Hanging a Kelly Flint Edge Connecticut: WIP

J

John Frankl

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Oct 16, 2001
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As both an experiment and a learning assignment for hanging, I searched through my axe heads to find the one with an abnormally long eye. Then I searched through my handles to find the one with the shortest part that fits into the eye (Is there a name for this?). The idea is to try to get a nice tight fit with a single, wide wedge.

Here is the Kelly right from the flea market.

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Here are a few cleaned up. Not sure if you can tell from the photos, but the top portion of the eye is pretty long.

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Here's the top.

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I'll be away till the weekend, when I'll resume work. Usually I just finish these things then ask questions later, but that seems pretty inefficient. I'd rather post a couple photos of the current fit of head to haft and get all of your opinions, especially about how much more thickness I should take off the top of the haft to be able to fit a nice wide wedge in.

For now, since I have to leave this for a few days, all the pencil marks are just reminders where more material needs to be removed, the octagonal shape needs to be centered/trued up, etc.

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All advice and comments are very welcome and appreciated!
 
Cedar,

Except for the abnormally small top and some symmetry issues, it's really a nice 32" haft, slim with good curves and alignment.

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I love those Connecticut's ;)
It's hard to find a handle that fits the eye(s) of those things, you just have to make do and fill it the best you can with wedges.
I fill them the best I can with a nice wide wedge that fills the eye from the top... Pound it in as far as possible.
I then go back and fill any space that's left in the bottom of the eye with a little piece of wedge. Works fine for me and looks good too. You can't hardly tell that the haft didn't fill the eye. I can't hardly tell and I do it myself :)
It's funny why those eyes are so long.
Heck, the 4 1/2 lbders from Australia and New Zealand, those are of a similar pattern (Tasmanian), but the eyes are a normal size.
I've always wondered why they were made so long :confused:
There probably is some benefit to it, but I'm not smart enough to figure it out :p
 
Thanks Bearhunter. I didn't know that, but it makes me feel a bit better:)

I like the shape too. They look like baby racing axes :)
 
John Frankl said:
IMG_1093.jpg
Click to expand...


That looks like it should accept a plenty thick wedge. What I like to do is cut my wedge a maybe an 1/8" thicker and 3/8" longer than the depth of the kerf and 1/16" longer than the length of the eye. Then with the head off the haft I line it up next to the kerf for depth and mark the wedge where the handle ends. When driving the wedge in I slow down as the line gets closer to the end of the haft. I drive the wedge in until the line is no longer visible. If at this point the head feels loose you know you need a thicker wedge.

Another thing I like to do is line up the grain of the wedge so it is in line with the bit and poll. Same direction as the haft should be aligned. This way the wedge is less likely to crack along the grain as it is driven in.
 
Thanks. The second part is crystal clear, but I am not sure I understand everything about the size of the wedge. Sorry:(
 
John Frankl said:
Thanks. The second part is crystal clear, but I am not sure I understand everything about the size of the wedge. Sorry:(
Click to expand...

It makes perfect sense in my head, whats not to understand? JK. I will try to explain a little better.

Say you think the wedge should be 3/16" thick once its driven into the eye. I would cut it so it tappers from nothing to about 5/16" thick or 1/8" thicker than necessary to fill the gaps.

Now you also need to determine how long to make the wedge. I measure from the bottom of the kerf to the end of the haft and add about 3/8" or a little more. This allows you to hammer in the wedge and always have some of that thicker wedge material sticking out past the end of the haft.

The third dimension you need is the length from the front to the back of the eye and I cut it about 1/16" bigger than the length of the eye. The front and back of the eye will shave off the edges of the wedge insuring no gaps at the front and back of the eye.

I mostly just eyeball it and guess when I am making my marks to cut the wedge but these are the approximate numbers I am shooting for. The key is placing that depth of kerf mark on the wedge. By paying attention to that you will know pretty quickly if your wedge is too thin or too thick and you can pull it out and adjust the dimensions of the new one accordingly.

I hope this clarifies what I was trying to say.
 
bearhunter said:
It's funny why those eyes are so long.
Heck, the 4 1/2 lbders from Australia and New Zealand, those are of a similar pattern (Tasmanian), but the eyes are a normal size.
I've always wondered why they were made so long :confused:
There probably is some benefit to it, but I'm not smart enough to figure it out :p
Click to expand...

There's a good reason for it. I need to get off my lazy a$$ and write an essay on axe eye length along with a short lesson from Archimedes. It will all make sense then.
 
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CedarEater said:
Now you also need to determine how long to make the wedge. I measure from the bottom of the kerf to the end of the haft and add about 3/8" or a little more. This allows you to hammer in the wedge and always have some of that thicker wedge material sticking out past the end of the haft.
Click to expand...

Don't forget that you never want the wedge to bottom out in the kerf. You want the sides of the eye not the bottom of the kerf to stop the wedge's progress. If the kerf stops it then it might not get fully tight.
 
Man I'm so pi$$ed right now!!!
There was a nice TT Flint Edge Conneticut on e bay that ended tonight. I was going to bid on it and forgot about it until it was too late :(
For what it went for, I would have more than likley won it. Oh well, maybe another one will come around soon.
 
Connecticuts are desirable not only because of the long bit(more choppin area) but also eye length, which increases contact between axe head and haft, which should allow for better fit, less wiggle, less getting loose, etc. If you do the wedge correctly, you can seat it pretty deep while still having max connectivity/push up at the top of the eye. Wedge dimensions will be key here to do it properly so it wont come loose(well in a short time frame, it will eventually come loose)

Nice looking axe, keep working away, thats all you can do. Well done!
 
Okay, I'm back in town, and back in the basement :)

It didn't come out perfect, but then again I deliberately picked the worst combination of eye and handle I had on my shelves.

Anyway, thanks to all the good advice here I did manage to get a decent hang with a single wedge.

I made a wedge out of some poplar that I already had. Could have gone a bit thicker (and will soon be visiting some hardwood places for some thicker, darker stock). I tested the expansion without the head on. Expansion looked good and even.

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Then I oiled things up and got ready to go.

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As the wedge got deeper it began to shave the excess material off front and back (Thanks again, Cedar Eater and Square Pegs).

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Here it is driven all the way home. It never bottomed out and the contact with the inside of the eye was good.

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Here it is cut off rough.

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And finally ground flush with bit of BLO.

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All done with a quick BLO wipe over the handle.

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Thanks again to all!
 
That looks fantastic!
Man I need one of those... your's looks in almost mint condition. The one that I forgot to bid on the other day was too :(

ETA...
I always drive my wedges in like that, letting the ends shave off as I go along. It ensures a nice tight fit :)
I even like for the edges to shave off as well, sometimes I will even rasp those edges as I go along until it simply can't go any further.
 
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Thanks, but mint condition is relative. Go back to the first photo of this thread. This thing was pretty beat up when I got it. But you are right in terms of the eye not being deformed and the overall profile being sound.

I like to keep as much of the original patina as I can, but you'll notice that the cleaned up version has a pretty distinct "silver lining." That's because I had to remove quite a bit of mushroomed and pitted material.

The key is to be able to see the potential and beauty of a nice old axe, even when it's hidden under a lot of distracting crap. (That and a 2x72" belt grinder:)
 
"I even like for the edges to shave off as well, sometimes I will even rasp those edges as I go along until it simply can't go any further."

Thanks. I am learning a lot with each hang. I need to get brave and better at this so I am shaving a bit of wood in all 4 directions. This wedge definitely could have been a bit thicker, and I can definitely see the benefits.
 
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