You can't beat a nice piece of Hickory

Nick jarvis

Nick jarvis

Joined
Mar 28, 2002
Messages
111
Anyone out there got any good advice on looking after / prolonging the life of axe handles ?.I would normaly just rub the handle down with a fine grit sand paper and sometimes oil it with some boiled linseed oil. Does anyone use grip tape on their axe ?.
Nick
 
easy one to do: get a 1/4" drill bit and drill. take the foot of the handle point up,mark center .Drill 3 to 4" deep fill with linseed oil,cap it with a dowel about 1" cut flush.Should be good for one year,depending on the climate.Have done this with all my wood handled tool's and rifle stock's some for 34 year's have'nt had to replace any yet :)
 
I doubt that grip tape would do much for you except raise
blisters. You want an ax handle to slide through your hands
in a controled fashion. As to keeping the handle fresh and long
lasting just keep it dry and clean out of the sun. NEVER put
your tools away soiled.
 
The idea of drilling a hole and loading it up with oil sounds spot on.I remeber the first real Cricket bat I owned had a hole drilled in it and you felt it standing in a little linseed oil over the football season.Thanks for that one I'll get the drill out now.
 
Your welcome Nick. You should also rub it down with linseed oil once in while to give it a nice patina:). akabu
 
I picked this up in one of the other Forums, I forgot where, so to give them credit.But it work's .Get a section of pipeing cap one end fill with a 50/50 of linseed oil and keroscene. Insert wood in, let sit for day or two. This is perfect for cane's and tool handle's that are too narrow for the drill and cap. When you remove the item wipe off excess and let it hang for awhile so the kero. evaporate's
 
That sounds good too akabu. Over the extended Jubilee bank holiday just gone I went to a country fair / Viking re-enactment day. I got talking to a guy who was making furniture and walking sticks etc, only using hand tools and hand powered tools. He was using pipe like that to heat lengths of wood until they became flexible, then he could either straighten them or bend them. He had some of the coolest old tools I have ever seen.
Nick
 
Sad man that I am, I just had to search the web for the Pale Rider scripts.

It's (thwack, thwack, wallop, bang, splash etc) "Nothing like a good piece of hickory!" Great sequence.
 
That true, but some of the Dirty Harry lines are cooler...The one about the meat cleaver and a hard on.
 
I know a spoon maker who soaks his spoons overnight in a mixture of heated olive oil and beeswax - don't overheat or could catch fire. Should work for axe handles... for something less tasty though do what Alberta Ed says about the Watco and Tung oils, they really are the way to go , just give an oiling twice a year to keep them happy. ;)
 
Thanks for that guy's I will check to see if I can get those oils in the UK.....Having said all of that I had to buy a new hammer today, and after a touch of world Cup madness I went for one with a fiberglass handle WOW.....How good are they ?, But do they last ?.
 
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