One of my more obscure skills
is fitting wooden handles in tools. It doesn’t seem like much of a skill, seemingly anyone can do it. Few can do it well.
For a long time, I made hammer and axe handles out of handsplit hickory. We’d keep chunks of it around the house just for that purpose, and a hand split handle will outlast a machine made handle a dozen times
Handsplitting hickory may not always yield the straightest handle, but a handsplit handle shaped with a drawknife and rasp and shined up with a piece of broken glass will last about forever if some knucklehead doesn’t hit the handle instead of the head.
Meet my nephiew, the destroyer of axe handles.
Anyway, I don’t want to talk about that anymore.
My regular axe is a relatively modern double bit. It’s been through three handles, all commercial. The splitting axe, on the other hand, is an old single, probably 1920’s vintage, which has been sharpened past it’s temper, and in fact the edge is thick and shaped like a deep wedge, no use for cutting or felling. In fact, it’s less an axe than a light maul, and I like it fine
Except it has lost it’s old handsplit handle. It was one of the best handles I ever made, and it was cracked and frayed by the head so bad it was scary to use.
A friend, several years ago, who understood my feelings about tool handles, handed me one he’d handpicked out of his store stock. “Here’s a nice straight one” Babe said, “I haven’t seen one this nice in a very long time” it did have remarkably straight grain, and it was a perfect size. He taped a basswood wedge to it and sold it to me for seven bucks. It sat in the garage for a while, but since I have a big pile of wood in the back of the shed, I needed my axe back. So I drilled out the old head and fitted the new handle
To properly fit the head on an axe you need to make sure the head fits the wood snugly and completely- a lot of trying and a lot of time in the belt sander are required to make the fit tight but not a force fit. Then you have to fit the wedge- but most people simply drive in the wedge. You can’t do that and make this work.
Sledge and axe and hammer handles all come with a sawn slot to put the wedge in, but if you use the wedge as is, it will only go in a short way, and then you have to use metal wedges to do the rest of the job. The secret is to put the handle in a vise, and use the vice to close the sawn slot, then cut the slot again. Keep doing this three more times; each time you squeeze the slot closed and cut it again with the saw, it makes the slot more wedge shaped. After four times, the slot is approaching the shape of the wood wedge.
When you put the handle in the axe head you will now have a decent wedge shaped slot to put the wood wedge in. I fill this slot with, and soak the wedge in boiled linseed oil. The wedge will now go in tight and hold fast. Once it’s in as far as it will go I soak the head in linseed oil again (I usually use a piece of tinfoil for this, filled with oil and wrapped around the head) and let it stand for four to six hours. After it has soaked like this I use a coping saw to cut off the excess wood, sand it flush on the belt sander, and soak the whole assembly again. The finished product looks like this.
The old head never had a metal wedge as long as I’d owned it, and my double bit has never had a steel wedge. Those heads ain’t coming off. An occasional touchup with linseed oil will keep them tight and strong. Linseed oil also makes a good finish for the handle but it has to be left to dry a long time before use.
15 comments Og | Uncategorized
Thank you. I now know how to hang an axe head.
Another thanks. I recently got the axe bug and have a couple ebay finds to clean up and hang.
Any recommendations for handle suppliers?
I’ve heard that there are a lot of fine handles available online, but I like to pick through them and select one for myself that has the best grain. Ace Hardware usually has some good handles, and so does True Value. I select handles based on how many times the grain goes off the wood- in other words, pick one of the grains, and follow it. Does it go all the way from the heel of the handle into the head, or does it veer off somewhere? That grain will eventually split out and give you a splinter, or worse, cause the handle to fracture.
One common problem with “used” finds is they are often peened over inside the eye, where someone hut them with a hammer too often (Usually putting a metal wedge in). Those edges must be filed off- the inside of that eye edge has to be smooth. The inside of the eye itself, on the other hand, should be rough- as cast or as forged- to hold tight to the wood.
I just did this to an old axe that I bought cheap, and made all of the mistakes that you mention above. Live and learn.
That is good info to have. Thank you.
Wow. Damn near a work of art there. Well done always has that look about it … nice to see, I’m sure will be even nicer to use. Thanks for sharing your expertise.
Jenny
Thanks for the additional tips Og. I need to stop by the hardware store for linseed oil anyway so now I have two things to browse.
If you cut your linseed oil with mineral spirits it penetrates deeper and dries more quickly.
I haven’t tried that, but I might.
Cut your linseed oil with turpentine if you’ve got some, it works a little better than mineral spirits and smells a lot better.
All that said, I haven’t cut firewood for years, that is what G-d gave us testosterone overloaded teen-aged neighbor kids for. A twenty dollar bill, a half case of Coke Classic and some hamburgers on the grill, and: PRESTO!! Firewood split and stacked.
Of course it helps if you’ve taken the kid fishing and camping with your family a few times, and let him and his buddies use your tomahawk target every once in a while.
I expect any thinning would make the axe head less secure. From my understanding, the thinning works well for finishing but less well for soaking wedges. The point of the whole deal is to get the oil to sort of “Glue” the wedge in place.
Thanks, Og. This process has never been explained to me before. I kinda figured it out on my own, but my results aren’t nearly as good as yours.
Why hickory? What other woods would work?
I hadn’t thought of it before, but I guess this is where we get the phrase “fly off the handle” from.
It pleases something deep in my soul to see old skills like this kept alive.
Great information!
Here’s a quote from an article by Dick Culver on how to get an “original” finish on wooden U.S. military gun stocks the easy way. Bet it would work on your axe handle as long as you are starting with unfinished wood, which is what he is referencing when he says “prepared” stock.
Quote:
3. The “magic finish formula” consists of equal parts of Boiled Linseed Oil, Turpentine
(essentially a solvent) and Beeswax. (1/3rd Linseed, 1/3rd Turpentine, and 1/3rd Beeswax. Melt
the mixture over a “flameless” heat source (hot plate, radiator or the manifold of your vehicle).
Stir the concoction and allow to cool into a paste. Put the paste in a convenient container (I used
to use a typewriter ribbon can when they still had such things). You might get a can of Brie
Cheese in the Grocery Store, those round cans work well and will fit in your shooting stool most
handily inside of a zip-lock bag.
4. Take your prepared stock and start to rub the Beeswax mixture into the outside of the stock
with the palm of your hand. Allow the friction (and generated heat) of your hand to melt the
paste into the grain of the wood. You can do this while watching the “tube” and not screw
anything up. After you have rubbed in the first coat, rub it down with an old towel. Repeat the
process until you are satisfied (you can always add more, and this is one of the beauties of the
finish, as it can be used until you get tired of rubbing). The last coat is always burnished with an
old (Terrycloth) towel. The final “piece-d-resistance” is a quick final rubdown with a silicone
cloth. The finish gives the appearance of a hand rubbed stock with 20 years of effort applied. The
Beeswax imparts a waterproof finish to the stock, and any minor scrapes, or scratches can easily
be rubbed out of it with a small addition of the Magic Paste. The finish looks good, has a non
shiny military appearance, it’s waterproof, doesn’t smoke or bubble the finish in rapid fire and
appears to be an original well rubbed rifle stock from the days prior to WWII. It truly IS a hand
rubbed finish!
This method works equally well with any military stock and is a really practical finish for your
hunting or “head for the hills” stock.
End quote.
Thought you would be interested.
Best wishes.