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- Aug 28, 2010
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Peter Vido taught me this way to remove (or tighten) an axe head. Maybe this info will be useful to some others.
This Swedish military "hand axe" had a good handle, but the head needed a little work, and I wanted to see how much the head actually weighed.
It's easier if the head is slightly loose and a couple good chops will raise it a little, say 1/16", exposing the tiny "shelf" that the head normally rests on. The idea is to lower this shelf by 1/4". Using a knife, I scored a line around the handle, 1/4" below the old shelf line, and carefully removed wood above the scored line, to match the dimensions of the eye.
I then put the axe head on the ground, with the metal supported by wood blocks, and tapped the bottom of the handle with a hammer until the head was seated on the new shelf. This resulted in the top of the handle extending out of the axe head by 1/4".
With a saw, the two sides of the handle are cut flush with the top of the head, while the wedge is left uncut.
I clamped the protruding wedge into a vise and yanked the axe straight up, and with some luck the wedge stayed in the vise.
In this case, there was no metal wedge, which makes the job easier. A similar approach can be used if there's a metal wedge, with some extra work with pliers, perhaps after modifying the protruding metal wedge with a hacksaw, to get a better grip.
Lowering the head a little bit, as shown, before pounding an existing wedge in some more, can also be a good way to tighten up a loose head.
Postscript:
The cleaned-up head back on the cleaned-up handle:
More info about this axe here.
This Swedish military "hand axe" had a good handle, but the head needed a little work, and I wanted to see how much the head actually weighed.

It's easier if the head is slightly loose and a couple good chops will raise it a little, say 1/16", exposing the tiny "shelf" that the head normally rests on. The idea is to lower this shelf by 1/4". Using a knife, I scored a line around the handle, 1/4" below the old shelf line, and carefully removed wood above the scored line, to match the dimensions of the eye.
I then put the axe head on the ground, with the metal supported by wood blocks, and tapped the bottom of the handle with a hammer until the head was seated on the new shelf. This resulted in the top of the handle extending out of the axe head by 1/4".
With a saw, the two sides of the handle are cut flush with the top of the head, while the wedge is left uncut.

I clamped the protruding wedge into a vise and yanked the axe straight up, and with some luck the wedge stayed in the vise.



In this case, there was no metal wedge, which makes the job easier. A similar approach can be used if there's a metal wedge, with some extra work with pliers, perhaps after modifying the protruding metal wedge with a hacksaw, to get a better grip.
Lowering the head a little bit, as shown, before pounding an existing wedge in some more, can also be a good way to tighten up a loose head.
Postscript:
The cleaned-up head back on the cleaned-up handle:


More info about this axe here.
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