Making a cheap old Craftsman hatchet a much better hatchet

Making a cheap old Craftsman hatchet a much better hatchet - Printable Version

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Making a cheap old Craftsman hatchet a much better hatchet - cstockwell - 02-28-2024

I had purchased an inexpensive Craftsman hatchet 15 or so years ago to keep around for small cutting needs. I never liked the finish on the handle and the hatchet head was not ideal and cutting edge on it was pretty awful. So I put it aside with a bunch of stuff and came across it again a couple weeks ago. I decided I was going to make into a better hatchet that I would like and use. One thing I did like about it was the handle itself had a shape I liked and it was shaped to fit in your hand better than many of the other less expensive ones that were basically a chunk of wood that made it cheaper to build and sell.

I didn't care for the finish on the handle and the poly/lacquer type shiny finish because it made it slippery and can give blisters over time. That was pretty easily fixed by removing that and putting lindseed oil on it. I also filed the hatchet head on the cutting edge to take off metal and make the cutting shape better. Then used sharpening stones to give it a sharp edge like a knife. Then I needed to make a sheath out of extra leather pieces I had. Overall it came out well and now I will use it instead of my Fiskars hatchet. Didn't take long to do, used basically inexpensive tools and things I had lying around was not an expensive hatchet to begin with. I detail a little more in the video what was done to it.

First picture shows what the hatchet looked like before I started doing any work to it.