Restoration of Antique Firefighter Axe

In this video I'm going to restore an antique firefighter axe. I've always wanted to restore an axe since the beginning of my channel, but I've never found a cool looking one. But then, all of a sudden I came across this beautifully designed firefighter axe and knew immediately that this will be the one. I've found it at my friends place, he took it home from the steel waste and sold it to me for $20.
I really love the design of those firefighter axes with the two keys that secure the axe head. To secure the keys there's always a pin/rivet going through the handle. This axe was very special, because the manufacturer really payed attention to grind the rivets flush and let them completely disappeared. Top quality I'd say. As always, the axe head is also secured with a regular wedge in the handle.
The axe head had really deep holes in it. I guess it was once used as a hammer. Those holes were so deep that I would've lost way too much material in thickness if I'd grind them away. So the only way to get rid of them was to close them with welding. That was reason enough for me to try TIG welding for the first time and it worked absolutely perfect. To honor the high quality of this axe I decided to etch the name 'Victoria' back on the axe head. I used a classic font and placed it on the upper side of the back.
Both keys were really out of shape and didn't had similar size. After bending them back straight I welded up material and grinded, filed and sanded them to matching measurements.
The handle was far gone and way beyond restoration. The wood was very rotten and had many holes in it. Therefore I only had one option and that was to make a new one. It was quite tricky to get it to the right shape and size, but I eventually got it done.
Overall I'm very happy how this axe turned out. I really like the contrast of the bright shining polished parts with the engraving to the dark wooden handle. All though I have to admit that I wish the handle was a little bit brighter. It still looks nice in my opinion and very happy to add this beautiful axe to my restored items collection.

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