Removing an Axe Handle in the Woods

[rg598]

Back in March I did a post about making a replacement handle for an axe in the woods. You can see the post here. Inevitably, the question was brought up about how to remove a broken off handle if part of it is still securely attached to the head. The method I recommended was to use an amber to burn out the wood in the eye, just like you would a spoon. Unfortunately, this is a time consuming method. An easier approach was recommended, where the head of the axe is placed in a fire and the handle burnt out. I was skeptical about this approach because if the axe head is overheated, the temper of the blade can be ruined. I figured however that I would give it a try, and see if it works. I followed the approach outlined by Kephart in Camping and Woodcraft.

I started out with an old Colling hatchet. The head was securely attached to the handle.

I buried the head of the hatchet up to the eye in the soil.

I then built a fire on top of it. The fire was large enough to cover the head. The wood used was oak. I continued the burn for 15 minutes.

I then pulled the head out of the fire. The handle had burnt off, but surprisingly, the head appeared untouched by the fire in the areas that were buried.

I used a piece of split wood that I had left from making the fire, and with the help of a baton, I pushed the handle through the eye from the bottom. As you can see, the area on top of the eye was not too charred, ut the bottom part had been burnt much more severely. To punch out the part of the handle in the eye, just prop one end of the head on the ground, and the other end on a log. That should create enough free space under the eye for you to push it out.

With very little effort, the head of the axe was free from the handle.

I was shocked by how little the head was effected by the fire. Most of it retained its original paint, and even the rust appeared to be untouched. While the head got hot, it never even came close to being hot enough for the temper to be effected. Even the poll of the axe, which was directly exposed to the flame, never got red hot. Despite my scepticism, this appears to be a very effective way to remove an axe handle while in the woods.

Ross
http://woodtrekker.blogspot.com/

 

[Operator1975]

burned that head with the paper collins label still on it - couldn't find any other head to use huh? LOL

 

[Steve Tall]

Good to know.
Did you soak the soil around the head with water first before making the fire?

 

[bigtoof]

to bury blade part of axe head in nice trick. Heard before that removing handle by just putting axe in fire can affect the hardness...

 

[barry54]

Burying the head did protect the blade and edge. I am thinking the heat would still soften and weaken the eye which is partially hardened.

 

[killa_concept]

Great work as always Ross! Though I was one of the people who originally seemed critical about the technicalities of "re-handling" vs "field fitting" and elaborated on the pros/cons of burning out the handle, I've never actually tried putting it to practice myself. That said, I'm really glad to see you taking such incentive to test these sort of things out and post the results to better educate the community.

My one question is if you perhaps tried filing the bit beforehand so you might be able to better judge the comparative hardness if you did another file test now? While the bit certainly looks very intact, drawing the temper of a bit doesn't always leave noticeable marks... Would very much love it if you did test it with a file and reported back on how you feel the bit hardness held up!

to bury blade part of axe head in nice trick. Heard before that removing handle by just putting axe in fire can affect the hardness...

I sort of went into more detail in the original thread regarding the subject found here (ross' link didn't seem to be working so I thought I'd link to it).

My point was that while the burning-out method wouldn't be optimal due to potential temper loss, the idea was based around having to replace the handle in the woods or in a survival situation. In such a scenario, you could:
A) expend a large number of calories trying to pound the handle out (which anyone who has attempted the task without the aid of a drill or saw will attest is bloody near impossible)
or
B) Do what Ross illustrated here, potentially soften the steel - but still have a STEEL axehead ready to re-handle with a very minimal amount of energy expended to get it there. If you ask me, that beats not having a useable axe or having to improvise one out of stone

Burying the head did protect the blade and edge. I am thinking the heat would still soften and weaken the eye which is partially hardened.

Actually, the eye is almost never hardened - it's almost always left soft and tough to better dampen the impact of the bit. Even with very, very soft steel eyes deformation of the eye is quite unlikely without abusive usage of the poll. Remember that prior to steel being widely available, axes were made of iron (much softer and malleable than steel) with high-carbon steel bits being welded into place.

 

[rg598]

I didn't wet the soil around it, but it was kind of damp.

As far as the poll, killa_concept is right. It is usually not hardened to begin with, so this shouldn't effect it in any way. It is supposed to be soft.

With respect to the bit, from what I understand, you have to heat the head quite a bit to change the temper. The way they used to judge how hard it was goint to be was by the change in colors from red to blue when it was heated. Here it just got warm, but nowhere even close to being that hot. As you can see, even the paint was not touched. In fact, part of the label is still on.

It is very hard to judge small changes is temper with a file. I can tell the difference between hard and soft, but that's about it. I did the same thing with a Northern Tool hatchet as well, because I know where the temper line is on it. After putting it in venegar, the line was in the same place. I don't know if there was a change in the overall temper. It was hard to notice just by filing.

 

[Blue Sky]

I highly doubt that a 15 minute stick fire would heat the head enough to ruin the temper in the bit, especially buried in a great heat sink like damp earth. As noted already, any temperature that high would have burnt the paint off long before, and clearly that didn't happen. Bury that head in hot coals for a while however, and things might be different.

Thanks for the test, I'd heard of that trick before but had never seen it done. Too bad a nice Collins hickory handle had to take a hit though, it looked like it had some nice grain to it.