What did you rehang today?

Tried my first cross wedge
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i rehung lot of axes, one had a plastic haft, wiggling so i crafted a sweetchestnut log . i broke the trade haft of the replacement one, so i Grabbed a piece of ash i carved to almost final stage and let to dry. i cut down an ugly birch handle i made for a smarter one in sweetchestnut still to fit, and on my free time i finish a 50cm/20inc ash haft for my Hudson bay.
 
My understanding is the reason you use a saw and cut the kerf is to prevent traveling of the split. Even if everything goes well with a split not sawed kerf, the moisture then dryness, shrink and swell, hot and cold will allow the split to travel. Unlike a cut, it has no bottom. Nice looking cross wedge though. I do not use them. But I find pleasing to the eye. And can see how they could be of use to fill a gap larger than the handle can.




Unless of course you mean you split the wedge with a chisel. In that case just ignore me.
 
Woodcraft said:
My understanding is the reason you use a saw and cut the kerf is to prevent traveling of the split. Even if everything goes well with a split not sawed kerf, the moisture then dryness, shrink and swell, hot and cold will allow the split to travel. Unlike a cut, it has no bottom. Nice looking cross wedge though. I do not use them. But I find pleasing to the eye. And can see how they could be of use to fill a gap larger than the handle can.




Unless of course you mean you split the wedge with a chisel. In that case just ignore me.
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I'm betting that is what he means. Drive the cross wedge, split it, then drive the main wedge through it. Kerf as normal.
 
Just a quick hang, Nothing special for a beater axe.

I found this one for $1 at a garage sale 5 years ago and have been working on it on and off since then. The handle is an old, broken mattock handle that I tried to shape a little, and I drove in a fatwood wedge to experiment. I'll finish up on the mushrooming later, it's really bad, and is going to take a while. There are a few cracks in the handle, but they aren't deep at all to be worried about. It really likes to stick in the wood, but thats ok, it's a beater axe, I don't expect much.



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First picture is a collage with the bottom half showing it as it was when bought. Top is after bringing the badly worn toe back to somewhere close to normal. The bit was also heavily pitted so it had to be done regardless. Took a lot of relaxing filing to reprofile and get it to 25 degrees. I love filing. Hung it on a NOS 17" handle. The head was heavier than I expected. After the reprofile it tipped the scales at 1 lb 2 Oz. I wasn't expecting the steel to be so hard. I started out with my coarse stone and cupped it out in no time so I switched over to a big 16" Heller file with a coarse cut and It pretty well ate that file by the time I was done. No telling how long it's been since this one bit some wood but she's gonna bite some rounds for the smoker tomorrow :thumbup:
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The hang is a little closer than I wanted but the old blacksmith formed eye proved to be difficult. It is thin and longer at the bottom then tapers at the top but she's still a useful little splitter from days gone by.
 
Almost done with this one. Just gotta' finish the last couple inches of fitting. The first offset handle I made for this head is fine, and I'll continue to use it as a beater handle, but it was a rough proof of concept and I had made the mistake of using the factory handle as the basis for the template when I was really able to put a slight bird's beak on the butt end. After I get it seated then I'll be cleaning up the lines and getting the shape of the gripped regions just right in the hands.

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And here's some crappy cell pics of a little 250g Sicilia pattern head (slip-fit eye) I'm rigging up as a shepherd's axe. I just have to buy a good spiked tip for it before I start working on the rectangle-to-round tapering of the shaft since I need to have the tip fit to know what I'm working towards.

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FortyTwoBlades said:
Almost done with this one. Just gotta' finish the last couple inches of fitting. The first offset handle I made for this head is fine, and I'll continue to use it as a beater handle, but it was a rough proof of concept and I had made the mistake of using the factory handle as the basis for the template when I was really able to put a slight bird's beak on the butt end. After I get it seated then I'll be cleaning up the lines and getting the shape of the gripped regions just right in the hands.

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Somehow I missed this post earlier. That's a lot of curve in a handle but it looks like you have the right piece of wood for it. I think it'll work and bring that axe into nice balance.
 
It's a nice piece of AA hickory with good grain alignment. It's going to be a very pleasant handle once I finish it out--I've just been too busy the past week or so to finish out those critical last few inches. :p
 
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