Handle grain

montess85 said:
I used it to cut 2 small trees down at my brother's house. About 4-6 inch diameter. And it has a aluminum wedge. Im probably gonna call council tool to see if there is a warranty on this.
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Sounds like light duty work that it should have ate right up. I was meaning, is it a little straight wedge, a cone wedge (looks like a circle), or a full metal wedge without a wooden one?
 
Bummer. My son is getting the same thing, so I'll keep a watch out for slippage! I was really torn between keeping the handle or putting on a straight one, but the size of the council handle seems just right for the little feller, so I didn't change it. One of the axe bloggers had slippage and CT put a wood wedge and a circular metal wedge plus some epoxy when he sent it in.
 
montess85 said:
Oh. Its a full aluminum wedge. No wood wedge. I might see if i can putt it out and re hang it.
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Bingo! Far as I can tell those full metal wedges are good for nothing - would be a cake walk to put a wood wedge in and not have to bother with shipping it around and waiting and hoping. Bonus is, if you ever do have a handle failure, it'll be much easier to get your wood wedge out than having anything metal jammed in there.
 
The evils of the Hudson bay pattern and wood shrinking. Winter time with freezing temperatures can bring zero humidity making things worse.
 
Bummer. Yeah, it definitely shouldn't have done that. I second the idea of pulling the aluminum wedge and putting in a wooden one once you have the head seated again.
 
Well ....I re hung the head with a wood wedge and a metal cross wedge. I also go it to sit farther down the handle and left about a 1/8 exposed above the head. Lets hope this holds.
 
montess85 said:
Well ....I re hung the head with a wood wedge and a metal cross wedge. I also go it to sit farther down the handle and left about a 1/8 exposed above the head. Lets hope this holds.
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If you haven't I would apply quite a few coats of BLO to the top of the handle and wedge (and the rest of the handle too for that matter), to help protect the wood from shrinking due to humidity and temperature.
 
SC T100 said:
If you haven't I would apply quite a few coats of BLO to the top of the handle and wedge (and the rest of the handle too for that matter), to help protect the wood from shrinking due to humidity and temperature.
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The handle should be kiln dried... which would put it around 6-8% moisture... additional shrinkage shouldn't be an issue if anything it should pick up moisture from the environment.... unless you live in the desert and leave it outside all the time.
 
Although I am not an expert, I can say that they are "blowing smoke up your ass."grain alignment is critical in a hard use tool. The horizontal grain in the wood will take the blunt force of the impact and will be likely to separate. You really want the grain to be running with the blade, perfectly straight up and down from the front of the handle to the back. If done this way, the fibers will. Absorb the impact much better. If you don't plan on using it to much, you should be fine but if you use it frequently, you either want to get a proper handle, make your own, or buy a new one with the select handle alignment they told you about in the email. This is just my opinion, but better to be safe than sorry right?
 
atavist said:
Symantics but I don't consider breakage because of abuse "failure"
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chuxwan said:
That's a good distinction. I wasn't thinking that much into it but you are definitely right.
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Not necessarily a good distinction. A haft with the grain across instead of parallel to the eye is more likely to crack in the event of an overstrike. This is probably the biggest reason why we prefer vertical grain in an haft. It's more resistant to an overstrike. Pick up a broken hammer on the job site. 10:1 the grain runs across the haft.

Is it abuse? Yeah. But it's the most likely reason for a break. It's almost normal wear and tear. Selecting a haft to resist this only makes sense.
 
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