Need help! First hang

1215 said:
Didn't know where else to put this. I've hung a Boy Scout hatchet and now having used it a bit I know places where I wish I had thinned more or less but I've never hung an axe.

Where can I go for ideas/patterns to shape handles/hafts? I have a 5# Collins axe that I'll try to match since it will be a restoration but I've bought/acquired several heads without handles. HH come big/thick. What do I do? Thanks.
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COTS inspired me to start thinning my handles down. His are works of art IMO. I would take a look at his thread for some inspiration.

I thin my handles down before I hang the axe head. Mostly I use rasps, a hatchet, my trusty Mora, a folding saw, and a palm sander. Most of the material comes off at the shoulder just under where the head sits, and the swell at the bottom. I also tend to remove from the front of the handle just above the swell up to the start of the curve, and from the back of the handle just beyond the curve to the shoulder. Once the head is fit I like to knock down the shoulder to a minimum so there is enough for the head to rest on but not more. I do this before the final sanding and driving the wedge. This helps to keep your handle from getting beat up when splitting wood.


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This is the boys axe handle from above, its a HH handle.

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The tools I use personally.

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This is a copy of the Penn Rail Road specifications for a handle that I redrew to make it easier to read. The original of this is floating around the forum/internet and I am not sure how old it is, but it's pretty old. At any rate it gives you some concrete dimensions to work from and modify to your tastes.

PRR_32axehandle by city_ofthe_south, on Flickr
 
Thanks COTS and Hacked. Without trying to derail this "first hang" thread into a handle style/design thread...

I grew up using axes and hatchets at home and in Boy Scouts but never paid attention to these things and I've never used anything other than a keyboard professionally. I'm having mixed/confusing thoughts about what and where to thin.

While I want beautiful and functional hafts, reality is I'm probably a mid-level (not expert) user at best. I drive a desk for a living and once the house/property is sorted I'll probably go weeks between swinging an axe, sometimes longer. Even today I feel rusty every time I pick it up again. I look forward to teaching my kids how to use an axe... and between now and then, others (usually her friend's husbands), who want to "give it a go" to see how hard it is to split wood, are probably equally or more hard on the hafts as kids will be.

Taking that into consideration, I'm confused as to design/pattern. I guess I could say the same about all the axes whether it be the 5# Collins (almost the weight of a splitting maul), the 3# plumb I plan to use 90% of the time, a boy's axe that I'd teach my kids with or a hatchet... Do I keep the shoulder and just below it a little fatter so that it can withstand overstrikes and abuse better? I love the feel & flow of how thin the Collins handle is (it seems really thin for a 5# head) and I like the look/profile so it would also seem perfect to me on a smaller head --but will a very thin haft (even with a wide/flared butt) risk a user letting the axe slip out of their hands?

I thinned the shoulder and mid section of the haft on my Boy Scout hatchet but left the section going into the base a little fatter. My logic was to try and concentrate the weight at the head while at the same time leaving the bottom of the haft a little fatter for better grip. After using it for a few weeks I wish I had thinned the whole length of the haft and flared the knob a bit. (I'll get to that someday)

Is there a balance in all of this or does this mean I have found a new hobby/addiction; and therefore I should buy more axes so that I can make some hafts for me, the way I like them and others however else I want? Or... Am I missing the bigger picture that if safety and handling is properly taught the profile of the haft should not matter. Also, I'm probably over-thinking this like crazy. While my degree is in something very different, I have studied and have an interest in lightweight composites with regards to engineering/structural engineering. As I'm thinning a haft I'm thinking about how much can I thin before it breaks under normal use/load vs. an extreme situation --and then statistically what is a good balance between a good looking haft that might break more frequently vs. a fat pig that will outlive me. Also, strike points --should I be taking into consideration the height of the average strike point? When splitting for the wood stove, the height of the stump I'm using as a base above ground level, plus the length of the wood --meaning as your hand slides down the haft if the average strike point is higher should I stop tapering the haft any higher so that it would be better for "choked up" two-handed use and act almost as an intermediary knob?

Thanks again for reading and putting up with my posts!
 
I do on occasion read about how some prefer a thicker handle because it somehow fits their hands better. This may very well be the case on a hatchet. For an axe, there is really only one place the user grips it that matters, and that is at the swell. A thin handle provides shock absorbing flexibility and the swell keeps it in hand. A thin handle also makes it easier for your dominant hand to slide as the tool is swung.

As for handle damage, well you've got over strikes which are going to be hard on the handle no matter what. You've also got a sort of scraping effect that can happen while splitting. Essentially you drive the axe into the wood, usually when it is larger in diameter than the length of the bit of your axe, and that wood doesn't come completely apart and the handle just below the head gets bit by the wood. This just happens, though if you strike toward the front of the piece, you don't risk the handle. I thin the shoulder to the width of the axe head or slightly smaller, this way the axe head, being wider than the handle, helps prevent damage. It's also how handles were historically made and I can only presume for the same reason.

It's actually kind of hard for me to believe anyone was making axe handles as precisely as the specifications above, but I suppose they did. I don't, and I think there is a level of personal preference involved in axe handles - after all, these specifications were made to someone's preference. So I'd say, yes, you will eventually want to make them to suit you. I will admit though, there is a good "feeling" handle. When I pick up odd shaped or sized handles they feel weird to me, including some of my own.
 
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