A Repair I Would Not Have Attempted Until Now....

This is the head of a wood chopper's ax I picked up many years ago, at a Craft Fair in Duncan, B.C., where I was visiting my father and my younger sister and her family. I don't know who made this ax, and I don't actually know what the axe head is made of - possibly polymer clay - but the haft of the ax went right through the blade. Naturally, it broke while this little scene was at a show. 

I am proud of myself; I drilled out the stub of the haft, carefully made the pin in the haft a tiny bit longer with sandpaper in order to give it a bigger holding point, and glued it in place. Into the other end of the ax head I inserted a tiny peg sanded down from a wood toothpick (not a bamboo one!), to look as if the haft goes right through the ax head.

Where, why and when this little scene was made has escaped me; I think it may have been at Camp MiniHaHa, or perhaps at a miniaturists' get-together. The lichen and moss on the stump are real; the turkey-tail fungus on the side are made of pine cone scales. The logs are scattered about, some quartered or halved, others whole. The landscaping includes mosses, grasses and tiny yellow flowers, as well as sawdust. I just love this tiny vignette! A miniature doesn't have to be BIG to be good! I do, however, still have to find a permanent home for it, to prevent further ax handle disasters.

Making the tiny tools for the wooden shoe factory has made me more confident in how I use my pin vise drill. I am now comfortable changing drill bits as I go along, to enlarge a hole if needed, and miraculously for someone who is straight-line challenged, I can drill straight!