Stacked handle help

[Stockfish]

Hey everyone! I’m in the process of making my first full tang tomahawk with a veg tan leather stacked handle. I was thinking about heating up the leather washers in a pot with melted beeswax and literally just baking/saturating the washers in beeswax, then stacking the handle and clamping it tight. Would this be a good idea for a permanent assembly without using epoxy or glue

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

Stacked handles are held on with a washer or pommel and either peening the tang over as a rivet or threading it and using a nut. Glue or epoxy are not typically used for holding it together.

 

[Stockfish]

Stacked handles are held on with a washer or pommel and either peening the tang over as a rivet or threading it and using a nut. Glue or epoxy are not typically used for holding it together.

Oh ok thanks for the info! All the videos I’ve seen on YouTube are of guys stacking epoxy between each washer. That’s not a route I want to go since all of my washers will be cut uniformly with a laser cutter prior to stacking. I want to minimize the amount of “hand work” on each axe since I plan on selling them. I’d rather have it as automated as possible

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

Oh ok thanks for the info! All the videos I’ve seen on YouTube are of guys stacking epoxy between each washer. That’s not a route I want to go since all of my washers will be cut uniformly with a laser cutter prior to stacking. I want to minimize the amount of “hand work” on each axe since I plan on selling them. I’d rather have it as automated as possible

Oh that's bizarre. Most historical stacked leather handles are held firm by the shape of the tang in the leather itself plus compression from the riveting or nut. No adhesive needed at all.

 

[bikerector]

I've also seen a lot of them use adhesive between the layers, on knives at least. But, pressure is usually how they're kept on the knife.

I don't overall like your idea though, if it were me. Having to deal with hot was and stacking and pressing that all together sounds like a big mess.

I will admit that I've experimented with hot glue and stacked leather as a way of pre-fabbing leather handles as I was trying to work out a manufacturing process. The leather holds together quite well, but getting it to look good is a problem and then shaping them afterwards was terrible as the glue immediately filled up grinder belts. I found ways around using a grinder, like a rasp and hand carving the handles, but that completely defeated the purpose.

I suspect you may find similar with beeswax, shaping the handle later may be problematic.

The only sure way to know though is to try it. During R&D phases, I'm generally a big proponent of just do a dirty run and see what happens and determine if it's feasible to continue down that path or if it's a complete bust, as long as the time and money investment isn't too great.

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

I can say that grinding belts work great on un-glued leather. I've occasionally received a Rinaldi billhook that had a minor flaw in how it was sanded down, leaving a lip between the washers. A quick zip on the belt sander smoothed it right out.