old Axe handles

D

dave9969

Joined
Jun 26, 2011
Messages
147
This has been a subject floating in the back of my mind for a while now.

When I get an old axe, it always seems to be loose or on a worn handle.
Like the rest of you, I just select a new bit of lumber and get to shaping it.
Is there anyway to recondition an old handle? Suppose its just loose,
would it be possible to remove the blade, and reshape the wood?

I just hate tossing history in the burn pile, and wonder if anybody has done any work
fixing old handles instead of just tossing them?
 
From time to time you can find an axe that will have enough wood left in the eye to allow for a good reuse. Most of the time however, people will use metal wedges and other things to secure the head improperly, and the only way to pull the head is to almost destroy the tongue of the haft. The only time I've been able to reuse a handle was when I just cut about 1.5" from the tongue and then re-wedged. It can be done, but not in all cases, which stinks because the old handles are excellent.

Look through the thread "What did you rehang today?" and you might find some examples of people reusing handles.

John
 
I have had good luck just dropping heads 1/4 to 3/8" on haft and rewedging.

I need to practice with Marine Tex or some such to fix the chips and splits in the butt of the haft.

I also need to do some reading on steaming to straighten hafts. I just got a very nice R King with haft that is bent in one direction and no twist so I would like to straighten it.

One member here recently found out that a dried out handle may split when rewedging. So if it seems overly dry, a good soak in linseed oil first may prevent splitting out when re mounting.

I like to reuse the lower half of old double bit hafts that are cracked in the tongue for carpenter hatchets or hammers.

Bill
 
Saturating with BLO can rejuvenate even badly weathered axe handles. I've been amazed by how much strength returns to old wood after brushing on 7-8 coats (or more) of BLO.

One of the other fellas here showed how he steams bent handles on the stove with a long pan covered with foil. I've since used this method several times to good effect.

Removing wedges as Steve Tall showed is the first step. And I also drop the heads down as Imalterna has suggested. Put it all together and you can save some hafts that seem too far gone.
 
There is always the option of using them for something else.
Cloud-Studio-Realaxes-2.jpg
 
yeah, would require a lot more axes than I currently have
but there are many days in a year! hadn't ever thought of
re-purposing like that I was stuck thinking axe handle!
 
I try to save as much of the handle as I can (assuming it just can't be reused), and I save those "discards" for use on smaller axes and hatchets later. I've been able to repurpose several mangled-up-top-but-otherwise-nice old handles that way.


-ben
 
Most difficult part is to remove the handle from the head! Often as not this cannot be accomplished without damaging or ruining the handle. Once out though you can rasp the shoulder down a little bit to seat the head further in (if necessary) and you can entirely re-new the wedge.
 
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