I recall you stating that an axe could become magically balanced by giving it a closed hang and that's why an axe doesn't need a poll.
"You'll often hear internet experts go on and on about thus-and-such axe not having enough poll, etc. etc. when really
that could be accounted for either with a more closed hang or an offset in the neck."
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/s...th-American-trade-axe?p=14571461#post14571461
A closed hang can't balance an axe. An offset haft can. For a badly balanced axe like one without a poll the handle shape becomes freakish and difficult to achieve without runout except with a very special piece of wood.
Additional reading:
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/s...ight-in-the-poll-quot?p=16576858#post16576858
Finally you came to the realization that a freakish handle is needed to balance an unbalanced axe.
Then you went out and made one.
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/s...-axe?highlight=right+handle+for+poll+less+axe
Yeah...you're not understanding what I was getting at...
Actually, the more closed hang is to account for the presentation that's altered by the eye being rearward in the head. It's not unifying the handle along a single rotational axis, but rather correcting the presentation of the bit. Essentially, the bit has to be square with the radius of an arc stemming from the locus of pivot, so if you were to simply take a polled head with a proper set to the bit and then reproduce the same head only with the eye shifted rearward, you've effectively opened the bit presentation relative to the stroke. Hence altering the set of the bit to bring it back to square with the arc of the stroke. You can see some manipulations around that concept in this image.
If you left the bit presentation the same, an offset handle for that now-poll-less axe would need to have the fore end of the main handle length pivoted forward to unify its axle while preserving the bit presentation. By contrast, if you closed the presentation to account for the
possibility of using an off-axis straight handle, you'd be needing to pivot the butt end rearward instead. Practically, that's a trivial difference, but in one case you have the option of using a straight or offset handle while in the other a straight handle would have too open a presentation in use. An offset is the idealized form of handle for axes not balanced in the dead center of the eye, but those that aren't quite there are still totally usable so long as a suitable degree of mindfulness is applied in the technique used with the tool. The closer the handle is to having a unified axle, the less mindfulness or mental energy required in directing the technique of the stroke. A lack of offset does not render such a tool useless providing the bit orientation is proper, but a straight handle isn't the idealized form.
There's nothing "freakish" about a handle with an offset neck, and they're completely the norm for both adzes and adze-style heavy duty grubbing hoes, which get a lot of abuse. You don't need a very special piece of wood, just one with good continuous vertical grain alignment to avoid runout. Individual wood fibers are actually quite short, so the wood grain not bending to follow the neck isn't problematic in my experiences thus far. Some cursory research indicates that most hardwood species average a mere 1mm fiber length, with softwood species topping out around 7mm for redwoods. I have absolute confidence in the handle I made for that Trento pattern, and the wedged handle I did for the Italian racing axe. They both feel completely solid, with good elasticity and not a hint of complaint or strain under load.
I get that a lot of this jostles some folks because it casts some doubt on certain aspects of the "traditional" (really quite modern) lore or popular narrative of the reasoning behind polled axes, but it's very simple in practice. The fact that the handle I designed using
theory then balanced better than most American pattern axes
in practice should prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the principles function practically. This is not an argument for or against polls on axes, so let's not run down that silly rabbit hole again, but rather that an axe head is only half the equation and that the handle should be designed around the head in such a manner as to take the center of gravity into account. Not many, seemingly, are
actively making use of that principle and are instead gliding along on transcriptions of traditional patterns that are pretty close by happenstance (it's like a long game of "telephone") but still not ideal. It's part of the reason why I think it would be wise for handle manufacturers to produce a handle model where the neck region were left broad, so that an offset could be introduced as needed to perfectly align the individual head in question. At least some certain degree of offset is necessary in most axes if you want them to lay dead horizontal in open hands as the old sources would suggest.
randi, italian axe maker, professional type axe
