Knob End Handles

C

cityofthesouth

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Jan 29, 2014
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The search function is giving me an error and my googlefu is failing miserably. I was reading the book "American Axes" by Hnery Kauffman and there is a page with various axe handle patterns. Like an old catalog, they are drawings, and I've stumbled across other similar drawings/catalog pages here and around the mighty interwebs. Of particular interest is the "knob end" handles. Presumably the bit of extra wood below the swell that is on handles when they come off the lathe is left to create this knob, but I have never seen one. I also wonder if there is a function that I am not aware of. Do any of you have one? Or pics you can share here? I would consider trying to emulate one if I could just see some of the details. Thanks!
 
No they would be on curved handles. Rather than a "fawns foot" or whatever you might want to call the typical swell on a curved handle, these have a sort of extra bit on the bottom and they were referred to in the catalogs as "knob end".
 
OK so this pic came from "thewoodslife" so credit where credit is due - it is just what I found with google. This is the only picture I can find of an actual piece of wood rather than a drawing. Note that you have a typical fawns foot with a concave swell, but then there is additional wood below it which has also been rounded. It doesn't have the flat face of a fawn's foot. But this is just one - I would like to see others, vintage examples .... maybe this is vintage, I dunno. Actually this handle is quite attractive, the more I look at it. It doesn't quite match some of the drawings though.

Marbles-No.-10-Camp-Axe-for-web1 by city_ofthe_south, on Flickr
 
The only other pic I could find. That really is a beauty
 
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I hadn't tried fawns foot since I don't think that's what it could really be called but the website that image came from says it is old and NOS, but nothing else. Interesting none the less.
 
cityofthesouth said:
. . . Or pics you can share here? I would consider trying to emulate one if I could just see some of the details. Thanks!
Click to expand...

Don't know anything about these except that the second one below is an Elwell. I save pictures of axes of interest to me when I come across them, but I don't keep track of their origin.



 
Here are a couple. I think the cost to make is too much for todays axe handle makers.

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I have an old handle like that.

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My old Plumb hatchet has something of a knob on the end.

Knob%202.jpg



Speculation as the the purpose for the knob on the first handle. It gives you the feel of a full unclipped fawn's foot but still gives you a striking platform for driving the haft into the head.
 
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My grandfather made various hafts by the fireplace all winter long when I was just a pup. The process of shaping, scraping and fitting intrigued me as a kid. They were good looking hafts, but it bothered me that the ends of the haft were not finished, so one day I asked him why.

The "knob end" was left on a semi-green haft back in the day for seasoning. As wood dries the ends develop cracks, the knob was left to seat the haft right away for use, then trim the excess at a later date after the hickory seasoned (along with the cracks) for a finished fawns foot.
 
It helps tp keep the fawns foot from splitting, a more durable end. Some are rounded. others just as they left the lathe.
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You guys are good! I'm gonna save a few of these pics for future reference. HH cut the knob off the first pass handle I got last time and I am kind of hoping they don't on the order I have submitted right now, but next time I am going to specifically ask for them not to cut it off so I can try one of these (and also so I can do a true, pointed fawns foot on some). Based on what you guys are saying it makes perfect sense to leave it, hang the axe, then cut it. But I for sure want to do one with the knob as well. Keep em coming if you've got em! Thank you all so far!
 
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