My rust hunting is starting to bear fruit. Between my blacksmith and I, I have a dozen axe heads in various states of metal work, and a pile of blank hafts.
I am starting to pass over heads that need to be annealed ( one round trip to the smith) then brought home and shaped, and then tempered (second round trip to my smith), as at one hour one way that ends up being four hours of windshield time for a single head ready to sharpen and haft. For an otherwise really nice head I am willing to put some into the "pipeline" knowing there is some delay built in, but I am getting picky. If a head has deep enough chunks missing out of the edge, by the time I get it shaped I have wasted a lot of time as they are often not durable edges. Gold was found in Fairbanks in 1903 and the chainsaw got here in the 1950s in a big way. I see a _lot_ of heads mfr 1900-1918 that got rode hard and then put away wet after WWII.
I need a way to store a dozen axes that have been restored and rehafted. Wall display in the living room will never never never fly with SWMBO. I do want to keep these in the climate controlled house, not out in say the garden shed out of the rain but subject to humidity swings.
My best idea so far is a 2x8 or 2x10 scrap spanning two studs with one inch oak dowel drilled and glued. I could keep my users at the front and CL/ future estate sale efforts behind. How much weight can I hang on a 2x8 scrap spanning two studs without messing up the drywall (half inch) underneath?
Better ideas welcome.
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