2x4 axe handle... Let's find out.

[Whiskey_Jim]

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

This'll be fun.

 

[Whiskey_Jim]

The grain on the board is almost parallel to the head. Would be perfect if this was hickory

 

[DeadFall27]

This is gonna be good

 

[daizee]

is it done yet??

 

[Whiskey_Jim]

is it done yet??

You think I just halft a head in a night?

I'm going to use a skill saw to thin the handle but I can't when the wife trying to sleep.

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

You think I just halft a head in a night?

I'm going to use a skill saw to thin the handle but I can't when the wife trying to sleep.

Wise man.

 

[Whiskey_Jim]

And it's a regular 2x4, not one of those balsa wood looking things that call studs

 

[Square_peg]

Thanks for doing this.

You'll get a few whacks out of it before it demonstrates why we don't use Hem/Fir for axe handles.

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

Thanks for doing this.

You'll get a few whacks out of it before it demonstrates why we don't use Hem/Fir for axe handles.

Ah yes, but we'll know just how many!

[video=youtube;NnuHGeCMd4E]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnuHGeCMd4E[/video]

 

[Woodcraft]

If the grain orientation was about perfect and there was no severe run out I think everyone would be surprised, as to how long it would last. I imagine when it goes it will be a complete failure and potentially dangerous. That particular piece looks like you will have an unavoidable knot there in the handle below the head. I think it will fail there.

 

[jblyttle]

Or right at the shoulder.

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

Or right at the shoulder.

That's my guess.

 

[quinton]

That's my guess.

Mine too.

 

[Barman1]

My dad did this once.
He was pretty proud of it till he gave it to me to do some work he had lined up for me around his place.
I expressed my doubts.
The axe got stuck in the first root on a stump and as soon as I levered it out I was left with half a handle.
Use caution.
Maybe a nice display piece?

 

[Hacked]

Just be sure to count the number of swings. There was one guy who tried Cedar just for the heck of it, I'm pretty sure someone else has tried SYP before. Here is my failed experiment, it was really more to see if I could make a handle from a section of tree. I wasn't overly surprised that it broke within a week.

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

There's a reason why axes in places like Russia where the hardest available wood for handles is birch that the eyes are huge and the handles short. Makes me wonder what the required dimensions would be for pine to actually hold up in use. Just how much wood would need to be inside the eye, with how much contact area and how long of a handle could you get away with before the required eye became comically large?

 

[serotina]

Or right at the shoulder.

Yep. I did this with a hammer once - made a nice handle out of teak. Didn't last long, turns out teak doesn't have a lot of tensile strength

 

[Park Swan]

There's a reason why axes in places like Russia where the hardest available wood for handles is birch that the eyes are huge and the handles short. Makes me wonder what the required dimensions would be for pine to actually hold up in use. Just how much wood would need to be inside the eye, with how much contact area and how long of a handle could you get away with before the required eye became comically large?

Depends on the pine of course, but I'd bet that the handle would outweigh the head enough to make chopping nearly impossible.

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

Well, I think the method of use would also have to change. More "pecking" blows rather than big hand-sliding swings.