Axe re-handle

[ed140580]

Hello, 

 

I have half a dozen axe heads that need re-handling. My usual man has retired and i'm struggling to find someone who can do this. Any advice, is it easy to do myself? 

Ed

West London

[woody paul]

Easy to do best tool to remove wood is grinder with flap wheel 

[Baldbloke]

Easy enough although care needs to be taken when reducing the new shaft to accept the head. Remove the old wood by cutting directly below the head, fitting the head in a vice and knocking the wood out from the newly cut side. I use a 4.5 “ hand grinder with 60 grit scurf pads to reduce the new shaft. A little at a time. I mark off the limit of seating on the new shaft so that the head is secure and I don’t grind away wood unnecessarily. Also finding wedges can be problematic although at a push hardwood wedges can suffice. Saving the old wedges is handier.

 

And the new shafts reduction should mean that reseating is hard as it should be a tight fit even before the wedge is finally thumped in[emoji1303]

[skc101fc]

Get a load of axe shafts of good quality and size, bringem into your house for a few weeks to really dry out. Meanwhile with an electric drill , drill lots of holes into the wood of the broken axe shafts around any wedges you see until they practically fall out or can be tugged out with pliers. Then drill similar holes through the remaining wood of the old shaft to break it into small pieces that chip out easily until you can clear out the old easily. Just driving out the complete old shaft never seems to work for me, things get tighter and more frustrating.

Place a new dry shaft into the axe head , it probably wont go in far at all, but will leave a dirty mark showing where wood needs to be removed. Use the flap wheel , a spokeshave or a drawknife for this but take of very little. Repeat several times till a full tight fit is achieved. Drive it home fully.

I then shape a hardwood wedge to fit down the full depth of the shaft, and cross this with the earlier recovered steel wedges. Now dump the whole lot in a bucket of water to swell the grain for several days and job should be a goodun.

Repeat for the other axe heads, whilst youve got the tools out and in your in the right mood. !

 

 

[woody paul]

Should of said when shaped to right size epoxy glue it in to take up any slack.

[se7enthdevil]

9 hours ago, ed140580 said:

Hello, 

 

I have half a dozen axe heads that need re-handling. My usual man has retired and i'm struggling to find someone who can do this. Any advice, is it easy to do myself? 

Ed

West London

when do you need them done?

 

i'll be looking for jobs to do after september and i'm only in windsor.

[skc101fc]

My explanation sounds like it takes a week to achieve, sorry, in fact longest slowest part of job is the careful shaving to fit, everything else a case of bish, bash, bosch(!) and all done in less than 20 minutes if you've got everything prepared. But personally I'd go with Lazarus and either let him at it or get an education. Always good to see another mans technique.

[neiln]

look up buckin' billy ray on you tube, and watch some of his videos.   Also steven edholm, aka skillcult, has excellent blogs on how to handle an axe.

 

DONT shoulder the haft, the head should go tight very slowly,  if it shoulders, it will come loose.

 

take your time.

 

 

[ed140580]

On 21/08/2018 at 19:59, se7enthdevil said:

when do you need them done?

 

i'll be looking for jobs to do after september and i'm only in windsor.

Hello, 

 

Thanks for your reply. Sorry for my slow one. And thanks to all the others for the responses.

 

I think i'm going to swerve doing it myself, i can see the heads all flying off on the second swing!!

 

End of sept sounds good. Could you DM me so we can discuss particulars?

 

All the best Ed