Knob End Handles

rjdankert, the bend in that one is awesome.

halfaxe, was the yellow paint also typical of Walters? The #3 sized axe (w/o paint) in your picture is a good lookin piece of equipment to my eye.
 
cityofthesouth said:
rjdankert, the bend in that one is awesome.

halfaxe, was the yellow paint also typical of Walters? The #3 sized axe (w/o paint) in your picture is a good lookin piece of equipment to my eye.
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Later model Walters that I have feature yellow painted knobs. Garant (Canada) aftermarket hafts over the past 40 years even took this a step further and sprinkled sand over the paint. Ostensibly this was done so you could easier see/find your tool in the bush or snow but I'm of the opinion that it allowed makers to cover over the end grain against careful inspection. Folks then wound up looking at the lines of a saw cut.
 
I am pretty sure most people would make fun of me for this but I find this to be a wild coincidence and had to post about it. Some of you will recall a Keen Kutter that was brought to me beat to death and I eventually cut it into a smaller axe. When I got it the handle had been cut off but it was obviously octagonal.

keenkutter_original by city_ofthe_south, on Flickr

It is not obvious in this picture, but there were large chips of steel gone in multiple places and even a crack/split in the eye. Well at that time I had not gone fully into my handle obsession and I didn't wonder what had happened to the rest of the handle. Today I talked to the previous owner of that axe and asked if there was any chance the rest of the handle was still laying somewhere. He didn't seem to think so. I explained to him that the handle was quite possibly very old and a great survivor for a pattern. Apparently he also began to get interested, ran home, found it and just handed it to me. Not only was it octagonal, but also has a knob end - I had no expectation of this, I just wanted to see what the swell on an octagonal handle looked like when they were made correctly. It is absolutely beautiful in my eyes. I promise pictures will happen when I get home today. I am really excited to be able to see how an octagonal handle would have been made and sculpted, as well as a knob end in person. I'm actually kind of stupid excited about it to be honest.
 
Too bad he cut the handle, it looks like it could have been saved.

P.S. I agree on the 3rd Walters, it's one of my favorites.
 
SC T100 said:
Sounds like a nice way to trace up a pattern for a brand spankin' new handle.
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When my rough handles arrive, this is the first thing I'm gonna make if I can. I contacted HH to tell them to leave the wood on the bottom if I wasn't too late to ask for it.

halfaxe said:
Too bad he cut the handle, it looks like it could have been saved.

P.S. I agree on the 3rd Walters, it's one of my favorites.
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It's fairly rough, I'm just glad to have it for a pattern at least.

First item of note is that the swell is not symmetrical but it is still 1-3/4 inches wide so I can't tell if a small chunk was sheared off at some point in its life, or was never there. If it was sheared off then the swell would have been nearly 2 inches wide!!! but let's be honest, that's awesome. Beyond that, the flats are virtually flawless - perfectly centered and it is nearly exactly 3/4 wide and 1-1/4 deep. Very springy. Even though it's cut, if I lay it on a table and press down I can still feel it flex. The flats blend so smoothly into the swell end that they are difficult to see in pictures but I tried to get some sunlight on it so you could make them out.

knobend_kk_handle by city_ofthe_south, on Flickr

knobend_kk_swell by city_ofthe_south, on Flickr

knobend_kk_swellthickness by city_ofthe_south, on Flickr

knobend_kk_dimensions by city_ofthe_south, on Flickr

knobend_kk_octagonal by city_ofthe_south, on Flickr

This last shot captures the hard line of the flats and how they fade into the swell end.
 
Sweet! For sure the swell was wider and then one side chipped off. That flat spot runs with the grain and it doesn't make sense to me to be so asymmetrical with such solid craftsmanship throughout the rest of the handle.
 
Awesome handle all around...too bad the PO cut it. But I, for one, am excited to see the new one!
 
Here's hoping that it happens soon because I am having a really hard time waiting and receiving the rest of this old handle isn't helping with my patience. It is a shame about this handle and the whole axe for that matter. I am sure I will never come across another handle like it. My goal is to hopefully collect other unique or interesting patterns and attempt to replicate them. Yesterday I also discovered that there is a Keen Kutter building in Wichita just an hour south of where I live. I'd like to go check it out - apparently it is now a historical site with lots of KK history.
 
Here's a knob end handle I'm working on. It's for a light full size Walters. I'm making it from a hickory stave that Quinton gave me. The stave can only be described as perfect. Straight grained white hickory, air dried, optimal grain alignment, ~11 growth rings per inch with a predominance of late wood vs. early wood.

Stave%200.jpg

Knob%201.jpg

Knob%202.jpg

Knob%203.jpg


At this point I consider it a handle blank. When I'm finished I'll start a thread and show my process.
 
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Square_peg said:
Here's a knob end handle I'm working on. It's for a light full size Walters. I'm making it from a hickory stave that Quinton gave me. The stave can only be described as perfect. Straight grained white hickory, air dried, optimal grain alignment, ~11 growth rings per inch with a predominance of late wood vs. early wood.

Stave%200.jpg

Knob%201.jpg

Knob%202.jpg

Knob%203.jpg


At this point I consider it a handle blank. When I'm finished I'll start a thread and show my process.
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Why is it I get enthused about someone making an axe handle from wood sent from someone else?

Very much look forward to seeing what you come up with Square_peg. :thumbsup:
 
Square_peg said:
Here's a knob end handle I'm working on. It's for a light full size Walters. I'm making it from a hickory stave that Quinton gave me. The stave can only be described as perfect. Straight grained white hickory, air dried, optimal grain alignment, ~11 growth rings per inch with a predominance of late wood vs. early wood.

Stave%200.jpg

Knob%201.jpg

Knob%202.jpg

Knob%203.jpg


At this point I consider it a handle blank. When I'm finished I'll start a thread and show my process.
Click to expand...
Looking good, Square_peg!
 
Funny. I have been buying my handles from House. They leave a pretty big hunk of wood on the end of their 28" boys axe handles and I have been sculpting that into a knob about the size of, well, a bit bigger than a golf ball on the hafts for the boys axes that I have re-hafted. It fits comfortably in my closed hand. It kind of acts like your shoulder joint - I find it very comfortable to use. If I was smart enough, I would post some pics.
 
I recognize those from my steel fabrication days, black and decker wildcat, a very heavy grinder that would not give up easily. Unimaginable amount of boxes of grinding disks they would eat up.
Edit to add... This made me remember something funny, osha would announce when they would show up for a visit and when we knew they were coming we would put the guards back on the grinders and the guards were brand new because we never used them, the grinders were beat to hell and with the new guards on them well you just had to laugh
 
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