Head ID and handle fitting suggestions

crbnSteeladdict said:
In case of Plumb, some of them had small marks https://imgur.com/a/KumEq
For explanation go to almost bottom of the page
http://www.yesteryearstools.com/Yesteryears Tools/Plumb Co..html
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Can't wait to get home and search for a makers mark.
Now to continue with the hanging. I've got to take a bunch of wood away to fit the cheeks. On the new handle the eye on is smaller than opening on axe head and to much wood near the cheeks.Hopefully after sanding and fitting the wood wedge and metal wedge will make her secure.
 
GregoryK57 said:
Can't wait to get home and search for a makers mark.
Now to continue with the hanging. I've got to take a bunch of wood away to fit the cheeks. On the new handle the eye on is smaller than opening on axe head and to much wood near the cheeks.Hopefully after sanding and fitting the wood wedge and metal wedge will make her secure.
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Maybe try another, thicker wood wedge without metal wedge. Can you post the picture of the eye?
 
axe-handle-eye1web by Naugy Valleyman, on Flickr
37520139594_dc5a9da346.jpg
axe-handle-eye2web[/url] by Naugy Valleyman, on Flickr[/IMG]
 
Probably some will not agree with me, but maybe, it would be better to fill this cut with mix of sawdust and epoxy (or sawdust and superglue), let it dry and make another, this time straight, cut
 
It depends what you want out of this hang. If you just want a functioning axe then you can make do with the existing kerf. Just make sure your kerf is at least 2/3 the depth of the eye with the axe fully seated. Cut the haft off with 1/4" protruding above the axe. Once wedged the protruding haft will swell out over the eye making a more secure hang.

It's a shame that the wedge can't fill the small void at the front of the eye but it can't be helped with that kerf. You could fill the gap with epoxy or construction adhesive. Apply to both the eye and the haft just before final assembly.

The other option is to do as crbnSteeladdict suggested and fill that kerf and cut a new one. Instead of sawdust I'd suggest filling with a slim strip of wood. Apply glue to the strip and work it in and out of the kerf. Repeat until you have a good bit of glue in the kerf and pushing in the strip forces glue out all around. Then you cut a new kerf once the glue has dried.

I'd probably just use the first method though the second method would give you a little more attractive result.
 
Thank you guys. It was a14.00 handle at the HD. Still, its a shame that crap is "standard" today. Adding insult to injury, the wedge is skimpy in width. Maybe I should make a new wedge. Suggestions on this? As I sidenote, at least Im learning a lot.
 
If you make new straight cut make sure to use wedge that fills the whole length of the eye.
Because of the off center position of of factory kerf, just one more question popped up: If you draw imaginary line along the bit of the axe , does it go through the center or near the handle's heel?
 
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Off center kerf cuts are increasingly common and a real piss off. You'd think handle factories could come up with a goof-proof solution involving a jig or some such so that obviously unskilled workers tasked with making that cut don't even have to think or attempt to guess where the middle of something is. When the kerf is way off (such as is shown in this thread) the thin side readily spreads outward with the wedge whereas the thick side resists. This results in a hang with the blade no longer inline with the handle, and there's FA you can do about it.
Peg's, and carbnSteeladdict's suggestion to fill the kerf with a glued piece of thin hardwood of matching thickness is probably the better one. What I've wound up doing on occasion is locating the head back beyond the reach of the existing kerf and then sawing a new one.
 
Here is a chart I use to identify axe patterns.
 

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GregoryK57 said:
I was thinking that, just wondering how far before altering the shoulder too much
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Lay the head over the unfinished handle and scribe out how much 'play' you've got. Even if you can knock off 1 - 1 1/2" and redirect the path of the errant kerf in your favour it's better than having to tolerate a 'bum' cut.
In an instant I snapped up a hardware store AAA grain-oriented V & B handle last year and upon inspecting it at home discovered how horribly the kerf cut had been screwed up. Suddenly a first class haft wound up being relegated to 'standby' and I shed a tear about the ruined potential at the same time as being pissed off at the stupid SOB that had made that careless cut.
 
Nice job on filling that cut. I'm not a big fan of dust and glue methods, a solid wood filler is always a better bet.

I would guess that those kerfs are cut before the handle is shaped. Off center like that would mean the shaper operator isn't paying a lot of attention when mounting the billets in his machine. That hole in the center is probably from whatever center pin or spur that holds the billet. Just a guess though, based on how old furniture factory duplicators work. Handle copy machines may be quite different.
 
Never thought of cut first, then shape. The bulk of the kerf was filled with a thin piece of oak and glue. For the voids I'd thought I'd get fancy and mix the oak sawdust in with the glue.
 
I'm pretty sure the kerfs are cut after forming the handle. They're made on a copy lathe. A kerf would interfere with mounting the handle blank on the lathe. It's just sloppy work, likely by an underpaid worker with a quota to meet.
 
Square_peg said:
I'm pretty sure the kerfs are cut after forming the handle. They're made on a copy lathe. A kerf would interfere with mounting the handle blank on the lathe. It's just sloppy work, likely by an underpaid worker with a quota to meet.
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You're right, I just went and found a few vids on youtube, clearly no kerf when its on the lathe.

No reason one couldn't figure a way to do it though, I suspect it's just they way they've always done it and it's probably not that important to them to change (and that may be correct). Everything I run on a duplicator is always indexed from the point where it meets crucial parts - so if I were doing an ax handle that way, I would cut the kerf first and go from there with the kerf as the center. But my machine is quite different from a handle copy lathe.
 
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