Any unusual wedges?

Strange wedges:
I have a tiny Kephart hatchet with two short, fat brass screws in place of wedges. It's still tight after 40 years or so, so I'm in no hurry to change it.
I bought a $2 collins hatchet that had 4 inch drywall screws instead of wedges, which of course went past the head and split the handle.
Crazy wedge substitute:
I saw illustrated somewhere a small staple in the top of a hatchet handle, and a hole through the handle below the head, and wire holding it together. Never saw that in real life, though.
 
M3mphis said:
Keeping it sealed up with an oil like BLO should help. The nice thing about BLO (and others) is that it hardens and seals as it dries. Probably nothing new to you. Thanks for showing us.
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I really have no idea what I'm doing o_o I read "The Axe Book" cover to cover and went ahead and rehandled all of my axes with straight bits on it's recommendation, and shaved them all down to a uniform thickness. He mentions that if you have an axe that sees daily use, eventually the head will loosen up and the metal wedges help to prolong it rather than prevent it.

I like the idea of the very short 3 prong wedges because their only about 1/4" long. at that length it doesn't really get into the eye as much as sit in the extended wood and help keep it flared out, really restricting the heads ability to slip past it. The axe book didn't mention that but thats the way I saw it on the wetterlings and it seemed to make sense. It seems like a short wedge that only enters the extended wood might help prevent grain splitting while keeping the head tight by flaring the extended wood.
 
M3mphis said:
I think more important than wood type is shaping your wedge and kerf appropriately so you get a tight fit without bottoming out your wedge.
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I agree with Matt (The Hangman) here. It's well worth while to take a little time over the wedge. I often find I have to deepen the kerf a bit. And I always shape the wedge a bit more for a good 'lead-in'. In my humble opinion some have the haft too tight in the eye to begin with. Best to have it 'just tight' at the heel end and let the wedge take-up the slack.

regards...Frank.
 
Thanks for the reply's on the wedge material. I'll certainly pay attention to the actual shape of the wedges.
As fate would have it, I just found out that a guy I work with just paid a heap of money to have an oak tree removed. Hopefully it was not just turned into wood chips. On the flip side, I did find a few pieces of red iron wood.
George
 
scrteened porch said:
Strange wedges:
I saw illustrated somewhere a small staple in the top of a hatchet handle, and a hole through the handle below the head, and wire holding it together. Never saw that in real life, though.
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Its to bad this thread wasn't around... oh... 3 months ago. I saw that on a S&N that I swear had a rotten branch from the ground shoved in the eye.
 
Here's an unusual two-part removable wedging system. This is what came with this broad axe. I've disassembled and reassembled it 4 or 5 times.
2-part%20wedge.JPG

2-part%20wedge-2.JPG


It's not much to look at but it holds the head surprisingly strong. I've used it with this haft and wedge with no problems - no loosening.
2-part%20wedge%20assembled.JPG


And by tapping out the poll section of the wedge the head can quickly be removed.
2-part%20wedge%20assembled-2.JPG

2-part_wedge_assembled-2.JPG
 
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Thanks. This is an 8 pound head. I think a 3-4 pound head could easily be hung this way.

I re-hung this axe on my home made haft today but I thought I should document this old system before I set it aside. This old haft is sound. I expect I'll re-use it. Maybe I'll try to re-use the whole system and report back.
 
That's nifty.

Am I right in thinking that this axe isn't swung per say, so the height weight isn't 'shifting' quite as much as a felling head would be for example?
 
That's true. You use a short stroke with a broad axe. You don't even lift it to shoulder height.
 
Here's an interesting wedge. I dug this out of my Tommy Axe tonight.

3 nails
1 screw
1 standard metal wedge
1 unidentifiable scrap of metal, possibly one wing off a large wing nut or valve handle
1 large washer
1 small washer
Wedge%20materials.jpg
 
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Hey Peg...What a great find. I guess some people don't realize that swelling a bit of wood is much more successful than driving-in bits of steel.

regards...frank
 
Ha, pinch, clothespin. :)

Some wedges I've pulled, left is some old true temper wedges, middle is the modern aluminum wedges (though I've seen these in steel (?) in several S&Ns), and right is big SOB I pulled out of a Emerson. I'm still mad I never took photos of the S&N held on by wire and a staple.

This is about as exciting as I've found, beyond some nails.
2d8kr9y.jpg


Edit: Not sure if I should admit this, but I couldn't cut a thin enough wedge once, so I used a piece of wood paneling. No tapering whatsoever. Still holding though.
 
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I have a Barco half hatchet that I bought cheap. Had it been more then the few dollars I paid for it, I never would have bought it.

The wedge was a metal washer hammered into the eye. It didn't work, because it came off after twenty or so wacks.

I took four screws and put them in as wedges. So far they've held.
 
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