My axe handling woes...

[Draven]

Well, a while ago (week or so) I rehandled my A. Finlay axehead again. The first attempt resulted in a badly shaped handle. This one was perfect - I loved the look of it and it was comfortable. Naturally, I messed up the fitting of it It's seemed perfectly solid until today, when I noticed a very slight wobble. It is very slight, you'd have to look for it to find it - right now, at least - but it's too much for me to be happy, so I guess I'll have to whack it off and try again. I think I know where I went wrong, at least- I think, when getting the end of the handle to fit the bottom half of the eye, I should have kept as much beef on the upper bit of it as possible to make sure it filled the upper half of the eye when wedged - instead it tapered a bit, meaning I had to cut a thicker wedge and the fit just wasn't as good as it should've been. On the plus side, it gives me a chance to angle the head down a bit and lengthen the handle - most of the cutting seems to be done by the end of the blade, rather than in the middle.

Oh well, I can try again - hopefully I won't go through a forest before I get it right

Sorry, rant over!
Pete

 

[BigShot]

Well, you're certainly learning a lot about axe handles.

In some ways it's probably almost better to get it wrong a few times first so you know what you're doing and get it right on purpose rather than lucking out and getting it right by chance.



Good luck with take 3.

 

[Draven]

Well, you're certainly learning a lot about axe handles.

In some ways it's probably almost better to get it wrong a few times first so you know what you're doing and get it right on purpose rather than lucking out and getting it right by chance.



Good luck with take 3.

That is true!
As it happens, it's not my first axe handling - the first time I did luck out and think it was just that easy That one's still goin strong - hopefully I'll get the same results with the next one!
Cheers
Pete

 

[wasteoid]

Hi there, it sounds like you have had a nightmare. I was about to click buy it now on a A finlay kit, now I'm a little nervous about buying one that i have to handle myself.

Is there an Axe handling tutorial? I would be really interested to get an idea of how to do it before i buy on in.

Chris

 

[Draven]

Hi there, it sounds like you have had a nightmare. I was about to click buy it now on a A finlay kit, now I'm a little nervous about buying one that i have to handle myself.

Is there an Axe handling tutorial? I would be really interested to get an idea of how to do it before i buy on in.

Chris

Well the block of wood does have a shape drawn on - I recommend following it, I didn't.

http://www.oldjimbo.com/survival/gsa.html

Old Jimbo's site has a tutorial - the one thing I'd recommend it make sure you take off wood in tiny amounts and only where necessary. It's something you should really learn if you're going to use axes anyway, because the handles can fail and you don't want to have to buy a new axe when you can just pay a couple quid for a handle. My problem is trying to rush things...

Pete

 

[Peter_t]

im in the process of fitting a handle too, im on the second atempt. first had a nasty knot in the wood where the head sits so i decided to give it up also i carved the handle all twisted somehow
it certainly isnt as easy as it looks and now when people complain about poor head alignment im thinking 'have you ever tried it?' lol its a good lerning experience

pete

 

[Draven]

it certainly isnt as easy as it looks and now when people complain about poor head alignment im thinking 'have you ever tried it?' lol

I've been feeling the same way Annoyingly, I managed to get the head alignment better than ever before on this one!

 

[mr dazzler]

are you certain your wood was dry before you fit up to the axe head? It might of shrunk a little. Also did you just put one wedge in? I put 3 slim ones, one vertically and 2 horizontally.
Did you do the pound and shave fitting up method? I smack the handle into the head (hard) and it dents the wood. Then remove it, and just fettle only those high spots, nothing else, I use a mora carving knife or sometimes a fine rasp. Then pound it in again, remove, and shave the highspot's again. I keep doing this, maybe 50 or 60 or more times, until there is about a half inch showing at the outside of the axe head, and you have a near perfect extruded shape of the axe eye sticking out

 

[Draven]

are you certain your wood was dry before you fit up to the axe head? It might of shrunk a little. Also did you just put one wedge in? I put 3 slim ones, one vertically and 2 horizontally.
Did you do the pound and shave fitting up method? I smack the handle into the head (hard) and it dents the wood. Then remove it, and just fettle only those high spots, nothing else, I use a mora carving knife or sometimes a fine rasp. Then pound it in again, remove, and shave the highspot's again. I keep doing this, maybe 50 or 60 or more times, until there is about a half inch showing at the outside of the axe head, and you have a near perfect extruded shape of the axe eye sticking out

I'm about 90% certain the wood was dry.... I should've left it for a bit though, you're right.
I did only use one wooden wedge - do you mean you put in 3 wooden ones or one wooden and two metal?

I did do the pound and shave method, though I think I was taking off too much wood - I might "scrape" this time rather than shave. I did try to rush it way too much!

Pete

 

[mr dazzler]

I put all wooden wedge's, I usually use oak which is also as bone dry as the handle, and have them slim with a long gradual taper. I precut kerf's for them with a tennon saw, and drop some linseed oil into them, and dip the wedges in oil before inserting them. I very rarely use the metal wedges