What did you rehang today?

Plumb boyscout just needed a new wedge
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it looks like you got the wedge out of that Plumb fairly easy. Seems like every time I do it mostly comes out as drill dust. I watched a buddy drill wood screws shallow into the wedge and put them in a vice and tapped the head with a dead blow and it worked really well. I think I’m going to try it the next time I need to. If the wedge is tight at least.
 
Brian Rust said:
it looks like you got the wedge out of that Plumb fairly easy. Seems like every time I do it mostly comes out as drill dust. I watched a buddy drill wood screws shallow into the wedge and put them in a vice and tapped the head with a dead blow and it worked really well. I think I’m going to try it the next time I need to. If the wedge is tight at least.
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Your friends method has worked for me at times. When it's worked it has worked well and clean
 
So after about 2 hours of thinning the handle down to my liking I hung this 4 pound double bit on it. I wish the swell would have been larger but it will do. I used a mixture of BLO and Danish oil. It gave it a little darker color. This is my first time to use the mixture so I’m not sure if it penetrates better or if it is just a color thing. But I will put four or five more coats on so I will find out. My thinking is if it penetrates better then it will take more coats. Am I thinking of this the right way? Thanks for looking!

 
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I used a walnut wedge in this one. I have an influx of walnut so I have been using it lately. I have seen the thoughts of softer wood making better wedges and I have heard people say you have to use hard wood. I think whatever you have available that is the best fit is what you should use!
 
Tras Krom said:
Honestly I never thought you can use poplar for wedges. Seriously. In this part of the word people mostly using ash, oak or beech..
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Two schools of thought on this.
'Yellow Poplar' is the commercial trade name for Liriodendron or 'Tulip Tree' (which is not a true Poplar) a large/tall common tree throughout southeastern North America which has traditionally been used by American industry for use as tool wedges. It is similarly soft as true Poplars and materials such as White Pine. It works easily, is relatively strong and readily compresses to fill voids. I can find no current explanation as to why this particular species became wedge 'material of choice' century-and-a-half ago but suspect it has something to do with remaining springy (ie seeking to expand back into it's original shape during compression).
Folks have argued on this forum and elsewhere that wedges harder than handle material can cause cracked or bulged eyes during commercial (namely hydraulic ram or other power driven) wedging and that that is why industry doesn't use tough hardwoods. Over the past 45 years I have always used whatever hard wood (usually scraps) is available and I've never damaged a head, but then again these wedges are driven in by hand. Hard wedges don't compress however so it's a lot more difficult to 'pleasingly' fill voids. These days for hobbyists a Walnut or Cherry wedge (softer than Hickory) makes for a visually appealing hang.
 
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I have cracked an eye during wedging. Happened on a True Temper broad hatchet. I blamed it on a bad heat treat - but just know that it CAN happen. A buddy welded it up and it's good as new. I took a little more care wedging it the second time.
 
Square_peg said:
I have cracked an eye during wedging. Happened on a True Temper broad hatchet. I blamed it on a bad heat treat - but just know that it CAN happen. A buddy welded it up and it's good as new. I took a little more care wedging it the second time.
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It might well be that thoroughly compressed 'Yellow Poplar' takes on the same density as an uncompressed hardwood such as oak, maple, beech but it is much more forgiving as well as gentle going in and probably breaks or fails before outward pressures become critical. The whole idea of testing for this theory intrigues me but I don't break nor heavily use axes very much these days.
Peg, you expertly and voluntarily service and maintain a 'platoon's worth' of heavy-use trail-clearing tools. Any chance as an experiment that you rehang a sample of these (Pulaskis?) with Poplar at the same time as wedging a similar number of others with Beech/Maple/Oak/Hickory-equivalents? As long as they're rotated to experience equal use within a year or so there ought to be some noticeable difference. Presumably in number of problems and/or 'worked-loose' heads that need tightening, or not.
 
300Six said:
Peg, you expertly and voluntarily service and maintain a 'platoon's worth' of heavy-use trail-clearing tools. Any chance as an experiment that you rehang a sample of these (Pulaskis?) with Poplar at the same time as wedging a similar number of others with Beech/Maple/Oak/Hickory-equivalents?
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That's a good idea. I'll have to mark them somehow, paint, notch, etc. Watch em for a couple years and look for a trend.
 
Square_peg said:
That's a good idea. I'll have to mark them somehow, paint, notch, etc. Watch em for a couple years and look for a trend.
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Perhaps tagging the eyes with some tiny brass tacks is a way of doing this, or a different colour of paint on the flat of the butt swell. I wish I lived nearby so I could get involved with something like this.
 
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2&1/4lbs
5" @ the bit
6&1/2" pole to bit
15&1/2" handle

I used three near equal size, probably poplar, wedge pieces and a fourth wedge piece, a hickory sliver from a splintered handle tucked in and down thru the small of the eye, tapping all of them in simultaneously.

Lightly sanded the handle.
Hung it and soaked the wedges overnight.
Gave it a few taps of persuasion today to be sure before trimming.

Stamped - H 2
 
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