Restoring a Hatchet With a Cashmere Scarf

This guy got an old rusty Estwing hatchet with a leather handle, and overhauled it. And I readily admit that at first I had some pretty healthy doubts.

I hated to see him cutting off the leather handle, which looked to be in pretty good shape. Sacrilege! And this is coming from a guy (me) who once rebuilt a leather Buck Bros. claw hammer handle which had rotted away completely. But, I decided to ride it out and see where he was taking this.

After removing the handle and end cap, he cleans up the old rusty rascal and then polishes it to a mirror finish! In spite of myself, I had to admit it looked pretty good.

Then he reveals the cashmere wool scarf he bought for three bucks at a thrift store, and turns it into micarta to use as handle scales. Hm, I hadn’t seen that coming.

The handle he creates really does look great, and I would love to get my hands on it and get to chopping. But without any pins to hold it in place, I have to wonder about its long-term durability. After all, haven’t we all seen non-pinned handles fail more than once on the Forged in Fire TV show?

He even makes a half-sheath for it and shows that too, and he does a fine job of it.

Hm, this just might inspire me to get back to my old handle-less Estwing “rip” claw hammer…

Enjoy the video.

Russ Chastain

Editor & Contributing Writer Russ Chastain is a lifelong hunter and shooter who has spent his life learning about hunting, shooting, guns, ammunition, gunsmithing, reloading, and bullet casting. He started toting his own gun in the woods at age nine and he's pursued deer with rifles since 1982, so his hunting knowledge has been growing for more than three and a half decades. His desire and ability to share this knowledge with others has also grown, and Russ has been professionally writing and editing original hunting & shooting content since 1998. Russ Chastain has a passion for sharing accurate, honest, interesting hunting & shooting knowledge and stories with people of all skill levels.