It'd never occurred to me that the oil on a tool handle would affected by the cold but I suppose it makes perfect sense that it would.
I suppose you could wrap the handle in pretty much anything like handlebar tape or similar if it's a cold weather specific axe, it's not like you're going to be using it with your bare hands at any point.
Really interesting
It was actually OK to handle at down to -10c with bare hands ( This is my cut off point for having to wear liner gloves). After that, the thermal mass of the wood sucked the heat from my hands very quickly. At -20 and lower, more hand insulation needed.
Having an insulated and grippy handle really makes sense.
I presume rubber like inner tubes gets too brittle to use at those temps? I was thinking they might help with the firelighting too as a combination jobbie but it sounds like all the usual 'rules' are broken in those temperature extremes. It must be hard to predict and analyse what is likely to perform and not
Inner tube rubber is Butyl and lots of it loses its stretch. ( some didn't, some did). Like the shock cord on my underquilts at -18c or lower, they lose their stretch and the UQ drops.
My cheap Rolson bungee cords perfromed best- a mixture of white latex and black butyl. Oddly enough, another bungee cord with seemingly identical elastic lost all of its stretch
I'd hoped to get to the bottom of this but its left me with more questions. Trying to find solid info is difficult.
I took some Silcone core bungee cord out there to test (MSR tent bungee) and it kept all of its elasticity-Winter UQ suspension will now be swapped for it.
Its your wonky monitor mate, nowt wrong with my buttoning skills 
