things never change. Even way back here you’re recommending the boiled linseed oil. I guess that’s what I’ll be getting this fall when I do all my handles for the first time, that and a spoke shave. I also noticed some of the other handle-care videos didn’t mention the steel wool. I know that doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve gotten away from it. Just observing. It’s also interesting to note that later on your preference seems to be applying the oil by hand using rubber gloves. I can definitely see that there could be a little less waste from what the rag would soak up. I’m always grateful when you share a story or two from your past. The typewriter story was a good analogy. Would have loved to have met your grand-dad. Thanks for the essential tool descriptions at the end. That information will be very good to have. Oh yeah! That reminds me about another apparent change in preference. Looks like lately your preference in wedges is plastic. That’s all I’ve seen so far in all the videos I’ve watched that came after this. Last but not least, I really appreciate the in-depth description of how to choose a good handle for your axe that you wrote below the video. That is EXACTLY what I was hoping to find out from you at some point. Now I can just go back here and read it. Cool!!! As always, thank you for the professionalism that you put into your videos, even all the way back then.😊

nice vid (as always)! A friend of mine straitened a rock-pick handle once by heating up some water and pipping it in there repeatedly until it was all hot; then he strapped it to a big wooden beam with ratchet-straps. After a few days it was nice and straight. on the down side it tool another few days for it to dry out again.

I have always been a fan on lighter mauls 4-5 lbs. but i recently bought a Gransfors bruk after finding the wranglerstar channel. I now run a Gransfors Bruk large long splitting axe and it is the finist slitting tool i have ever used! and i split madrone and black oak.

You mentioned hard times. Worked on a farm for a living in Missouri have a mouse hawk I made and used black motor oil soaking 12 hours came out perfectly

Ive been watching your videos for a fairly long time now, and i really must say that your a very talented man, and im a finishing contractor for 20 years, plus an avid bushcrafter, and outdoorsman. Ive recently aquired a wetterlings hunters hatchet 115. And im also starting to aquire alot of traditional hand tools and you have really helped me learn alot. So thank you.

Fiberglass handles - you are spot on about them.

Every so often an old Wranglerstar video would have me think that one side of my earphones is broken.

Very interesting information. I really learned something new. Thank you. Stay safe.

Hi , I love your videos and find them very interesting . It's great to see the old vintage American tools . I'm a big fan of Estwing tools and just bought the sportsman axe a difficult find here in Ireland and , I would love to know your option on Estwing , loved the one on the Bahco axe. cheers a Irish fan

Excellent video. This is where I come to learn. Hope all is well with the wild fires.

Great vid, just did my Husqvarna campers axe and it looks great !! thanks...

Great Video thank you for share this, I always use Boiled linseed oil to treat tool handles, works awesome! Please remember to dispose of linseed oil rags properly as they are very combustible!

My granfather worked as a maintenance mechanic for the inland steel coal company in the 40's,50's and 60's he got his training in chicago where they gave him this newfangled tool called the channellock pliers he carried them for almost 40 years I still have these old channellocks.

It's not really boiled, but treated with hot air blowing through it. They also put in some additives to speed up the drying process.

you can also use danish oil, which is linseed oil with mineral spirits or varnish already mixed in. it gives you an oil finish, but wears much better and last longer.

Love these old videos

Thank you for all your videos. Something that you might want to try is sealing with paraffin wax after your last coat of boiled linseed oil. I melt a stick or two in a cookie tin, it only takes a few seconds on a hot plate. Then I use a piece of burlap or duck cloth to rub it into the wood and metal surfaces. You can use a blow dryer on high heat or a heat gun on low to keep it wet enough to distribute across the surface. It seals both wood and metal as well as fills in rough grain & grips well.

Would love to see your pick of different manufactures (past/present) that made good quality steel. How to know if an implement is made of good steel. You can run across anything at these flea markets and yard sales. Thanks Excellent vid. Keep it up

In the video you talk about using boiled linseed oil on the handles, just wondering have you ever tried Danish oil? I've found it gives a darker look and feels just as good if not better when using the axe without gloves, it's also thinner and I believe it soaks in better(no proof on that but seems like it to me)

Yes, you're right. It used to just appear when i scrolled down through all of your videos but I have to search the title now to find it. Not sure what has changed.

I would like to mention that just because the ford axles were better for wedges, doesn't mean that they were the best for axles. Softer steels have their place too. If something is too hard it becomes brittle, and in an axle, that could well lead to it breaking. In fact, the problem with many of these Chinese steels is not being too soft, but being too hard.

Thanks W. I've got a mess of tools I've neglected too long and you've inspired me to go get the boiled linseed oil and get to work. I also have a mineral oil mixed with bee's wax I use on the chopping block. Ever use that or think it might work? I'm going to try it on one of the tool handles and see how it goes.

Boiled Linseed Oil. New tool. Every day for a week, every week for a month, every month for a year.

You mean Andy Rooney. Not Mickey Rooney. LOL Andy was the writer and on 60 Minutes. Mickey was the actor and on the Movie Screen. :>)

If you have spare handles, you can actually take a large PVC tube and cap one end and put the handles in there and then fill it with linseed oil and cap the other end and set it off to the side. The linseed will actually permeate into the wood. When you need to handle take it out and use this mixture (continued in reply)

Could you do a video on gloves and/or other PPE? Which gloves to buy and how to care for them etc.

Found 2 granfors bruks heads in the inlaws shed! one single 2.5 pound and a wide face double, cleaned them up right and followed the "how to handle an axe" video, there the only tools I keep in the house! I also threw my Fiberglass handled axes in the garbage, where cheap offshore crap belongs. Thanks Cody!!!!!

Nice job, great information!

yes you are right I remember now it was Andy Rooney. Who did I say it was???

Very informative. Thank you!

Thanks for all the great videos. Now I have a reason to go to garage sales.

GM cams used to wear out quickly because they used a soft steel. They changed steel in the early 90's I think it was. 80's were most notorious for the soft steel problem. Ball joints also.

Excellent review wranglerstar! You know what? I had a great day today. I modified my log splitter, build myself a Hookaroon, put on it a nice hickory handle, sand it down and add some double boiled linseed oil to it. How about that for a joyful day? Thank you for your great video. ('' inspirational " )

How many years ago was the axle metal story from, because I don't know if the steel is still as good today. Thank you. I enjoy your videos.

Channel locks are one of the best tools to have in many situations. They are indispensable in some cases. I work in a secure facility and our maintenance personnel are only allowed to carry a pair of channel locks and a dual bit screw driver without having to sign in other specialty tools. They can do many jobs with just those two tools.

You talking about economic collapse or great depression 10 years ago hits hard nowadays.

Found your channel after looking for refinishing options on my axe and you do some great work sir. I recently pulled an old axe out of the shed that's been sitting for years, the head was rusted and the handle was in a little rougher shape (looks wise) than the the first tool you refinished in this video. The head is still on the handle rock solid so I sanded the rust off and painted it red; then to the handle down with my knife and cleaned up the palm swell with a file and finished it off with 220. My question is what's the best "all weather" finish I can put on the handle? I coated it with Boiled Linseed Oil, but this axe will live mounted in the bed of my truck along with my shovel and jack so it'll be exposed to the elements, my neighbor told me to use Spar Varnish, he said that's what they used on the decks when he was in the Navy and it held up against the open seas.

Or perhaps they varnish in a half - pitched effort to protect the wood while it's waiting to be purchased and used in an effort to prevent damage? Idk though, just a thought 🤷

Having owned a Hal dozen F250’s I have to agree.

These old vids are the best, they are not too fast and the title tells what the video is about.

Thank your your contribution!. Do you wisker with steel wool between coats of BOL??

On day 6 of refinishing my fireman's pick axe, I noticed that the last layer of linseed oil became tacky the next day, should I use paint thinner to remove this layer and clean the handle then start back with the 30 oiling process? This is going to be a working axe on the homestead once I return there.

I would be lost without my pair of X-Large channel locks...

Another great tube thanks!

Hoping for the best Cody!

hi I am just wondering if i buy a new hammer. i should remove the finishes on the handle and reapply the linoseed oil on it??

Nice video! I was hoping to get your take on Axe sharpening though. I'm a firefighter and although I have learned through trial and error how to sharpen my ax, I was never shown a proper technique. You being a wildland ff I was hoping to get your input.

lol, I drive Fords too. Mine are all 20+ years old and still going =D

Yah. I would love that!

I have an Pulaski JUST LIKE THAT ONE! Except mine has a massively large diameter handle on it currently. I inherited it from my great grandfather, so I don't know if he installed the handle or if it's original, but I hate it. Working on making my own better shaped handle to install! I wasn't sure what it even was for the longest time, but I've used it on many occasions to remove roots and dig trenches.

What do you use to paint your tool handles? Any special prep work?

Great video. Ty

hello you wanted to know what we find. I have a Sager Chemical Ax. ( Michigan double bit1933) it was my grand fathers ax. i have to re-handle it. that will be my next project.

Great video. Do you use anything on the heads to keep them from rusting?

A couple of years ago I tore down a egg shed or garage for a neighbor of mine inside this old century garage was a double bedded axe It sat around in the back of my truck for at least a year recently my wife and I bought a house now I have my own workshop Since watching your channel I have bought a draw knife and a belt sander and have started to refurbish the axe

I received a hint years ago to thin boiled linseed oil with mineral spirits or paint thinner to help the oil penetrate the wood grain. Also, it is beneficial to put the handle and a can of thinned oil in the sunlight for warmth and better penetration. You know that replacement handles are expensive and difficult to find good grain orientation. The years of maintaining handles adds beautiful character to the tool. Thank you for your educational videos.

Cody, how do you mark your tools.. What paint do you recommend? I have a new Gran Fors Small Forest Axe and want to make it mine..

what do you think about using tung oil instead....wondering because I had some on hand

Also my dad has this true temper axe head are those any good? How would I tell if it is or isn't the better cuz I know some of those tools aren't made in the us anymore

What to you think of synthetic handles? Had to buy one today for my pick. Only one in town.

I recently inherited a box of old tools from my great grandfather. Old wooden handled hammers of different sizes, a small hatchet and wooden handled screwdrivers. You can almost feel the history of old tools through the handles! I think they put varnish on modern tools because people no longer care for the things they buy, they use them until they break and then chuck them away.

+wranglestar will you make a video about a Collins axe

Hey cody I just found your chanel while looking for info on restoring an ax. I saw that you have a double bit true temper. the ax I'm restoring is a single bit true temper I believe 3 and one half pounds head felling ax. do you know anything about the ax? Great videos btw much appreciated!

"If you're of smaller stature or a woman.." Thanks for lumping me in with the females, Cody. Hahaha

Help. I have procured both a pulaski and a swamper pattern kelly works flint edge. My problem is the handles. After much searching I have found one decent hickory handle, grain running the right way and no knots. the cheeks arent as wide as the eye however. Is this critical? If the head is hung well will it be ok with an air gap on either side?

i watched ray mears fashon an axe handle for his GB out of an ash log. it looked amazing. wood is the only choice for a legacy tool.

Informative. Thanks

You have to know when to keep your job n family life seprate sorry 4 your decay wasant fair good luck my friend thanks 4 your info

Hey Mr. wrangler star I've recently gotten my hands on A double bitted axe that is a little bit smaller than the one one in your video. Stamped on it is "diamond edge forged tool steel" it appears to be hand forged as well. On the other side it has the number 36. Anything you can tell me about it? I've been getting into tree removal. (Have some dead ones that need to be cut down on my land) and have started to purchase old axes from the local antique store.

is the diesel good for protecting the tools?. Thank you Wranglerstar

I loved hearing the Coopers Hawk fly by.