Crappy ax handles. Chain store firewood.

[mhawg]

I was having my car serviced by my mechanic who is a friend of mine when he asks if I ever re-handled an ax.
"Well being a land surveyor I've re handled countless axes and hammers," I told him. Wrong move!
"I've got these broken axes back here, can you put these new handles on them?" he asks. Well, of course, he had been to Hardware-Are-Us and picked up 3 pieces of firewood shaped like ax handles. One of the ax heads was worn so that it didn't even look like an ax anymore but after chastising him for the handles and worn out heads I still redid one for him so he could watch it being done. I said I would fix the other two but he had to swap the cross grained firewood out for proper grained handles.
These aren't his handles but ones I've repaired in the past. Why would a company selling tools put such crap on their product with their name on it? Just a little rant going on here. Where do you get your ax/hatchet/tomahawk handles with proper grain alignment?

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[Loosearrow]

They sell it because they have a corner of the market. lPeople don't use an axe much and don't know the difference. The knowledge is slowly passing away.

 

[ducatimonster]

Here in Ohio, i've looked and looked through the axe and pick handles every time i go to a Lowes, TSC, H. Depot, Ace Hardware and have never found a handle with the grain running vertical. I used to work for a land surveying company here and used sledge hammers alot on construction layout and never broke a handle with vertical grain, but the ones with cross grain would always eventually fall off, on the upswing, right where the handle met the back of the head.In my experience grain direction does make a difference on heavy hammers and baseball bats
Now that i'm forging tomahawks i have i heck of a time finding decent handle wood. I'm going to cut and air dry some hickory, white ash,locust, and osage from the fence rows behind my house, and make a homemade "kiln" to further dry it.

 

[762 shooter]

I have a book titled, A Reverence for Wood. It discusses the uses of wood for tools, furniture, fence posts, etc. In one section fo the book it talks about grain alignment for axe and sledge handles. My edition was published in '65. It is a great book and talks about a lot of things that even seasoned wood workers might not know.

 

[mhawg]

I have a book titled, A Reverence for Wood. It discusses the uses of wood for tools, furniture, fence posts, etc. In one section fo the book it talks about grain alignment for axe and sledge handles. My edition was published in '65. It is a great book and talks about a lot of things that even seasoned wood workers might not know.

Just picked it up for $3.96 ($7 shipped from GA.) Sounds like stuff I want to know.

 

[siguy]

in my local Ace there are some decent handles, but it seems like they are all either the wrong shape, wrong eye size, or bad grain...

so i often make my own out of smallish maple trees that i cut out of the backyard. i take down a tree, split it into workable chunks, and shape the chunks with a hatchet and saws and knives until they look about right. the issue here is that the small trees i have often have small knots in them that interfere with the shaping as well as possibly compromising the structural integrity of the handle. works well for shorter handles though...

i am thinking that at some point i may head down to the local lumber mill and pick out a nice Hickory board and just cut some handles out of that.

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

I have a book titled, A Reverence for Wood. It discusses the uses of wood for tools, furniture, fence posts, etc. In one section fo the book it talks about grain alignment for axe and sledge handles. My edition was published in '65. It is a great book and talks about a lot of things that even seasoned wood workers might not know.

That's a fantastic book. I've cherished my copy. It was out of print for some time and it's good to see Eric Sloane's work back in publication.

 

[Bushman5]

in my local Ace there are some decent handles, but it seems like they are all either the wrong shape, wrong eye size, or bad grain...

so i often make my own out of smallish maple trees that i cut out of the backyard. i take down a tree, split it into workable chunks, and shape the chunks with a hatchet and saws and knives until they look about right. the issue here is that the small trees i have often have small knots in them that interfere with the shaping as well as possibly compromising the structural integrity of the handle. works well for shorter handles though...

i am thinking that at some point i may head down to the local lumber mill and pick out a nice Hickory board and just cut some handles out of that.

me too. I just fixed a neighbors hatchet. the stock handle was softwood.