How to Rehandle an Axe

Last Updated on Monday, 21 September 2009 16:15 Written by Robin Wood Tuesday, 08 September 2009 15:35

I have been asked a few times about how to do a new axe handle and was making one up last night so took some pics.

First wood selection. The perfect wood is nice straight grain ash fairly fast grown, if it gets more than 6-8 rings per inch it is much more brittle, 4-6 rings per inch is perfect. Having said that a hewing axe like this is nearly always used one handed and the handle does not get the same stress as a felling axe so I would use pretty well whatever wood you have though with a preference for more fibrous species, ash, oak, elm etc.

Split your log in half and half again then if it was a fat log you may be able to go down to 1/8th sections.



What you are aiming for is to cut out a bit of wood that looks like this, just a bit bigger all round than the axe of the axe. Draw round the inside of the eye on to the end grain. Grain direction does not matter with ash. I often see it sugested that this orientation with the axe head tangential to the growth rings is good and that radial is bad. I find no difference and all the technical data on ash I can find gives the same info. I think the pics of grain direction that are often repeated probably originat from old American sources and are referring to old growth hickory. In my experience ash is fine either way I I more normally end up using ti the other way just because when I split the wood out that ends up closest to the shape I want. Bows are made that way on too.



Next if you have another axe handle you like draw round it on the side profile, or just draw a shape you like. Straight handles are fine, I prefer this shape.



Cut the side profile trying to keep the edges at 90 degrees, at this stage we are not looking for a rounded profile just a nice clean rectangle.



Thin the sides down if necessary again aiming for a clean flat plain.



Now work over the surfaces with a knife to smoot the curved lines and leave nice clean cuts on the flats.



So now we have a rectangular section which is about 10-15% over size at the head and just a little over size on the handle. And we leave it to dry. This bit of wood was pretty dry already so 48 hous indoors will probably be enough. When it is dry if I tap it against something it wil ring rather than thud and feel nice and springy. You can just leav it a month and be sure but I am always impatient.



This is roughly how it will look when done. This is a chep old head, I don't know what the pattern is or where they were made but I have a couple like this, they don't seem uncommon at car boots and I like the look of it as a carving hatchet. The other old head would make a perfect alternative to a small forest axe for someone on a budget.

The handle was fairly dry wood when I roughed it out and has had 3 or 4 days near the fire so is now dry enough to fit it.

First thing is to put the head on the end and draw carefully round the inside. The new line is pencil, the red line was drawn before it dried. Notice how it shrinks mostly around the tangential rings.



Hew off sides again starting by making a rectangle.



Then take the corners off.



Now offer it up to the head to see where you need to trim. Hopefully it is just a question of keeping cutting off the high points.



I am trimming with the knife by this stage, all the custs start 2-3" from the end where the head will start.



Now it's time for a trial fit, pop the head on top and give it a few gentle bumps on a block to see how far it goes on.



It will probably be pretty well stuck on there now, I split out a small piece of wood which easily fits inside the eye, put it into the eye and bump it on the block to take the head off.



The dirty bits show where it was rubbing on the eye, leave the bits which didn't touch alone, shave the areas that did touch particularly the area where the head stopped going on.



Trial fit again and check the alignment by looking down the edge towards the foot of the handle. For a neutral axe the edge should line up with the centre of the handle. This one is good as a hewing axe for a right hander so I shall leave it as it is. If I wanted to make it more central I would shave a little from the area where my thumb is which would alter the alignment as it went further on.

Once the handle comes all the way through and a little out of the top of the head its time to take it out and finish any work on shaping the handle. When I make my handles I rough them to a rectangular section and at this stage I take the corners off. I like the elongated octagon this creates, it gives excelent grip, if you like a rounded handle its just a question of repeatedly taking the high corners off.



Now some people like to take the head off and saw a slit down the centre for the wedge I just split it with a knife or chisel. All we need is a small split to start the wedge in, a gentle tap on the back of the knife taking care not to go too far so the knife hits the metal.



Now this bit is important and its more art than science. Have a look at the gaps between handle and head. How big this gap is will depend on how accurate you have been with the shaping but also on the interior profile of the head. This head is fairly straight through inside so the gap is fairly small some heads are quite hour glass waisted inside so the gap would be much more. Now we need a wedge made from a cleft not sawn piece of dry oak, other woods will work but oak is best if you have it, very dry is important so I keep a supply of dry cleft oak siting near the fireplace. Imagine the wedge going a little more than half way through the head, at that point on the wedge you want it to be thick enough to take up all the gap between head and handle and a bit more to allow for a healthy compression. The end of the wedge I shape to have about 1mm flat then chamfer from both sides at 45 degrees this makes a strong but sharp leading edge to go into your split head.



stand the axe up on a solid block of floor and hammer the wedge in until there is no more movement.
It should take up all the gap and make a tight fit.



Saw it off, if there is some gap front and back you can make a small split across the handle and either bang in another wooden wedge or if its just a small gap one of those metal hammer wedges. I always tend to use wood as it makes life easier when you need to drill the handle out to replace it. Small gaps front and back are no problem if your main wedge has gone in well the pressure side to side is imense and it will not move.



So at the top is my favourite GB carving axe, about £70. below a very good second best, the head cost £2 took 5 minutes to grind and sharpen (with power tools) and the handle took maybe a little more than an hour all told, certainly a lot less time than photographing and typing this tutorial.



Shame I don't do leatherwork really or I could do a tutorial on a nice sheath for it.