Spent the afternoon cutting Oak

David Martin said:
Ok this is the haft I put on in July 'this year'. I may have split a little more that 12 rounds with it. Today splitting the round it's laying on it bit the dust. I have not over struck with it. So much for giving it special mounting treatment. It lasted less than 5 months use. Close to normal for my Emory oak. DM
View attachment 1462056
Click to expand...
What a bummer.
Have you yet tried shaping a haft so that it's not much thicker than the bottom of the eye? I wonder if having a thinner helve would give it some flex where yours are breaking.
I know a lot of people leave it quite thick at the shoulder.
I always knock this down and thin it so I can more easily shape the tongue for extra contact up inside the bottom of the eye.
Plus a haft is only as strong as it's thinnest portion. And if it varies in thickness this will make or exacerbate a weak spot.
Just an idea!
 
Josh, that is the manner I hung it.
Square, that maybe what I have to do. Plus these 6 rounds were not cured. So, I will allow them more curing time. The wood I have is hard & tough and no ax handle can take the pounding. Other than my metal handle and it doesn't have the weight to get the job done. So, saw cuts, wedges & a sledge will be the order of the day.
If I just cut juniper, spruce or pine, all my ax handles would last and there would be no problem. DM
 
Last edited:
David Martin said:
Plus these 6 rounds were not cured. So, I will allow them more curing time.
Click to expand...
I'm glad to see for you also the handle is an expendable and replaceable element. How much evil gets perpetrated on the Axe in the effort to avoid this recognition. I'm just wondering what this curing you mention entails. Why cured makes better splitting vs fresh.
 
David Martin said:
Josh, that is the manner I hung it.
Square, that maybe what I have to do. Plus these 6 rounds were not cured. So, I will allow them more curing time. The wood I have is hard & tough and no ax handle can take the pounding. Other than my metal handle and it doesn't have the weight to get the job done. So, saw cuts, wedges & a sledge will be the order of the day.
If I just cut juniper, spruce or pine, all my ax handles would last and there would be no problem. DM
Click to expand...
David how long is the bottom of the eye on your council axe there? Exactly 2-1/2"?
I'd like to find you a piece of hop hornbeam. If you break that, you'll be breaking a record I think! Both of the woodsmen that I know and respect the most swear by hop hornbeam as the toughest wood they've ever come across for an axe handle. And won't go into the woods with anything else.
I think your Emory oak would be the perfect chance to see how tough it really is!
If that's something you'd like to try, I'll undertake the task of trying to find you a piece. Might be that 32" is the longest I can find though. And I'd need to know that bottom measurement so I can make sure it'll have a large enough tongue. Just let me know! It'll take me awhile to find it. They don't grow large or straight very often.
 
Yankee Josh said:
David how long is the bottom of the eye on your council axe there? Exactly 2-1/2"?
I'd like to find you a piece of hop hornbeam. If you break that, you'll be breaking a record I think! Both of the woodsmen that I know and respect the most swear by hop hornbeam as the toughest wood they've ever come across for an axe handle. And won't go into the woods with anything else.
I think your Emory oak would be the perfect chance to see how tough it really is!
If that's something you'd like to try, I'll undertake the task of trying to find you a piece. Might be that 32" is the longest I can find though. And I'd need to know that bottom measurement so I can make sure it'll have a large enough tongue. Just let me know! It'll take me awhile to find it. They don't grow large or straight very often.
Click to expand...
This seems like a sensible proposition - axe handle wood choice determined by the conditions of its use rather than the dogma of one choice fits all.
 
Ernest DuBois said:
I'm glad to see for you also the handle is an expendable and replaceable element. How much evil gets perpetrated on the Axe in the effort to avoid this recognition. I'm just wondering what this curing you mention entails. Why cured makes better splitting vs fresh.
Click to expand...
Ernest, when splitting Emory oak, (a round prior to the photo & the rounds on Monday) the non cured wood. At hits the axe will bounce off for the first 8 strikes. 4 on one side, roll it around and 4 on the other side. Until I can get A crack developed. Then it starts sticking. Whereas 5-6 mos. of curing the ax will stick on the first strike. Oaks cut in E. TX. the ax sticks on the first strike. Once you get it out a wedge can be driven and it doesn't bounce out. DM
 
Yankee Josh said:
David how long is the bottom of the eye on your council axe there? Exactly 2-1/2"?
I'd like to find you a piece of hop hornbeam. If you break that, you'll be breaking a record I think! Both of the woodsmen that I know and respect the most swear by hop hornbeam as the toughest wood they've ever come across for an axe handle. And won't go into the woods with anything else.
I think your Emory oak would be the perfect chance to see how tough it really is!
If that's something you'd like to try, I'll undertake the task of trying to find you a piece. Might be that 32" is the longest I can find though. And I'd need to know that bottom measurement so I can make sure it'll have a large enough tongue. Just let me know! It'll take me awhile to find it. They don't grow large or straight very often.
Click to expand...
Josh, this ax head top to bottom at the eye is 3 5/8". The eye width is 2 3/8" at top.
To me any haft costing over 40$ then mount and slam it around is getting pricey. My axes are working tools. Not for hanging on a wall. Just stating the truth. DM
 
Last edited:
Oak - a very broad concept, so, that which I'm familiar with as well, does work better after resting for at least a year, here in the damp climate. But the old timers knew it too and made it their practice after felling to cover the endgrain with manure to restrict moisture loss that would cause checking then lay the fallen stems somewhere in the shadows until the next season when the wood could be worked far better.
 
David Martin said:
Ernest, when splitting Emory oak, (a round prior to the photo & the rounds on Monday) the non cured wood. At hits the axe will bounce off for the first 8 strikes. 4 on one side, roll it around and 4 on the other side. Until I can get A crack developed. Then it starts sticking. Whereas 5-6 mos. of curing the ax will stick on the first strike. Oaks cut in E. TX. the ax sticks on the first strike. Once you get it out a wedge can be driven and it doesn't bounce out. DM
Click to expand...

I strongly suggest you switch to using a few very sharp wedges. Set them with a single jack. Then drive wth a sledge. A good sharp wedge (especially one slightly concaved at the tip) will stick on the first blow. No wasted blows that bounce off.
 
David Martin said:
Ernest, when splitting Emory oak, (a round prior to the photo & the rounds on Monday) the non cured wood. At hits the axe will bounce off for the first 8 strikes. 4 on one side, roll it around and 4 on the other side. Until I can get A crack developed. Then it starts sticking. Whereas 5-6 mos. of curing the ax will stick on the first strike. Oaks cut in E. TX. the ax sticks on the first strike. Once you get it out a wedge can be driven and it doesn't bounce out. DM
Click to expand...

I strongly suggest you switch to using a few very sharp wedges. Set them with a single jack. Then drive wth a sledge. A good sharp wedge (especially one slightly concaved at the tip) will stick on the first blow. No wasted blows that bounce off.
 
I envision this Emory oak - always helpful to have specifics - grown in a desert environment, exceptionally dense and likely with gnarled, twisted fibers since solitary oaks tend to grow outwards as much as upwards, not to mention it seems David is working crown wood, will have its own particular resistances. While wedge splitting has a place, seasoning/curing (curiously vague terms in and of themselves) oak is a guaranteed universal remedy. On top of this, setting the wood aside for a season prior to processing entails no amount of extra work than could be expected with this sort of wood but to the contrary, a reduction.
 
Ok, I have been going at it with a sharp wedge, set convex. Which does just bounce off. Still, I'll let it cure before the next try. Thanks, DM
 
David Martin said:
Ok this is the haft I put on in July 'this year'. I may have split a little more that 12 rounds with it. Today splitting the round it's laying on it bit the dust. I have not over struck with it. So much for giving it special mounting treatment. It lasted less than 5 months use. Close to normal for my Emory oak. DM
View attachment 1462056
Click to expand...
a trick to have more firewood! well done!:D
 
I have a logger friend that was tired of breaking faller axe handles and so he had a wood shop custom make him laminated wood handles of the profile he wanted. He says the handles are so strong they have run over them by mistake with the skidder and they have not broken. Basically this ended the concern of breaking handles in the middle of day of logging.
 
David Martin said:
Josh, this ax head top to bottom at the eye is 3 5/8". The eye width is 2 3/8" at top.
To me any haft costing over 40$ then mount and slam it around is getting pricey. My axes are working tools. Not for hanging on a wall. Just stating the truth. DM
Click to expand...
Sorry David, I meant the length of the eye, front to back. I consider the other measurement the height. Lol. Should be 2-1/2" but it may be a little over. I just wanted to know because I like having the eye full. Figured you do too. And if all I can get is a 32" can you still split with that?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top