Remove an axe head and reuse the handle

Great tip Steve. I'll give it a try on the next axe I find with a loose head. Thanks

Regards

Robin

 

Fantastic how-to!:thumbup:

 

thanks for sharing

 

Handy. Similar trick has saved me a boatload of handles.

 

I have done that also. Side tip, if you have a metal wedge in there, you can take a small small drill bit and drill beside the metal wedge, just enough to properly fit a pair of needle nose firmly around that wedge. This will let you "work" it a little more. This seems to work ok, unless for some reason you really need the wedge.

Thanks Steve for this, it was informative and usefull. I do a hybrid of this to "save" and handle, can't wait to try your approach.

 

Good info thanks for posting

 

Thanks for the review, just put one in an order. I received the smaller Swiss surplus axe in the mail a few weeks ago and have been letting a buddy use it as he learns basic bushcrafting. Have been having never-ending camera issues but will do a review on that guy. Heck I might just order the big one and do a review of them both.

I have a 1KG Wetterlings head on a 26 inch handle, and a brand new 32 inch handle and an empty .85 kg wetterlings head. Ideally I'll try to remove the 26 inch handle without damaging it, and switch the heads-that's the next axe project, hopefully will get done before the Arvika double bit that I won on ebay last night gets here

 

I agree....Great tip thanks for posting info !
And nice axe !

 

I know this is an old thread Steve but, thanks!
I used this tutorial this afternoon to save and remove an old (possibly) original haft from a nice TT 'Flint Edge' Kelly Works DB 2^2 cruiser.
I guess I should have taken some pics.

 

this thread should be a sticky.

excellent explanation of the process.

buzz

 

I missed this the first time - good information. I was luckily able to drift out a couple of handles without damaging them- would have tried this if I saw it.
Thanks

 

The one I did had two little hatchet wedges in it, but I was able to chisel around them and get them out with my vise and a jerk or two.

Another thing that may me helpful for someone here;
After I removed the wedges, I discovered that the wooden wedge had been beaten down into the kerf too far for me to get out without cutting more of the handle eye off. So I just sawed thru the kerf, cutting thru the wooden wedge and all was good with my little world

 

Bump with a question. I've successfully removed two of the little spade-shaped metal wedges from this loose haft, but they've left a not insubstantial void in the helve after being removed. They're small/short wedges (only 1" deep) in a head that's almost 4" deep, so not very large. Does anyone have recommendations as to a technique to properly fill that left over space when re-wedging? I'm going to use a much larger wood wedge for the fore/aft wedge, but the side-to-side spaces I'm worried about filling properly.

 

How much shoulder do you have left on the haft? Can you reset the head low enough that you could cut off some of the gaps left by the steel wedges? Another option is to cut those steel wedge gaps all the way through the haft and then fill them with wood wedges. Then your main wood wedge would have to be installed in 2 or 3 pieces. Like this:

 

That's a very good idea, Steve.

 

That's what I did with this hatchet. It has a nice old octagon handle I wanted to save so I removed it and glued pieces in the side spaces and then used a main wedge like usual.

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Nice looking job.