Hanging a Sledge Eye Splitting Maul

M

Muaddib1116

Joined
Dec 26, 2010
Messages
1,091
So, I must have had a mental breakdown a couple weeks ago, because I suddenly decided I wanted to start collecting axes, and I went nuts on ebay. I'll probably get more into that in a different post later. Regardless, I also picked up an 8lb sledge eye splitting maul head. I got a handle from home depot (ames true temper). I should probably have ordered one from house handles or something, but I didn't really want to wait. Pickings were slim, most had terrible grain alignment and all of them had off-angle kerfs. I decided grain alignment was more important than kerf alignment, so I chose that way.

Before I start rasping and sanding away to fit the haft, I need to figure out which way the maul head should sit. As far as I can tell, both openings are the same size and the eye is sort of an hourglass cross-section. With sledge hammers and sledge eye mauls, does it not matter which way is up or down? The maul is, as far as I can tell with the naked eye, fairly symmetrical, so do I just go with whatever I think looks best? Thanks for the help guys.
 
should be just the same as an axe, just make sure you get as wide a wedge that'll fit in there, that hourglass is really good at squeezing wooden wedges out, so wha you can do is fin a metal wedge, preferably circular wedges but if you can find some particularly thin metal stock like 1/8" and grind some "steps" into it these should work fine, but your steps NEED to work like barbs. hang you axe whichever way you want, just dont hit the head with a hammer, mallets are fine. lastly, leave about a 1/4" of wood sticking out of the eye, this'll mushroom out and give you a stronger hang, not necesarily tighter, just stronger
 
Thanks for the help Phantomknives. The handle came with a wood wedge and a metal barbed wedge, so I think I'm good there. I thought axes generally have an eye that is larger at the top than the bottom, so that when it's wedged it creates a mechanical hold.
 
So, I spent an hour and a half this morning hanging my splitting maul. I think it came out ok, but I'd love some critique. I used a bench sander and a rasp to shape the haft. I got it pretty close to the shoulder, and I think it fit pretty well. As I said earlier, the kerf was far from in-line, but I chose the handle with the best grain that they had. The lacquer was a real pain to get off, if the handles I ordered from househandles are any good, I think I'll end up preferring to wait for those rather than do all that work again. As you can see in the pictures, there's a few spots where I didn't fully remove the lacquer and the BLO didn't soak in, I've since sanded those spots more and re-applied BLO. I thinned out the handle by sanding flats onto the sides, creating a sort of rounded octagon. I felt that it was too thick as it was from the store. The only thing I don't like was how the metal wedge cracked the haft a little bit. I don't think it diminishes the strength of the hang, but I would have preferred that it didn't happen. And finally, a picture of my new helper.

20161111_113523.jpg


20161111_113535.jpg


20161111_113547.jpg


20161111_113605.jpg


20161111_113621.jpg


20161111_113635.jpg


20161111_113706.jpg
 
Thanks Square_peg, I appreciate the comment.

This is probably the last sledge hang I'll do for a while (all the next hangs I'm going to do will be axes), but just so I know, is there something I can do in the future to prevent the metal wedge from cracking the sides like that? Was the wedge too wide? Should I have ground it narrower by an 1/8" or so?
 
Many of us forego the metal wedge for exactly this reason. A metal cross wedge will almost always split the wood. The jury is still out on whether they are beneficial or not. I think they're best left as a fallback position to be added later if necessary.
 
Muaddib1116 said:
Thanks Square_peg, I appreciate the comment.

This is probably the last sledge hang I'll do for a while (all the next hangs I'm going to do will be axes), but just so I know, is there something I can do in the future to prevent the metal wedge from cracking the sides like that? Was the wedge too wide? Should I have ground it narrower by an 1/8" or so?
Click to expand...

I've actually yet to use a metal wedge, I haven't been doing this for years but I've hung quite a few axes. Typically I just use a wooden wedge and gorilla wood glue, i haven't used every single axe I've hung as I sell a lot of them but I haven't had an issue with a wedge backing out yet. I know some people aren't huge fans of wood glue as it can make it harder to get the wood wedge out but also there isn't a metal one in there so I actually find it much easier to get out, and I mean the idea is to hang it good enough so you don't have to get it out. But it's all personal preference, and I've hung a sledge and a maul with a sledge eye, leaving at least a good 1/8" probably more will help as it will mushroom out and prevent the head from slipping. The sledge eye maul I actually left at least 1/2" inch if not more, I'll probably cut it down before I sell it because it does look a little off but the head definitely isn't coming off. So it just depends on preference of method and looks, some people like metal wedges and no glue, I prefer glue and no metal wedges because they do split the wedge and the handle pretty often but there is no right or wrong way to do it as long as it works
 
Jlemay18 said:
I've actually yet to use a metal wedge, I haven't been doing this for years but I've hung quite a few axes. Typically I just use a wooden wedge and gorilla wood glue, i haven't used every single axe I've hung as I sell a lot of them but I haven't had an issue with a wedge backing out yet. I know some people aren't huge fans of wood glue as it can make it harder to get the wood wedge out but also there isn't a metal one in there so I actually find it much easier to get out, and I mean the idea is to hang it good enough so you don't have to get it out. But it's all personal preference, and I've hung a sledge and a maul with a sledge eye, leaving at least a good 1/8" probably more will help as it will mushroom out and prevent the head from slipping. The sledge eye maul I actually left at least 1/2" inch if not more, I'll probably cut it down before I sell it because it does look a little off but the head definitely isn't coming off. So it just depends on preference of method and looks, some people like metal wedges and no glue, I prefer glue and no metal wedges because they do split the wedge and the handle pretty often but there is no right or wrong way to do it as long as it works
Click to expand...

I've read about people using wood glue, but also a lot of people that don't, so I figured I'd start out without it to see how I do.

phantomknives said:
looks fine to me, looks like you got a good bite with your wedge
Click to expand...

Thanks, can you explain what you mean by "bite"?
 
Oh, yeah. It's only been a day, but it hasn't shifted at all. I'll obviously check it whenever I use it.
 
Muaddib1116 said:
I've read about people using wood glue, but also a lot of people that don't, so I figured I'd start out without it to see how I do.



Thanks, can you explain what you mean by "bite"?
Click to expand...

Yeah I mean it's all up to personal preference, if you can get it to work without it by all means go for it. But I prefer wood glue over metal wedges because they can damage/split the wedge and the handle, and especially if you have a wedge backing out then wood glue will definitely help. I know some people think wood glue will make it tougher to get the wedge out in the future but the idea is to not have to lol, obviously you still may have to but you don't need to salvage the wedge so it's easy enough to drill it out. Not like you're gluing the handle to the head which I've dealt with a few in the past that were, now that is a pain in the ass to remove
 
Good work, one thing with the metal wedge, it should have gone more inline with the grain / more inline with the wooden wedge, not cutting straight across it.
That's ideally... I realise sometimes you need to wedge it how you need to wedge it to take up space in a particular area.

But yea, if the wedge went more inline with the grain it would instead wedge it outwards as the wedge will go in between grain structure, and not sever it. It probably would not have cracked as it did.
Very good work though, im sure it will serve you (and probably whoever you pass it down to), well!
 
nzedge said:
Good work, one thing with the metal wedge, it should have gone more inline with the grain / more inline with the wooden wedge, not cutting straight across it.
That's ideally... I realise sometimes you need to wedge it how you need to wedge it to take up space in a particular area.

But yea, if the wedge went more inline with the grain it would instead wedge it outwards as the wedge will go in between grain structure, and not sever it. It probably would not have cracked as it did.
Very good work though, im sure it will serve you (and probably whoever you pass it down to), well!
Click to expand...

Ah, I thought it was supposed to be perpendicular to the wood wedge. As I mentioned above, all my future hangs will probably be axes and hatchets, which I'm going to try to do without glue or metal wedges.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top