Off set palm swell?

[PhilipWimberly]

I can't quite get a picture of this that represents how much the palm swell is offset. But it is very distinct and I've not seen this before. Since I only have a few years of dealing with vintage axes and handles, finding something new is not usually a big deal, but this characteristic seems so freaking useful, I'm really surprised it doesn't happen a LOT!
It is a short saddle axe handle (cruiser) and it is sitting with the tongue flat on the blank in the picture. The entire handle is perfectly straight until the swell -- and then a substantial offset that impacts the tool in really important ways.
At the very least, if a right hander swung it one-handed, the head would be parallel to the ground in a very ergonomically comfortable way. Much more than a "normal" handle. On a vertical swing, with my left hand on the swell and sliding my right hand with the strike, I get another new (different) ergonomically improved position. I've mimic'd several left-handed versions of swings and the orientations are very different, but possibly still improved for different swings. Not sure about that, though. My gut says righthand only.
It is so potentially useful, I have trouble believing it is rare? Is it? I suspect this makes the handle right or left handed - is this right? It impacts the usage so much, I've even thought it may not be an axe handle at all -- maybe a different tool? Does anyone know?

 

[LEGION 12]

I can't quite get a picture of this that represents how much the palm swell is offset. But it is very distinct and I've not seen this before. Since I only have a few years of dealing with vintage axes and handles, finding something new is not usually a big deal, but this characteristic seems so freaking useful, I'm really surprised it doesn't happen a LOT!
It is a short saddle axe handle (cruiser) and it is sitting with the tongue flat on the blank in the picture. The entire handle is perfectly straight until the swell -- and then a substantial offset that impacts the tool in really important ways.
At the very least, if a right hander swung it one-handed, the head would be parallel to the ground in a very ergonomically comfortable way. Much more than a "normal" handle. On a vertical swing, with my left hand on the swell and sliding my right hand with the strike, I get another new (different) ergonomically improved position. I've mimic'd several left-handed versions of swings and the orientations are very different, but possibly still improved for different swings. Not sure about that, though. My gut says righthand only.
It is so potentially useful, I have trouble believing it is rare? Is it? I suspect this makes the handle right or left handed - is this right? It impacts the usage so much, I've even thought it may not be an axe handle at all -- maybe a different tool? Does anyone know?

Like the one on the left ?

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

I can't quite get a picture of this that represents how much the palm swell is offset. But it is very distinct and I've not seen this before. Since I only have a few years of dealing with vintage axes and handles, finding something new is not usually a big deal, but this characteristic seems so freaking useful, I'm really surprised it doesn't happen a LOT!
It is a short saddle axe handle (cruiser) and it is sitting with the tongue flat on the blank in the picture. The entire handle is perfectly straight until the swell -- and then a substantial offset that impacts the tool in really important ways.
At the very least, if a right hander swung it one-handed, the head would be parallel to the ground in a very ergonomically comfortable way. Much more than a "normal" handle. On a vertical swing, with my left hand on the swell and sliding my right hand with the strike, I get another new (different) ergonomically improved position. I've mimic'd several left-handed versions of swings and the orientations are very different, but possibly still improved for different swings. Not sure about that, though. My gut says righthand only.
It is so potentially useful, I have trouble believing it is rare? Is it? I suspect this makes the handle right or left handed - is this right? It impacts the usage so much, I've even thought it may not be an axe handle at all -- maybe a different tool? Does anyone know?

So what you're saying is that the swell itself is at a twist relative to the rest of the haft? Like if you had an oval doorknob and instead of it being in its neutral position it was given a slight turn?

 

[PhilipWimberly]

Exactly correct and much better described, BTW

 

[PhilipWimberly]

Like the one on the left ?

No. I don't think so. 42B described it really well as an oval doorknob turned offset to the handle

 

[Hickory n steel]

This doesn't strike me as having been intentional and looking at how wavy the surface of the handle looks I'd guess it was probably a factory second.
I don't know how a twisted blank would slip through and make it to the copy lathe in the first place, but I guess anything can happen.

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

This doesn't strike me as having been intentional and looking at how wavy the surface of the handle looks I'd guess it was probably a factory second.
I don't know how a twisted blank would slip through and make it to the copy lathe in the first place, but I guess anything can happen.

Maybe not a fully dried piece of wood when it was lathed and it twisted as it dried?

 

[crbnSteeladdict]

Maybe not a fully dried piece of wood when it was lathed and it twisted as it dried?

Over the years i have found few single bit axes with twisted knobs. Wet staves rushed to production is the only logical explanation

 

[PhilipWimberly]

This doesn't strike me as having been intentional and looking at how wavy the surface of the handle looks I'd guess it was probably a factory second.
I don't know how a twisted blank would slip through and make it to the copy lathe in the first place, but I guess anything can happen.

If you held it, you'd at least bet it was on purpose. You can also see in the grain that this was intentional. And it is a perfectly straight handle. Man, I wish I could show you better pictures, but the truth is that I didn't realize it was even offset from looking. I realized it when it was in my hand. And the resulting orientations of the blade when a right hander holds it are so distinct, it's just hard to imagine a natural accident. I think I have my answer, though -- it is, at least a very rare thing to do on purpose (if it was). If HnS, 42B and CSAddict haven't seen it...it's an outlier!

 

[crbnSteeladdict]

If you held it, you'd at least bet it was on purpose. You can also see in the grain that this was intentional. And it is a perfectly straight handle. Man, I wish I could show you better pictures, but the truth is that I didn't realize it was even offset from looking. I realized it when it was in my hand. And the resulting orientations of the blade when a right hander holds it are so distinct, it's just hard to imagine a natural accident. I think I have my answer, though -- it is, at least a very rare thing to do on purpose (if it was). If HnS, 42B and CSAddict haven't seen it...it's an outlier!

Pick a grain line closest to one of the corners of the eye . Follow that grain with your finger (could use white chalk or masking tape ) to the other end. It will show you if the grain is straight or it twists over the length of the handle

 

[PhilipWimberly]

...and one more thought that may be helpful. It hits me as most similar to an offset hewing handle. A handle designed to orient the holder differently to the blade.

Pick a grain line closest to one of the corners of the eye . Follow that grain with your finger (could use white chalk or masking tape ) to the other end. It will show you if the grain is straight or it twists over the length of the handle

Another try at some more pics. Both the grain and the angle. See the runout on the palm swell? Both sides. Changing one thing I said before -- I said the handle was perfectly straight until the palm swell. I think maybe the "offset" starts slightly higher. Maybe. Less than 1/3 up from the swell. What I see is that the grain never twists. Straight through on one side and runout on the other. Is that what y'all see?

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

That is a pretty severe twist, huh? Another possibility beyond a wet blank twisting as it dried (there may have been internal stresses in the tree even with the straight grain that caused it to twist) is that it may have been jammed in a shed or the like with a bunch of other tools that put a twist in it over time sort of like the warp many handles get when leaned against a wall for many years. I think the former is more likely than the latter due to the nature of the twist but the possibility does exist!