Repairing your tools

[Everything Mac]

I suspect that many if not most on here are the type to repair their tools if they are able to.

I've had a spate of putting new handles onto a few tools recently. Buying handles has been getting a bit pricey considering its almost all beech from an undisclosed location. Ash handles are hard to get hold of though a few people seem to do them.

I bought a few garden tools at auction a while back. All old tools and as it turns out a few MOD tools which is cool. One of my forks needs a new handle. (insert fork 'andle jokes here) Though this seems a tad more complex than your standard hammer replacement....

Any tips for replacing a bent fork handle?

Does anyone make their own tool handles?

All the best
Andy

 

[British Red]

Sledgehammer handles seems to be the theme this Winter - done about three. I have a pile of ash seasoning for next year

 

[Beefy0978]

Sledgehammer handles seems to be the theme this Winter - done about three. I have a pile of ash seasoning for next year

About three? So is that two? Or four? I presume you would have said three if you'd meant three, rather than about three. I'm so confused.
Lol...


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[British Red]

Threes skedges, a club hammer and a brass hammer....I think thats 3.7 sledges

 

[Everything Mac]

About three? So is that two? Or four? I presume you would have said three if you'd meant three, rather than about three. I'm so confused.
Lol...


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

Being a bit pedantic are we?

 

[Macaroon]

I re-handle all my own stuff, Ash for striking/digging tools, beech and cherry for chisels etc., and lime for wet trades; it'd irk me no end to go buy wooden handles for anything when it's such a pleasure to do my own - and I can cater for my own idiosyncracies in handling tools, which becomes more important the older I get!

For a fork or a spade I would use ash, and after shaping the shaft the way I'd like it to be I'd put a nicely shaped (cigar?) "T" piece at the top end
using a peg-and-socket joint; doesn't take long and I've always preferred a "T" handle to the closed loop type.

 

[British Red]

Do you turn chisel handles on a lathe Macaroon?

 

[Macaroon]

No, Hugh, I just use axe and knife and carve 'em from seasoned quarters of whichever timber suits the job at hand; I've often been tempted to have a play with a lathe but for me it would be an extravagance; there are many tools higher on the list that I would make much greater use of, and a turned handle wouldn't be any better than those I carve......................

 

[British Red]

Thats cool - if I carved a handle it would look, well like a log!

 

[yarrow]

I love making my handles for my tools. I am a bit of an axe junky and like nothing better than buying up old hatchets and returning them to quality working tools. I usually use ash but have recently made a few from pear, it doesn't feel as bomb proof as ash but its holding up well in daily use. I always wonder why "the axe is back" gang don't make there own handles instead of buying them.

 

[Big Stu 12]

I normaly use Ash for my handles as teh woods have loads of it where I go

 

[Jonbodthethird]

About three? So is that two? Or four? I presume you would have said three if you'd meant three, rather than about three. I'm so confused.
Lol...


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

I've got two,three and four candles going spare if you want one.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[mr dazzler]

Any tips for replacing a bent fork handle?

Does anyone make their own tool handles?

I've wondered about this, replacing a spade shovel or fork handle. My post spade is a bit iffy now, needs redoing, but no idea at the moment how to do it. In the factory the metal gets pressed down around either side of the wood handle (which can be bent) before it gets rivetted. So I have no idea how to replicate that in the home shop? I guess you need that tight fit so the strength comes from a laminated steel/wood/steel effect, at least on the types where there are 2 "straps" of metal at the front and the back of the handle with 2 or 3 through rivetts. I did a slasher hook, which had a quite thin socket, and was able to hammer it around the ash handle for a snuggish fit, then rivett it together, but spades/shovels etc have thicker sturdier sockets. Maybe the wood could be burn fitted into the socket?

 

[Harvestman]

Still waiting for someone to do the "Fork 'andles" joke...

 

[British Red]

I suspect that many if not most on here are the type to repair their tools if they are able to.

I've had a spate of putting new handles onto a few tools recently. Buying handles has been getting a bit pricey considering its almost all beech from an undisclosed location. Ash handles are hard to get hold of though a few people seem to do them.

I bought a few garden tools at auction a while back. All old tools and as it turns out a few MOD tools which is cool. One of my forks needs a new handle. (insert fork 'andle jokes here) Though this seems a tad more complex than your standard hammer replacement....

Any tips for replacing a bent fork handle?

Does anyone make their own tool handles?

All the best
Andy

When you say a "bent" fork handle Andy, what is bent? The handle itself? Is it a metal or grp one?

You started a chain of thought with me.....this video shows how to make a D handle

[video=youtube;B_xxi2TSdTQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_xxi2TSdTQ[/video]

I have a hydraulic ram....its just that steel former.....I wonder if I routed one from a solid block of wood.....?

 

[Everything Mac]

The handle needs a bent taper at the point where the wood meets the metal. It looks as though it should come to a point to get a tight fit.

I was actually wondering if burning to fit is the way to go?

Andy

 

[dave89]

I have a Elwell hatchet that needs rehadling, id like to make the handle longer about 17" my question is can i buy any handle or do i have to get a certain size and shape?

 

[British Red]

The handle needs a bent taper at the point where the wood meets the metal. It looks as though it should come to a point to get a tight fit.

I was actually wondering if burning to fit is the way to go?

Andy

Interesting - a steam bend would be the right way to go for strength....easy enough to do with a bit of old pipe and a former to bend the handle in (some pegs set in a board). Clamp the former down well though as you have to really pull on the wood to get it in....then let the wood cool and dry in the former.

Most handles come to a point(ish). The noral way is to carve the handle to fit, heat the socket with a blow torch, drive the handle in, then drill through the rivet holes, use one or more 6" nails as rivets - push through till the head hits the socket, cut off most of the pointy end and peen over the remaining metal with a ball pein hammer,

 

[British Red]

I have a Elwell hatchet that needs rehadling, id like to make the handle longer about 17" my question is can i buy any handle or do i have to get a certain size and shape?

Select a handle by the size of the eye (length AND width of the eye), you can choose any length of handle that suits you.

 

[Macaroon]

I've never found the need to steam bend or burn fit handles with a crank and a point to them - I usually have a few long pieces of Ash with various
natural curves to them; I've always been in the habit of cutting potential handles when I see them, split them down and store them in the rafters of the toolshed..............carving the points a smidgeon oversize and drifting them in works very well for me, then use whatever's to hand (4" nail) to
replace the rivet.

All my old digging tools have a split along some or all of the length of the socket and have a really powerfull spring action which, along with good
fit and a well-set rivet give the joint more than enough strength.

You'd need to be very good with heat treating and tempering to get the blade back into good fettle ater having heated it to the extend you'd need to do so in order to burn-fit a handle, methinks.........................