Skillcult (Steven Edholm)

I think the sharp shoulders, smooth transitions is just common knowledge around here.

The thing that he does not touch on is you can not make wood more flexible in one plane with out making it stiffer in the other. And what direction is the haft absorbing energy, transferring shock to the user and gets pried on when stuck? Why he seems to be fixated on side flex is beyond me when any ergonomic handle will naturally have more flex in that direction.
Just my two cents.
 
He is good at putting into words the things we know intuitively. I already knew all this i just hadn't tried to articulate it. But good on him for doing so. It is after all impossible to gain knowledge without talking things over. I watched his videos for a little bit in the past. But then again i used to watch wranglerstar too.
 
All, Bernie Weisgerber, Morse Kochanski, and Steven Edholm provide more than valuable service. However, all lectures or videos cannot describe the hand feel and the experience of holding in your hand early XX century axe with original handle. At the beginning I was lucky to run into an axe collector who from time to time had garage sales . I was there for 2 hours talking and grabbing all the axes he had. I realized I was drawn more to the shape of the vintage haft than the axe head itself. I knew at that moment what would be my ultimate axe to look for. Fast-forward many months, garage sales and I am happy owner of Forest Service True Temper 26-27 inch Boy's Axe.
If I can give unsolicited advice, it would be: Go to swap meet or find local collector with huge inventory and have some #AXEGRABBINGFUN :)
 
Last edited:
I think it’s good info, especially for those with little experience with axes, or tools in general. Yes, to a lot of us who are in to this stuff it may be intuitive, but I have heard several people look at a fat handle and think it’s great. They will say something like “this beefy handle will tough to break”.

A few years ago I came across a nice thin old handle and was afraid to use it thinking it would break. Then I realized I was totally wrong, now it’s one of my favorites to swing.
 
I really enjoy looking at the head and crafting exactly the haft I want. That's informed by history, experimenting, and personal preference. Some of the old scroll end hafts are just gorgeous woodworking, as well as a graceful unclipped fawns foot. Unless you roll your own there's not much to be had in that way.

I will also say this: There's a certain danger with being too dogmatic with these things. As a biologist I can tell you all too often lab predictions based on available quantified information do not bear out in the field. All the postulating in the world won't change overlooked, unknown, or unquantifiable variables that lend to these surprises. The real world is more plastic than many would give credence to.

An axe haft has to be strong enough, and the guidelines to that end are well known. Beyond that it's all about what feels good in hand. So videos like this, in my opinion, should be seriously understood as just "food for thought" rather than doctrine.
 
Fmont said:
An axe haft has to be strong enough, and the guidelines to that end are well known. Beyond that it's all about what feels good in hand. So videos like this, in my opinion, should be seriously understood as just "food for thought" rather than doctrine.
Click to expand...

Exactly what he said as well at one point in the video.
 
That's actually what prompted that comment. That he suggested a similar point, but still made a 15 minute long video about "the green reed which bends in the wind."

I like the guy. He's well spoken, smart, and generally find myself agreeing with him. And I don't want to call his caveats false humility, because they're not. But internet "authorities" are made this way, precisely because it's so easy to agree.

For example, look at the segment with the lateral view. He says something along the lines of thick necks being a bad design he sees on the market. But Oshenkompf (forgive the spelling) probably understands that an overstrike has a much more acute impact locus, so they bolster the area to prevent catastrophic failure. But I'd wager a good portion of his viewers will hear that and dismiss any such hang out of hand without full understanding. I'm not a fan of them either, but they're not without application.

That's all I'm talking about, just keeping aware of what we accept as dictum, from who, and why. It gets harder when you get into these very proximate ideas. Just the fact that it is so specific tends to lend to the idea of authority, even the parts that may be misguided.

Anyway, that's my opinion on the matter, and it's just an internet opinion!
 
Fmont said:
For example, look at the segment with the lateral view. He says something along the lines of thick necks being a bad design he sees on the market. But Oshenkompf (forgive the spelling) probably understands that an overstrike has a much more acute impact locus, so they bolster the area to prevent catastrophic failure. But I'd wager a good portion of his viewers will hear that and dismiss any such hang out of hand without full understanding. I'm not a fan of them either, but they're not without application.
Click to expand...
At the beginning he stated, he was only talking about American, relatively small eye, axes.
Last year I stopped by Stihl dealer (I believe Ochsenkopf is a supplier for some of Stihl branded axes). Because of big eye they are bulky and feel awkward when you slide the hand up and down during the chopping movement.
edit
I lied: I forgot to mention, that I really liked Pro Splitting Maul
 
Last edited:
crbnSteeladdict said:
...I realized I was drawn more to the shape of the vintage haft than the axe head itself...
Click to expand...

CrbnSteeladdict, I agree with your post so my intention of just using this portion is because I connected with it especially.

My reality is I have all the axes I could need but when I find myself buying axes for the handles, I don’t have regrets. There is a good-sized box of nice heads in the corner of my work area that have been carefully parted from their old and shapely handles.

Some of the handles are good to go with a worthy head attached, some need a little straightening, and some wait for the right one to present itself. Some are handmade deals that I dig for the creativity or workmanship that isn’t the norm today - and hasn’t been for a long time.

I’ve been a little more reserved in buying axes but many times the handles very much draw me in - even ones that need excisement of the edges of the swells or chips smoothed out to feel right.

Learning to make your own is a worthwhile endeavor/skill to have. It actually develops skills beyond just making a handle. Getting it wrong sometimes is how we learn and grow. Getting good advice can shorten the learning curve.

Sometimes we get things right and can’t explain why. Understanding what we get wrong is more important - I’ve made handles that didn’t stand use. I don’t post many of those here but each one taught me something about wood and the tools used to shape it.

There are a lot of venues to talk about axes, look at axes, and listen to “experts” about axes on the internet. There seems to be quite a bit of overlap of membership here and other sites/pages but this forum is different.

In this, I personally feel fortunate for all the practical knowledge we have in the guys who’ve chosen make this forum what it is.
 
crbnSteeladdict said:
At the beginning he stated, he was only talking about American, relatively small eye, axes.
Last year I stopped by Stihl dealer (I believe Ochsenkopf is a supplier for some of Stihl branded axes). Because of big eye they are bulky and feel awkward when you slide the hand up and down during the chopping movement.
edit
I lied: I forgot to mention, that I really liked Pro Splitting Maul
Click to expand...

I'm not a fan, either. Kind of like picking up a 2x4.
 
FortyTwoBlades said:
The good thing about chunky handles is they can be turned into thin handles. :)
Click to expand...
I agree with that. Its just almost automatic that handles will have to be thinned today. I hate it when they are thick everywhere but at the end to form a nice fawns foot though. I guess we are lucky the handles are not all made out of thin sawed stock. Just give me a nice chunky handle and I will make it my own.
 
I'd also like to add that I think that some major reasons behind the increase in thickness of handles over time comes down to a few things. One is that a thicker handle requires much less machining and the finishing can be done with less precision without mangling the piece, so all in all it's much less expensive to produce. From a strength factor I don't think that the line of thought is that making it thicker is to make it stronger by virtue of thickness, but rather to mitigate issues caused by runout. As a rule, you want at least one uninterrupted ring running end to end. Getting that in a thicker piece of wood is way easier than in a thin one. As such, the resulting handle may be more rigid (bad) but will have more continuous grain (good) even in handles that have grain alignment pretty far from the ideal.

And a simple way to look at thickness vs. flexibility is the simple fact that rigidity increases cubically with thickness, so a slight increase in thickness represents a large increase in strength, and vice versa. This is why tubes are such strong structures and allow for extremely high rigidity for low weight.

One of the reasons why hickory is a great wood for axe handles, but NOT a good choice for something like a scythe snath is that hickory is extremely strong and flexible...but also a heavy wood. Not an issue with axes because you want the handle to flex, and so it can be taken nice and thin, and the strength remains sufficient. But with snaths, you want them to be light and rigid instead. Ash proves to be a better choice in that circumstance, having enough strength still to withstand abuse by low-skill users, and the best snaths were made of black cherry, which was less resilient, but offered an even better rigidity to weight ratio. Tubular aluminum snaths are incredibly light and rigid, but if you made a tubular aluminum axe handle it'd be shock city.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top