- Joined
- Mar 31, 2018
- Messages
- 1,874
Excellent! Good to know! I've always used bondo at work on trim I can't replace/ duplicate easily. I knew I didn't want to use that on an axe handle! I'll look up sculp wood now so I don't forget.
Axe handle making, modifications, repair and more
- Thread starter Maine20
- Start date
- Joined
- Dec 17, 2018
- Messages
- 1,192
Yeah! By System Three. It is ideal for irreplaceable architectural features. (Catch it when it’s half dry with a rasp and carving knives.)Excellent! Good to know! I've always used bondo at work on trim I can't replace/ duplicate easily. I knew I didn't want to use that on an axe handle! I'll look up sculp wood now so I don't forget.
- Joined
- Jul 31, 2017
- Messages
- 1,356
What about filling the hole with 1 1/2 inch long thin hickory shavings mixed with wood glue. Patch it up, sprinkle with hickory sawdust, wrap it with shrink wrap and use some kind tourniquet device to add additional pressure before drying. I have seen bunch of heavily chipped from overstrikes handles and some of them had no sign of any crack developing further down, so it might survive first few wacks
To be safe, use it on wall hanger
Last edited:
- Joined
- Feb 1, 2012
- Messages
- 13,727
Before I rehung an axe on this handle I thought I would try a melt-in repair for overstrike damage and misc gouges. This was really just to get in some practice with the Mohawk touch up kit before an important and technical repair to a piece of built in furniture at work.
But I was fairly pleased with the results considering that I was just kinda messing around with it to see what I could do...
Super hard waxy sticks.
Melted in, preferable without a flame but you know. Then I put burn balm on the surrounding wood and use the curved tip iron here to smooth it in. (The steel wool is for cleaning the iron.)
Then sanded of course, and used a variety of graining liquid and graining pens to fake-in some grain.
That’s about it. For a furniture repair I would clear coat it with finish and maybe use graining liquid to blend in the light areas. But for this I will use black antiquing wax to help obscure the repair and return some of the color of the pitch I sanded off of the handles shoulder. After wiping off the excess I rubbed the whole thing with vintage axe wax.
This whole process took less than an hour.(more like 30 minutes actually)
“If your only tool is a hammer...” right?
That's a great looking repair. Back in my carpenter days I used those kits to repair doors and frames, mostly in high rise office buildings. It has no structural value but it makes blemishes disappear. We would spray lacquer over the repair.
Allan,it's very easy.
(apologies to all you guys for interrupting a great woodworking conversation,just a quick word on metal).
I'd presume that the handle-part of a knife made of file would be ground bright.(if not,a quick grind of even the surface of file-tips would suffice).
You can place it in a vice,gripping it in the ricasso area.(knives generally are fully annealed from ricasso down).
Starting at pommel end you start playing the flame of a propane torch along a couple inch length of material.
As seen on the bright,(shiny) surface,you'll see Oxidation Colors appear.The more gradual the heat ing,the wider the bands of individual colors will be.
It'll start with faint yellow-golden and will progress through browns and purples to eventually lighter and lighter blues,finally fading to Gray.
Color Gray and beyond it will mean that any pre-existing heat-treatment is now gone.
Continue up the tang till you reach the vice jaws holding the object.Their mass should act as a mass enough to dissipate the residual heat and give you a reasonably gradual transition between hardened and non-hardened zones.
(if you look close you'll see that the tang of any file has undergone this exact process,you'll see that remaining color-band there at ricasso).
This will not qualify as a real,by-the-book Anneal,which involves heating And cooling at a very certain rate;the above is commonly known as Floor Annealing(heat it and throw it down in the corner of a shop to cool).
But it'll give you plenty of leeway for machining with common grade tools,in oh,96% of cases of file steel.
To test,pick at any portion of annealed area with a sharp outer corner of another file.Try to dig it in,maybe scratch it deeply.if it'll bite,you can now drill and tap easily.
If it still feels hard and the corner of a file doesn't bite in,repeat the above,but get it as hot as you can,and at the end stick the annealed tang into some insulating substance,such as ashes or vermiculite,and allow to cool more gradually.
"Spot annealing" is the same,but when you just use the tip of the flame to anneal a small circular area.However,unless needed for a specific purpose,the tang of any implement is commonly annealed throughout it's entire length.
- Joined
- Apr 20, 2017
- Messages
- 1,000
Hey Jake, while we're on a metal aside, question: Somehow an old gouge of mine would up in my fire pit. It has to have endured at least 20 hours of fire. It's got the magenta rust and that glazed look to it. As I said it's old, only a partial stamp of "cast steel" remaining. You think after that long in a fire there's enough carbon left to re heat treat it?
Fmont,yes.
Carbon out-migration is very slow,and would happen mostly at Very high temperatures.
(your typical decarb thickness after prolonged forging is only several thou.)
The outside of the tool would have a thickish layer of oxide scale,that'd have to come off,but underneath,once it's shiny,there'll be perfectly hardenable steel.
Scrub it bright,normalise and re-HT,no problem.
(normalization takes care of the grain-enlargement that takes place during prolonged heating).
Carbon out-migration is very slow,and would happen mostly at Very high temperatures.
(your typical decarb thickness after prolonged forging is only several thou.)
The outside of the tool would have a thickish layer of oxide scale,that'd have to come off,but underneath,once it's shiny,there'll be perfectly hardenable steel.
Scrub it bright,normalise and re-HT,no problem.
(normalization takes care of the grain-enlargement that takes place during prolonged heating).
- Joined
- Mar 31, 2018
- Messages
- 1,874
Man that is sweeeeet! Another one to be proud of Fmont! I like your unconventional swell. I bet it feels really nice in the swing.
Where did you get your inspiration for the "lipped" swell?
- Joined
- Jun 15, 2019
- Messages
- 282
Thanks!!!
the motor died in my big 10" grinder, and while it was unbolted from the bench to work on it, some criter bumped it and it fell off the bench and the 10" Aluminum oxide wheel that was on it did not survive the impact with the floor. So, I'm not working on grinding any files ATM, but after labor day I should have the money for a new grinder right this moment I'm more sweating the $500 insurance deductible on my Homeowners insurance for the well pump that died in last night's thunderstorm.
(it isn't the $300 for the pump, or the $150 misc to install it, but the fact that it's fact that it is at the bottom of a 300ft hole with 290ft of water filled 1" pipe attached to it!:O
Fortunately my computer and Both TV's are on separate UPS's to prevent their untimely deaths, and saving aggravation while waiting (typically 10-15min) for their separate Cable-Boxes to reboot with each minute power interruption.
- Joined
- Apr 20, 2017
- Messages
- 1,000
Thanks!!
It's something I've wanted to do for awhile. The idea stemmed from this old handle pattern that came on a Plumb Michigan I got years ago. I wanted to do something that was also very wide based that felt as locked in as the aforementioned haft. I thought about various implements designed to lock in the hand like the above. And it dawned on me a baseball bat type knob should be freaking fantastic. So it's essentially an ovoid, beefy baseball bat knob.
I see these old, unique hafts and I hope I'm carrying on a tradition of others who have carved to their own preference. Or I'm nuts. Maybe both. There's absolutely nothing wrong with a fawnsfoot or the like, but I figure if I'm going to spend the time I should make it my own.
I'm not mass producing for a market. So it doesn't really matter if someone else doesn't like it, and ease of reproduction or efficiency of material usage aren't issues. It's ergonomic innovation on a personal level, as I see it.
But honestly it makes very little difference. You can hold on to a straight shaft with no knob with relative ease. Any type of swell helps. And the rest is just personal preference and flourishes.
It's something I've wanted to do for awhile. The idea stemmed from this old handle pattern that came on a Plumb Michigan I got years ago. I wanted to do something that was also very wide based that felt as locked in as the aforementioned haft. I thought about various implements designed to lock in the hand like the above. And it dawned on me a baseball bat type knob should be freaking fantastic. So it's essentially an ovoid, beefy baseball bat knob.
I see these old, unique hafts and I hope I'm carrying on a tradition of others who have carved to their own preference. Or I'm nuts. Maybe both. There's absolutely nothing wrong with a fawnsfoot or the like, but I figure if I'm going to spend the time I should make it my own.
I'm not mass producing for a market. So it doesn't really matter if someone else doesn't like it, and ease of reproduction or efficiency of material usage aren't issues. It's ergonomic innovation on a personal level, as I see it.
But honestly it makes very little difference. You can hold on to a straight shaft with no knob with relative ease. Any type of swell helps. And the rest is just personal preference and flourishes.
- Joined
- Sep 4, 2018
- Messages
- 163
Handle finishes – I get that every user is going to have their preference(s) as to the best setup, but I’m curious as to why I still see handles finished in ways that seem to fly in the face of common-sense? E.g. – slippery surfaces tend to produce blisters, yet there are painted handles? Or partially painted? Are these just aesthetic touches, or is there function in there somewhere?
Also, most folks here seem to treat with BLO, Tung Oil etc., how do these hold up against wear on a working tool?
Also, most folks here seem to treat with BLO, Tung Oil etc., how do these hold up against wear on a working tool?
- Joined
- Aug 21, 2013
- Messages
- 3,898
Maybe as a personal aesthetic choice, marking the tools for easy spotting outside, restoring to original colors (if they came that way), designating certain tools to certain owners/crews/or uses?
- Joined
- Apr 20, 2017
- Messages
- 1,000
I am not aware of a surface that won't cause blisters. And I wouldn't call an oil finish or painted finish slippery. Oil finishes have been used to finish wood and wood tool handles forever. I mean they had vegetable oils at Çatalhöyük, for one, and I'd wager they used it on wood in addition to nutrition.
With all sorts of implements people use with the potential or propensity to cause blisters people tend to have a preference. Take canoe and kayak paddles, for example. Some people swear by no finish (on shaft or grip), other people swear by varnish, and others by an oil finish. No one group seems to suffer from more or less blisters. It's simply a consequence of repetitive usage.
As metal tools they're not exposed to the elements for extended periods of time with no attention. So it's not like brightwork or whatnot. If the wood seems like it's getting dry you just apply more finish, it's quick and easy.
Personally I hate poly varnish and wear gloves as often as is practicable.
With all sorts of implements people use with the potential or propensity to cause blisters people tend to have a preference. Take canoe and kayak paddles, for example. Some people swear by no finish (on shaft or grip), other people swear by varnish, and others by an oil finish. No one group seems to suffer from more or less blisters. It's simply a consequence of repetitive usage.
As metal tools they're not exposed to the elements for extended periods of time with no attention. So it's not like brightwork or whatnot. If the wood seems like it's getting dry you just apply more finish, it's quick and easy.
Personally I hate poly varnish and wear gloves as often as is practicable.
- Joined
- Sep 4, 2018
- Messages
- 163
Slippery was in reference to painted or stained (like the paddle example you provided), vs. the less "coated" feeling of oiled (BLO etc.).
What about the use of wraps for grip (tape, cord, etc.)? And functional advantage to these or is another aesthetic choice?
- Joined
- Jul 19, 2014
- Messages
- 144
I think any surface can cause blisters, so a more “slippery” finish isn’t going to make a big difference here. A bigger issue with too little friction would be the increased chance of the tool departing your hands. My solution is to always wear gloves.
As far as paint goes, I have one axe that I painted part of the handle because two other friends have the same axe and it helps us to tell them apart. Using that axe I honestly can’t feel much of a difference between the painted and unpainted portions. I also volunteer with an organization that paints tool handles to make them easier to not misplace in the woods.
Oils that soak into the handle should hold up very well with use—better than a finish that is only applied to the surface. Paint, for instance, wears off with use and needs to be reapplied. Surface penetrating oils, though, exist below the surface so that scuffing and scratches don’t reduce efficacy. That said, no matter how well treated the handle or head of a tool, abuse will drastically shorten life. I always clean and dry my knives and axes after use to make sure rust and rot cannot take hold.
- Joined
- Jul 19, 2014
- Messages
- 144
I use a cloth athletic tape wrap on my Becker handles because the material is crazy slippery and they WILL fly away during use if I don’t. I don’t think I’d use the same sorts of things on a tool handle where it is intentional that my hands slide from one spot to another.
- Joined
- Jul 19, 2014
- Messages
- 144
This is totally stunning work!