Our hand axe generally only gets used a few times a year for some light firewood splitting. This is for a recreational campfire rather than in-home heating so it really is light usage. I’d like to try spoon-making, which requires an axe to rough out the general shape before carving and that has prompted me to take a good look at my (lack of) tool care regimen.
The axe was pretty rusty but luckily the rust hadn’t yet done any structural damage. I packed it as my evening project when we went away to a cabin for the week earlier this month. To remove the rust, which did not feel bumpy, corroded, or particularly thick, I used sandpaper (labelled as 80). While I made pretty good progress with just the sandpaper, I found it far easier to sand the flat areas after I had wrapped the sandpaper around a sanding block.
After sanding, I wiped the axe with some vegetable oil.
Riotflower's Realm 