Handle thickness

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Maine20

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Aug 8, 2017
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https://imgur.com/a/k30U9

My father gave me this handle and the first thing I noticed was how thin it is. Besides the palm swell and eye it is 11/16 to 3/4 thick. Overall length is 29 inches, smallest point is 1 1/4” front to back and it has a full size eye. It’s old and made of oak. I know it’s thinner then any handle I have seen at a store but I also know that the older handles were quite thin. So I guess my question is, is this thin even for a old time handle? How thin is too thin?

Unfortunately the grain is 90 degrees the wrong way which makes me hesitant to use it. I may just use it as a template.
 
Maine20 said:
https://imgur.com/a/k30U9

My father gave me this handle and the first thing I noticed was how thin it is. Besides the palm swell and eye it is 11/16 to 3/4 thick. Overall length is 29 inches, smallest point is 1 1/4” front to back and it has a full size eye. It’s old and made of oak. I know it’s thinner then any handle I have seen at a store but I also know that the older handles were quite thin. So I guess my question is, is this thin even for a old time handle? How thin is too thin?

Unfortunately the grain is 90 degrees the wrong way which makes me hesitant to use it. I may just use it as a template.
Click to expand...
I can see some dark spot in the middle; Is it a knot?
 
That is a nicely shaped handle, it looks like oak. Nothing to do but match it with a suitable head.
 
Maine20 said:
https://imgur.com/a/k30U9

My father gave me this handle and the first thing I noticed was how thin it is. Besides the palm swell and eye it is 11/16 to 3/4 thick. Overall length is 29 inches, smallest point is 1 1/4” front to back and it has a full size eye. It’s old and made of oak. I know it’s thinner then any handle I have seen at a store but I also know that the older handles were quite thin. So I guess my question is, is this thin even for a old time handle? How thin is too thin?
Unfortunately the grain is 90 degrees the wrong way which makes me hesitant to use it. I may just use it as a template.
Click to expand...
Newer generations (that'd include me, already going back 50 years) have never experienced a thinned-out air-dried hand-split handle. quinton (on this forum) can fill you in on benefits of horizontal grain hafts. If'n your dad used axes and had set this aside years ago, and then gave it to you, and you realized "it's old and made of oak" then all I can suggest is:
"If it ain't broke don't fix it."
 
I envision Hudson Bay or smaller Boy's Axe size head on that handle. You can trace the shape on piece of paper or use cheap Great Staff spray to create inverse 3D form for future reference
 
300Six said:
Newer generations (that'd include me, already going back 50 years) have never experienced a thinned-out air-dried hand-split handle. quinton (on this forum) can fill you in on benefits of horizontal grain hafts. If'n your dad used axes and had set this aside years ago, and then gave it to you, and you realized "it's old and made of oak" then all I can suggest is:
"If it ain't broke don't fix it."
Click to expand...
I wouldn’t say he was a big axe guy but he saved this or some reason. It’s possible my grandfather made it. He spent his winters in the Allagash (northern Maine) logging camps. I’m not sure the years worked in the woods but he told my father that he never saw a chainsaw. I am thinking he knew a bit about saws and axes.
 
You fellas in the northeast get the best old handles,that's pretty.Got me looking for old Maine heads on auction site,check out what they want for them old handles.
 
Maine20 said:
...11/16 to 3/4 thick...is this thin even for a old time handle?
Click to expand...

A thickness of 11/16" to 3/4" translates to 17.5 - 19 mm which can be compared to the handles pictured below from Peter Vido's post titled "The Devolution of Axe Handles" which also appears at his blog Axe Connected:

1. (1975) – 18 x 32mm, 31 inch long, head 3 ½ lb (my very first ax)
2. (1995) – 23 x 37mm, 27 inch long, head 2 ¾ lb
3. (2010) – 26 x 39mm, 26 inch long, head 2 lb
4. (2011) – 29 x 40mm, 27 inch long, head 2 ½ lb






In the photo below you see three locally made handles with the 2011 “white elephant” in-between. While measuring these three (for the purpose of this piece) I was surprised that their cross sections were exactly the same – 16 x 33mm!

The respective lengths and weights of these axes are (from left to right):
32” (sugar maple) with single bit 3 ¼ lb head
27" (hickory) with single bit 2 ½ lb head
29” (ash) with double bit 2 ½ lb head
29” (ash) with single bit 2 ¼ lb head






from Peter Vido's post
https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/introduction-and-the-devolution-of-ax-handles.820720/
 
Make a template off of it and then use it.

It used to be common for axe handles to come 3/4" or less. One of my favorite old hafts came on an old Marshall Wells full size. It gets thinner than 3/4" in the center and most is right at 3/4". Other dimension is 1-7/16"-minus at its thinnest. I used it as the template for my recent Walters knob-end haft.

phantomknives said:
all i know is i like my handles to be to the point where i can rub the base if my thumb my middle finger
Click to expand...

That's a good RULE OF THUMB!
 
This old thin handle has caused a major problem. I have decided a couple of my other axes are way too fat...time to mske some shavings.
 
Maine20 said:
This old thin handle has caused a major problem. I have decided a couple of my other axes are way too fat...time to make some shavings.
Click to expand...
No surprise! Liability-conscious and quality-control cognizant commercial wood turners receive fewer and fewer complaints about unexpected 'failure' of their products once their handles become so 'beefy' that they become hard to hang on to. Weaning us greenhorns and/or recent hand tool aficionados off of current 'war club' dimensions is not going to be so easy though. Thinner wood ought to mean less material, and by extension, lowered cost!
 
300Six said:
Weaning us greenhorns and/or recent hand tool aficionados off of current 'war club' dimensions is not going to be so easy though. Thinner wood ought to mean less material, and by extension, lowered cost!
Click to expand...
“War club” is a great way to describe one of the handles when I bought it. I have already shaved it down and cut off an inch off the end of the palm swell (it was huge). It looks good now but I think it could be thinner
 
Maine20 said:
...time to make some shavings.
Click to expand...

The rasp is your friend. The spoke shave does beautiful work, especially for octagons, but it has a little higher leraning curve. You need to learn to immediately sense the grain changes. The spoke shave is much more forgiving than the drawknife when it comes to grain changes.
 
Maine20 said:
I have already shaved it down and cut off an inch off the end of the palm swell (it was huge).
Click to expand...

I look for handles with huge palm swells. It gives you something to work with. Just carve the handle up into the swell and add a good 'hook' for the little finger.
 
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