Old axe rehandling

[martineden]

Hi guys. A few days ago, doing some housekeeping, I have been found an old axe head which was from my grandfather, so I decided to try to restore it, using just handling tools: knife, axe, saw, a piece of sandpaper. For the handle I used a piece of Acacia, cutted out 12 months ago. Here the sequences of the job...hope you enjoy!

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il cuneo entrerà dall'alto nel manico, fino a circa metà altezza della testa...
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Finally:
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Ciao from Italy! Alfredo

 

[Dusty One]

Nice job I really like that head.............

 

[savageknives]

very cool head and handle. and i like your opinel too.

 

[Zog the Troll]

Nice work. I can appreciate the amount of effort that takes to do by hand as I am most of the way through shaping a walking stick/handle for my CS tomahawk. BTW, what model Opinel is that?

 

[markv]

my favorite subject.
-----making your own axe handles------

love th photos. you did a fine job

if memory serves, Acacia is a close cousin of Honey Locust.

in the Pea family, like soybeans,peas, Honey Locust, Mimosa, Black Locust, very significant plants world wide.

is some of the toughest wood on the planet. well defined grain. difficult to split in warm weather. splits a lot easier in winter.

you are using a branch which is almost all sap wood. this is o.k. sometimes you gotta use what you got.

larger parts of the trunk of the Acacia will yield some killer wood for all sorts of projects,especially axe handles..

i use sections of Honey Locust split into billets , air dried for severals years
excellent handle wood

buzz

hope this was helpful

 

[markv]

maybe the mods could make this a sticky and post the images in sequence

this is an excellent tutorial on hanging an axe.:thumbup:

MHO

 

[martineden]

Many thanks for you comments, guys!! I appreciate.
The head has the typical German geometry, the wheight of the head is 600 g, total weight of the axe is 1000 g, lenght 13". Anyway, I done a sort of monster, 'cause of the disproportional between large head and short handle, but my goal was a bushcraft axe, short enough to fill in my rucksack. Will see
Alfredo
PS: the Opinel saw is the lager model, n. 18.

 

[jds1]

Nice job. That is a great looking axe head.

Jeff

 

[cj65]

This is great stuff. I am getting ready to handle a couple of myself. I have some old oak wood that was park bench slats. I will post pics of what I do. Thanks. I could not open all of the pictures, but you answered many of my questions of the pictures you did post. Perfect timing.

 

[Bolt-action bultema]

I know the work it takes to do that, i love that there are individuals like us that don't just go buy a handle at the hardware store.

Great job, and i bet it is just what you wanted!