to rehandle or not to...? other options?

[rjdankert]

Sorry, I replied to this but it never posted. There was a kerf cut, but no actual wedge in the handle. The epoxy was about 1/16th of an inch thick around the inside of the entire eye and was the top 1/5 of the eye was fully epoxy on top of the handle. When the handle was removed the epoxy stayed with the handle except for a few small bits.

Thanks, that helps a lot

 

[300Six]

Sorry, I replied to this but it never posted. There was a kerf cut, but no actual wedge in the handle. The epoxy was about 1/16th of an inch thick around the inside of the entire eye and was the top 1/5 of the eye was fully epoxy on top of the handle. When the handle was removed the epoxy stayed with the handle except for a few small bits.

Delightful re-haft prospect for anyone used to pounding out handles from eyes the old fashioned way. I guess some 'Yumpin Yiminey Yahnee' supervisor at the time figured pouring on the 'space-age epoxy' to an undersize handle was easier/faster/cheaper than doing things the old way. Takes a long time for some people to realize that wood is not dead and that it continually 'moves' with the weather.

 

[wdmn]

Used a hammer and a small scrap of hardwood placed alternately on the poll and beard of the head to knock it off the handle:

As mentioned by ablenumbersix, the top 1/5 of the eye is epoxy. By hammering on the head I broke the bond between the handle and the epoxy:

The epoxy remained inside of the eye, but in one piece (there was some on the tongue of the handle, but not much):

It was easy to knock the epoxy out of the top of the eye using a bolt as a drift:

Dropped the shoulder extending the tongue. Sanded and oiled the handle. Sharpened the bit. Cut a kerf (as ablenumbersix mentioned there was no kerf and no wedge, just epoxy). Rehanged the head using chair lock on the inside of the kerf and the wedge.

Sharpening is getting better with practice, but maybe you'll notice that the heel and toe of the bit are more acute than the centre of the blade. This despite my efforts to do the opposite. Not sure why this happened.

Hope this proves useful for others wanting to rehang a similar model.

wdmn

 

[rjdankert]

Hope this proves useful for others wanting to rehang a similar model.

wdmn

Useful indeed! Thanks for posting (esp the pictures).

 

[300Six]

I can't say I'm impressed with the 'epoxy job'. You'd think it was used as a convenient filler rather than as an adhesive. Nice for you that the handle came out intact and that there was enough wood shoulder left to set back the head a little bit.

 

[Square_peg]

Impressive effort! Really textbook. Thanks for sharing this.

Sharpening is getting better with practice, but maybe you'll notice that the heel and toe of the bit are more acute than the centre of the blade. This despite my efforts to do the opposite. Not sure why this happened.

You have to make a very conscious effort to keep the heel and toe thicker. Try filing them first and then staying away from them. Or file them last. It takes some practice. You lose a small amount of cutting efficiency in exchange for durability. You could fore go this on a dedicated feller or racing axe. But it's best to do it for a typical work axe that will face hard knots and other uncertainties.

 

[300Six]

I don't know what happened to my private message inbox wdmn but not only have incoming messages disappeared but private reply doesn't seem to be available to me at the moment either. Obtaining new handles of any decent quality has been entirely dismal in my neck of the woods during the past 20 years. Co-incidence enough just late last fall I came across a very nice selection of locally-made (?) handles at a Home Hardware store on Hwy 8 on the east side of Cambridge, which if you visited Welland-Vale recently, is not a million miles away from you. St Jacobs is the s. Ontario parent location for all Home Hardware stores and they may well be the source of these. The more common handles Home Hardware stores carry are made by Garant but they're varnished and painted and milled from 7/8" material, flat-sided at the shoulder and butt, and for well over a decade haven't appealed to me at all.
Needless to say my brother-in-law's worn, cracked and weathered old splitting axe suddenly sprouted a beautiful new handle on Christmas day.

 

[wdmn]

Thank you Square_peg; I took your advice on another head and had more success.

Thank you 300six. I'll keep visiting home hardware stores then and maybe I'll come across something.