COTS Project Thread

Finally some real progress. The heartwood piece was checked all to hell and I am beginning to think the old timers avoided it more for that reason than anything else. The billet was visibly checked on the outside, however, it was on an end and since I am making 30" handles I just used my extra length to remove the end that was checked the worst. Once I got into the wood though, the hidden cracking showed it's ugly head. At any rate, one is finished. There are a lot of subtleties in the shape that making them from scratch got me. I was able to get the head set back slightly like I've seen with some old handles, and of course the swell is a little larger. You guys will remember the little Truper hatchet with the giant swell. It looks cool but it's not functional because it's too large to even get my hand around. Here, I tried to find the middle ground - still useful but also awesome looking. Of course there is a balance - things that are too large for the human hand to grasp can be fatiguing and things that are small can be fatiguing. Hopefully, this is somewhere where it should be.

TTredwarrior3 by city_ofthe_south, on Flickr

TTredwarrior2 by city_ofthe_south, on Flickr

TTredwarrior1 by city_ofthe_south, on Flickr

TTredwarrior_wedge by city_ofthe_south, on Flickr

TTredwarrior_shoulder by city_ofthe_south, on Flickr

TTredwarrior_swell by city_ofthe_south, on Flickr
 
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Thanks everyone.

I finally ordered some generic DPG Square_peg. You think it's too late to try it on this one with BLO already applied? Do you apply it to the wedge before you drive it, or just rub some over the end grain? I only ordered it last night so ... waiting.
 
cityofthesouth said:
Thanks everyone.

I finally ordered some generic DPG Square_peg. You think it's too late to try it on this one with BLO already applied? Do you apply it to the wedge before you drive it, or just rub some over the end grain? I only ordered it last night so ... waiting.
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I apply to the wedge and kerf immediately prior to wedging. End grain seems to take up liquids pretty well. I bet you could still use it.
 
Thanks again guys. Peg, my DPG arrived and it soaked right into the end grain no problem, even with BLO already applied. For this Hoffman I applied it to the wedge of course first, before driving it. So here's hoping that it is a good addition to my process - the oil costs very little and should last a very long time in any case.

So the Hoffman was a little weird - the eye didn't really appear to have much taper, kind of an odd shape, took me a little longer to get it hung. The walls around the eye are really thick and I think I would have opted for a larger eye and thinner walls instead. However, it's now on a really nice piece of wood - check out how flat the individual growth rings are to the handle on that one side! Nothing else to report here. Sure is a good looking animal if nothing else.

BTW, you guys have seen this axe in Operator's review threads and it's pretty obvious that he put this bad boy to work for his testing.

redwarrior_hoffman_axes2 by city_ofthe_south, on Flickr

hoffman_axe2 by city_ofthe_south, on Flickr

hoffman_axe1 by city_ofthe_south, on Flickr
On this side you can see just a little chunk of heartwood at the shoulder - kind of a nice effect IMO.

hoffman_axe_wedge by city_ofthe_south, on Flickr
Here you can kind of see how the eye is a little wavy and a bit misshapen - but the wood conformed of course.

hoffman_axe_fit by city_ofthe_south, on Flickr
 
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Various stages of completion. I really like the way that heartwood handle was coming along but the checking around the swell was unacceptable to me. It's difficult to see in the pic because I had already tried to glue it to prevent it from getting worse while hanging it. The Hoffman is hung on the one in the center. I hang the axe with the swell in this condition, then I finish the fawns foot after the axe is hung.

billets_roughedout by city_ofthe_south, on Flickr
 
Cityofthesouth,beautiful work,man,a pleasure to look at even on a photo.

I've a question,if i may...Do you concern yourself at all,before hanging,with the angle between the edge and the future haft?And if so,do you try to calculate it in some scientific-like manner,or just eye-ball it?

I thought of asking this for a while now,and finally decided to after seeing this Hoffman hung.The angle looks awful "closed",looks like when the edge would be hitting the wood your arms would have to be below the line of that striking point....
(i thought about how to best describe it,and can't,sorry if it sounds weird....).
It just looks so tight in there,that the heel can't really be brought to bear without seriously endangering this sexy haft....Can this be right?(does it just look this way,in the photos?)

But in a general way,do you always presume that the smith has punched that eye at an intended,deliberate angle,and go with that?Or do you,sometimes,change it by carving the wood?(kinda like an adze head can be wedged to change the striking angle slightly,but by carving?).

Sorry about the heart-wood stick,those are always doing that....(arguably,without any loss to the physics of the future haft,but it's hard to believe,and don't look that great,either...).
"Heart-free center",is what the timber-framers say an ideal stick should be...ah,well...

In any case,the best of luck,and keep up that great work!
 
jake pogg said:
Cityofthesouth,beautiful work,man,a pleasure to look at even on a photo.

I've a question,if i may...Do you concern yourself at all,before hanging,with the angle between the edge and the future haft?And if so,do you try to calculate it in some scientific-like manner,or just eye-ball it?

I thought of asking this for a while now,and finally decided to after seeing this Hoffman hung.The angle looks awful "closed",looks like when the edge would be hitting the wood your arms would have to be below the line of that striking point....
(i thought about how to best describe it,and can't,sorry if it sounds weird....).
It just looks so tight in there,that the heel can't really be brought to bear without seriously endangering this sexy haft....Can this be right?(does it just look this way,in the photos?)

But in a general way,do you always presume that the smith has punched that eye at an intended,deliberate angle,and go with that?Or do you,sometimes,change it by carving the wood?(kinda like an adze head can be wedged to change the striking angle slightly,but by carving?).

Sorry about the heart-wood stick,those are always doing that....(arguably,without any loss to the physics of the future haft,but it's hard to believe,and don't look that great,either...).
"Heart-free center",is what the timber-framers say an ideal stick should be...ah,well...

In any case,the best of luck,and keep up that great work!
Click to expand...

Thank you! Yeah, the Hoffman is super closed and it was just made that way. I was concerned about it, but looking through his work, it seems they are often like that. On the one hand I wanted to hang it differently, but on the other I didn't want to "change" it. I don't know if this is an aesthetic thing, or what. On a hatchet I think this would be fine but it doesn't seem very useful on a full size axe. But you may be able to tell that the poll and top are "square" to the handle - such that they can be. So by design of the axe I hung it "straight" by the eye. Only benefit I could see is the ability to "reach around" whatever you are cutting, so to speak, to strike with the heel. But you're right, this design makes me worry about my handle when it goes off to its new life. Its owner won't let me down though. :)

I also think the flat toe has some limitations as well, more so with the closed heel. I won't criticize the design, because I see on his website other designs which appear to have a traditional felling axe orientation. My guess, this is something of a small task axe - limbing and brush clearing - that happens to weigh 3lbs.

I don't do anything scientific, I just keep the tongue straight (presuming that the maker understood what the finial outcome needed to be). I removed an equal amount of material front and back as I reduced the tongue to fit the axe. I typically look for the bottom third of the bit to be in line with the swell - which I think is the common approach. With a carving axe or something that I purposefully wanted "open" I would draw the pattern on the board with the tongue at the angle I wanted.
 
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Also, kinda looking at my own pics, I think it would have looked really bizarre if I had tried to "correct" the hang, because it would have taken so much correction to do it.
 
Hey,thanks for that great answer-makes total sense!

I know exactly what you mean(i've actually forged in eyes that i found impossible to correct with the normal grain...:(....(not meaning that it was a screw-up on this maker's part,the axe looks great,i'm sure that it was done intentionally).
 
(just lost a long post to a glitch on the site,maybe for the best)

There is a way to calculate a hanging angle mathematically(an insanely complex,practically a caricature on itself,looks straight out of Gary Larson's "The Far Side").

In the 1930-ies this Soviet scientist Zheligovsky came up with it to try to calculate the missing hafts from the archaeological finds;he didn't even stop there,but went on into calculations of "efficiency"(of effort),to compare the different historic axes,et c.)

Reading that(and not understanding a word of it,what with my 6th grade education)has made me paranoid,and it took some years to convince myself that a good eye/intuition/a bit of a time using the tool,can be enough to come up with a decent axe.

Thanks for confirming that,your work is superlative,and an inspiration to us all.
 
jake pogg said:
(just lost a long post to a glitch on the site,maybe for the best)

There is a way to calculate a hanging angle mathematically(an insanely complex,practically a caricature on itself,looks straight out of Gary Larson's "The Far Side").

In the 1930-ies this Soviet scientist Zheligovsky came up with it to try to calculate the missing hafts from the archaeological finds;he didn't even stop there,but went on into calculations of "efficiency"(of effort),to compare the different historic axes,et c.)

Reading that(and not understanding a word of it,what with my 6th grade education)has made me paranoid,and it took some years to convince myself that a good eye/intuition/a bit of a time using the tool,can be enough to come up with a decent axe.

Thanks for confirming that,your work is superlative,and an inspiration to us all.
Click to expand...

I hate it when that happens!

I'll have to see what I can find out this Zheligovsky character because it pertains to conversations we've had around here in the past about handle design and I find that sort of thing interesting.

As far as American made vintage axes are concerned what I find is, unless the handle was made really poorly, they hang correctly. That is, as long as my handle (tongue) is in line with the eye of the axe, then they usually land where that bottom third of the bit is in line with the swell. It's worth noting that the handles I've been working on lately have extra large swells and I will say they are made curvy to appeal to my eye as much as anything else. So, there's that. However, the Connecticut hung perfectly at the bottom third of the bit. I start checking for alignment the first time I test fit the head and keep an eye on it to the end.

From very limited experience trying to drift an eye into a hammer head all I can say is, man doing it right certainly requires practice and skill. With the right drift, and using the folding technique, then I can at least see how a blacksmith could hold the tool out in front of himself while on the drift to "see" the correct angle. Plus, I figure unless it is wildly open or closed, then it's no big deal anyway.
 
Cityofthesouth,try this link here:https://yadi.sk/i/ec3rATPGe4n6d

(if it loads for you,AND you're not frightened by the formulae therein,then "...you're a better man than I,Gunga Din!"...:)

I can help with translation,but the Russian of that study is not the problem,it's the Algebra,and i'm powerless there...

It has loaded for me,will try to look over the info myself tonight,it's been a while since i've looked in that crazy article....
 
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