Removing broken handles..With fire?

O

olybears57

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Aug 25, 2013
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Hey guys.. I work on a trail crew, and we have some pulaskies to re hang. My boss wants to burn the remaining wood in the eye out in a fire.. How bad of an idea is this?
 
Perhaps they might lose the temper-
I usually cut the head off ,, drill 4-6 ,, 1/2 " holes (dont hit the steel wedge with the drill bit)
This should relieve the initial friction fit and knock the last bit out with a hammer. I cut/climbed trees for 15 years. Have done this in the field more than once.
More than one way to skin a cat .
 
Thanks guys. I also was worried about the temper, but wasn't sure if a campfire was going to be hot enough to effect it. I'll try to convince her to drill them out instead.
Thanks again
 
It's relatively easy to ruin the blade temper via tossing heads in the fire. Cut the handle off right behind the head and use a punch or dowel (and a rock or a hammer) to knock what's inside the eye out forwards. Defeats the wedge and negates eye taper every time.
 
As for the question, Should we use heat to burn out the wood, I would say NO. Even low heat over a long time can mess with the temper. That doesn't always mean it will ruin the bit of the pulaski, but your edge retention will be worse, so you'll need to sharpen more often, which leads to more maintenance and tools that wear out quicker.

Do exactly what 300six said: cut off the handle, pop the head in a vice, get something like a drift or piece of steel that fits in the eye, and beat the rest of the handle out. I've popped out pieces of handles that I didn't even bother to drill out, though drilling does make it easier.
 
By the way let us all try to be more careful about describing very specific fire and grubbing axes. The Forest Service originator/inventor's last name (100 years ago now) was Pulaski with a capital P. How his design supplanted mere axes, mattocks and grub hoes for forest fire work I don't know but "Pulaskis" really did prove to be wonderful.
I swear by the ones I have.
 
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I will second the above comments about drilling and drifting the old handle out but just to be thorough, here's Dan Beards take on it from the Book of Camp Lore and Woodcraft:





 
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Axes bits are usually tempered somewhere around 500°F, depending on the steel and the maker's process. Wood starts burning around 550° and ranges up to 1100°F or greater depending on how much oxygen the fire is getting. So you're looking at temperatures which definitely have the potential to ruin the temper of your tool.

Cut the wood off flush. Put the axe in a vise and drill as many holes through the remaining wood as you can. Then punch out what remains. A scrap of the old handle can be whittled into a nice punch.
 
I agree, wouldn't do this. You can generally remove even the most stubborn haft in 15-20min using the cut, drill, punch method. It seems like a lot more work and time to build up a fire and wait for the haft to burn out, plus you risk messing with the temper & the quality of the ax. Although I will say that before I do the cut, drill, punch I often leave an ax behind a radiator or next to the fireplace (warm dry air) for a couple days, I think it helps dry out the eye and loosens it a bit in some cases.
 
Drill baby, drill!

1-Drilling%20the%20eye.jpg
 
That burnout method is good to know if you are stuck way out in the wilderness, otherwise I think a drill is better.
 
I often leave the head in a low-heat (220F degrees) oven for a few hours. Especially during the humid spring/summer seasons. For sure this ensures that the inherent moisture in the wood will be boiled off, and that the steel temper will not be affected. Another thing to know is that warm metal is expanded more than cold. Every little bit helps but do wear oven mitts when you retrieve that head. They don't cool down in a hurry, don't ya know.
 
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