Broad axe haft

[Downwindtracker2]

I just purchased a broad axe without a haft. Could someone point me towards a discussion on broad axe hafts. THX

 

[Agent_H]

Are you right-handed?

 

[Agent_H]

Square_peg created a great one. He takes it from raw wood to handle but even if you buy a handle, it is quite applicable.

 

[Square_peg]

Tennessee Hickory Products sells broad axe hafts.

Or you could make one.

Here's a discussion,
https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/making-a-broad-axe-haft.935049/

That was from when I first started making handles so my methods have changed a bit but the discussion is still illuminating.

 

[Square_peg]

Thanks, AH.

 

[Downwindtracker2]

Square Peg if you were to do it again , how much inch offset would you use ? You said you use a shorter haft, what length ?

I have a bandsaw so I'm leaning toward laminating ash.

Yeah, I'm right handed

THX,Ray

 

[Square_peg]

I think you'd be better off using a single solid piece of wood instead of laminating.

To do over I'd probably stay in the 24-26 inch range. Maybe 2-1/2 inches of offset and some upsweep. It all depends on what you want to do with it. If you want to make nice timbers keep it short. If you want to make crude timbers quickly like old railroad ties then keep it longer, 30" or more. And practice! It takes some strength to work accurately with a 7 pound broad axe.

 

[Downwindtracker2]

Thanks, that gives me an idea of haft design . A S-bend with upsweep would be nice.

I'm comfortable woodworking with epoxy .Here my source of almost any hardwood except birch, alder or maple is the lumber dealer , so kiln dried white ash. Less than ideal. Either way, laminating or steaming, I'll need a mold. Since I've long ago threw out my long steam box that I made for the gunnels on the canoe, I would have to make another. So that's why laminating looks appealing. I would have to see if 1/8" ash strips would make the bends cold.

 

[jake pogg]

woodworking with epoxy .Here my source of almost any hardwood except birch, alder or maple is the lumber dealer , so kiln dried white ash. Less than ideal. Either way, laminating or steaming, I'll need a mold.

For what it's worth,(not being any authority on hafting),i'm with Square_peg.
The above sounds like the classic case of overthinking the issue.

A tool haft is a working structural member,living,you may say,flexing,absorbing dynamic loads.
As such it don't like to be overly stiff,or overly slick/furniture-like,or overly difficult to replace,being expendable of course.

We all know hickory works,so i'd personally go to the nearest box-store(curse be upon their names,and all their descendants to seventeenth generation),and pick the cheapest/clearest/rightest grain-orientation stick that'd fill that eye.
Hope(that springs eternal anyway)that this stick's been air-dried...

Shape it approximately,and boil the business end in an old coffee pot,with a rag preventing water to boil away too quickly.
(It's much kinder on wood,boiling vs actual real to goodness steaming).

Then jig something up,like restrain the ends and reef in a bend with some filthy old C-clamp,carve out a 2x6 say to the bend outline,screw it down to a surface and pull the bend into the concavity of contour.

(all of the above Has been tested,results guaranteed).