Alright, how would you call this experiment?<br />Hatchet restoration? Makeover? Wrecking an hatchet head?<br /><br />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. <br />This project is just for fun, my hope is to inspire others to make something just for fun.<br /><br />The hatchet is not branded, bought it for 4€ at flea market. For me it's totally worth the experiment and fun of it!<br /><br />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!<br />It still came out real solid, I've beaten that as hard as I can and it had no sign of weakening at all.<br /><br />Index of operation and materials:<br />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.<br />2:15 Hot wire foam cutter machine and high density foam (kind used as home insulation).<br />3:53 Smoothing the foam with 320 sandpaper.<br />4:13 Gluing foam piece with hot glue.<br />4:40 Regular white plaster brushed on foam to help with cast quality.<br />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)<br />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.<br />11:15 Peening a 10mm round stock pin.<br />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).<br />12:27 Re-grinding bevels and sharpening on 200 grit belt.<br /><br />For those of you worried about the molten aluminum tempering the hatchet steel:<br />I tested the edge with my hardness test files and it results between 45 and 50 Rc. <br />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:<br />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.<br />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.<br /><br />That's all!<br />Thank you a lot for watching. See you
