Any ideas?

W

wdmn

Joined
Nov 29, 2013
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A couple of axes with very little to go on for ID, but I'm going to put them out there as you all have surprised me before:

This head weighs 2.3 pounds:

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Besides the colour of the paint the only clues are these two indecipherable (to me) marks, one on each cheek:

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In any case, I'm looking forward to using it.


The other axe has even less to go on, it's the one on the right:

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The handle and maybe the head were painted black. This axe does not belong to me, I'm just cleaning it.

Here's the cleaned up head:

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Also, the axe with the red handle in the above picture is labeled DSI. Anyone know anything about this axe/company other than that it is Danish?


Much appreciated.
 
Got around to my first rehang today, finally. I hanged the mystery head (with the green paint) from this post on a white ash handle that took me a long time to make.

Started out with a quarter of a white ash log that I got off a snag (the tree came down this summer) like this one:

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My access to tools is very limited, I used a hand saw and then my estwing hatchet to get a rough shape. Here it is beside the template (which I stretched a couple of inches):

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Then I turned to my mora 'light my fire knife':

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Grain on the final, sanded product:

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And the rehanged axe, with linseed coated handle:

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I wasn't exactly happy with how the head fit on the handle, and the wedge did not go as deep as I would have liked, but hopefully I can get some use out of it. Total length, 23 inches. I'll put it to work tomorrow.
 
I think you did great. It's a nice looking handle with excellent grain alignment. The hang looks good. The grind looks good. I'd be happy to swing that axe.
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A lot of work to make your own handle, especially using only hand tools. And you did an excellent job too!
 
Thank you all for the kind words.

For about 16 hours I may have had the coolest axe on the block, but alas:

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Hopefully you can help me figure out where the fault lies: with me as the craftsman or me as the user (or both).

When the handle broke it was very cold outside (at least -15 c), and because of an injured thumb the axe slipped and glanced hard on one of my strikes... but it should have been able to endure this..?

There are a few things I did not do very well: fitting the head, the head seemed to get looser and looser with each fitting as though the process of seating it and removing it was removing wood. Also, when putting in the wedge I kept trying to get it to go deeper; at a certain point this hammering may have been cracking the wood (I was using a metal hammer but placed a small block of wood on top of the wedge so that it wasn't metal striking the wedge).

Here are some more pictures, hopefully you can give me some advice for my next attempt. Also, I am about to start a thread on handles more generally so please also check that out.

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thanks again,

wdmn
 
You shouldn't have that ledge at the bottom of the eye. While it didn't cause this failure it does create a weak point. The handle should taper smoothly out of the eye.

That wood looks a little punky. Is it sound?
 
It looks to me like the quality of the very suspect. Especially the last pic.....I've never seen good sound wood shear off in this manner. I make a lot of my own handles from scratch (mostly hickory and occasionally ash) that I harvest from my property but I'm very suspect of any tree/large branch that come down on its own. Sometimes this type of wood is sound but often it isn't which is why the wind took it over in the first place. I'm curious if the ash "worked" like normal if you noticed any sections a little softer than normal?

Steve
 
Almost certainly a defect in the wood. Firstly, a new haft would not break that soon, regardless of shaping, unless you really tried to break it. Secondly, No hardwood has grain that looks like that/breaks like that. Definitely get a better, more solid piece of wood to use. If you're serious about the whole making handles from scratch thing, go ahead and drop a live tree, or find someone who will let you take one of theirs. That way you know the wood is good, and you've got lots of extra material.

Keep going though, you're doing a great job shaping and hanging.

John
 
Thank you all for the advice.

It was an ash that came down by itself, and could have been infected by the ash borer. There was some clearly rotted sections on the piece I was working, and I did wonder if maybe even the good looking stuff was compromised. Should have asked the forum first!

There's not very much hickory in my part of the world, and ash is a big problem because so much of it is sick and I cannot justify felling a large healthy tree (my understanding is that the best handle wood comes from a tree at least 10 inches in diameter) as there are so few of those left, and the resistant ones need to be kept.

The other woods I am interested in trying are sugar maple and ironwood (hophornbeam).

If I work with green wood how long do I have to let the finished handle cure?

Thanks again.
 
Do you have any oaks where you live? White Oak makes an ok handle.

Alas, no idea about drying times.
 
wdmn said:
If I work with green wood how long do I have to let the finished handle cure?

Thanks again.
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If drying outdoors anywhere from 2 to 8 months to get down to around 14-18% with the wood obviously taking less time during hot/dry weather until it reaches EMC. I usually bring my handle material inside and place it in the closet around our forced air furnace and have had it make it down to 6-8% in 4 weeks or less.

I have worked with wood in one fashion or another my whole life and can tell by the weight or how the wood works with tools of its dry enough to work. You can also pick up a pin type moisture meter like we use to check out hardwood flooring but they can be a little pricey. If you aren't sure about the moisture content it's better to err on the safe side and just dry the wood under controlled conditions. A closet or cabinet with a simple 100 watt light bulb makes an excellent drying setup. Steve
 
Jpeeler, there is some white oak around, but it's mostly to the south of me. Sugar maple seems like it would be good judging by it's moduli of rupture and elasticity, but I cannot claim to know what I'm talking about.

Love to haft, this article suggests doing the actual carving with greenwood and then drying it afterwards. Does that make sense to you? Is there a risk of cracking when dry? If the handle is going to shrink then I would have to do the eye fitting after it was dry.
 
wdmn said:
Jpeeler, there is some white oak around, but it's mostly to the south of me. Sugar maple seems like it would be good judging by it's moduli of rupture and elasticity, but I cannot claim to know what I'm talking about.

Love to haft, this article suggests doing the actual carving with greenwood and then drying it afterwards. Does that make sense to you? Is there a risk of cracking when dry? If the handle is going to shrink then I would have to do the eye fitting after it was dry.
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You are a bear for punishment! The storm-recovered piece you started with was compromised long before the storm (or it wouldn't have failed!) and then was further stressed during the event. I'm not a dry-rot guy (never did have a real close look at your blank) but I never would have chosen to spend quality hours on a shattered limb no matter what. Storm-damaged wood is like windshield glass; still appears to be intact but is in fact structurally ruined.
The business of carving green has no appeal to me whatsoever, either. Green wood from a leaning tree or overhanging limb will move as it dries. If anything, you want something that is carefully air-dried and is at the 'winter' cycle of shrinkage and humidity. I have installed enough hardwood stairs and flooring over the years to appreciate that wood is never 'dead' nor stable no matter how long it has been sitting around.
Hop Hornbeam (Ironwood) is known for not cracking or splitting as it dries but that doesn't mean the head of your axe won't work loose as the material shrinks!
You've done extremely well so far and even field-tested your 'baby'. Maybe thinning down/customizing a store-bought commercial item is the more efficient way to go this time.
I very rarely find good handles at stores but when I do (once or twice every 20 years) they do not get passed up. $15 is peanuts ( $8-9, 20 years ago) for a spare handle that may or may not ever get used.
I'm hoping one day to get up the gumption up to custom-make a white oak, elm, hard maple or ironwood handle but this would be entirely a crafted/hobby piece rather than something I'd lend out to a partying teenager or my careless neighbour.
 
300six, it's true; I'm a fool.

The ash was a very large tree that came down. The wood that I collected was from what was still standing. Regardless, I did faintly hear the voice of reason telling me it was probably no good... Oh well, it was a good learning process, and it's always a good test to have to let go of something you've made.

I will spend some time on the handles I now have. Have to sharpen up my mora a bit and take it slowly.

thanks
 
wdmn said:
Oh well, it was a good learning process, and it's always a good test to have to let go of something you've made.
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I think that is a perfect take away. I wish more people had your outlook. Like I said, the work was good, the material was the fault.
 
Fresh ash would be good. Same with fresh sugar maple.

While it's better if a handle is dried, many an axe has been hung successfully on green wood. G-Pig here on the forums seem to prefer it green. Just leave the wedge high and drive it down once the piece has dried.

Green wood is immensely easier to work with than dried wood. At a minimum much of your work should be done green if your harvesting your own handle wood.
 
Dead white wood is something I would never touch except in special circumstances. Even if it was not dead it was not healthy.
 
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