Handle width and height dimensions?

H

HollyBoni

Joined
Jan 2, 2019
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Hi! New here. :)

I started using axes this fall so I barely have any experience. I bought a big splitting maul which works fine. But I wanted something a bit smaller for kindling etc. and just because. :)
I've had two heads laying around the house so I restored them and made handles for them.

The heads weigh around 1.3 and 1.5 pounds, and the handles are around 13 and 15 inches long.

My problem is that the handles just don't feel right in my hand. When i'm holding the axe with one hand, after a bunch of small swings it feels like the handle is digging into my hand. The two handles are very similarly shaped, but I barely notice this digging in on the lighter axe. When I have both hands on the handles they feel great.
For the shaping of the edges I did most of the work just by hand with a piece of sandpaper. I tried to make the handle a nice oval shape with smooth transitions.
On the bigger axe the handle is about 0.9" wide and 1.5" high.

Since my only experience is with my splitting which has a fat round handle i'm just not sure what's going on. Is this normal and I just need to toughen up a bit or did I screw something up with the handle? Could you guys share a few handle width and height measurements on similar sized axes so I can get a ballpark idea? I know the shape of the edge is probably super important, I just want a rough idea.
 
397A7731-CC85-4651-9327-A336C64BA8A6.jpeg What does your handle look like?
Sorry for the crappy lighting-
here are a few of my favorite smaller shorter handles.
I almost never use them but they are very comfortable. I use rough sandpaper to get the feel right, then smooth them up with finer grits, then a torch to add character.
Hope this somehow helps.
 
Here they are:
xGOEXA8.jpg
 
Yours look nice, is it the sharper edges digging into your grip? I think for me I would round off the edges on your taller one a little, then test it, refine it until it feels “right” to you.
Nice work.
 
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I happen to have hatchets of those weights. my 1.5lb hatchet handle is 15" total and 1 3/8" deep x 7/8" thick in the area you would hold your hand and has no swell - its the original handle from the 40s.



my 1.3 lb hatchet is on a newer house handle - 14" total. and the narrow part before the swell is 1 1/8" deep x 7/8" thick, and then the swell is 1 1/2" x 1 3/16"
 
I think it's the edges, but i'm not sure. It feels like a smooth transition and I already tried to sand it down 2 times after the "initial" sanding. At this point i'm afraid i'm going to take off too much material and end up with a handle that's too small.
I think I should have left the handle wider initially and then rounded the edges more.

Thanks for the measurements FLINT77, they are very similar to mine.
 
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HollyBoni said:
Here they are:
xGOEXA8.jpg
Click to expand...
Here are some hatchets with with what I consider comfortable handles. Notice that they also have a tendency to curve more closed or towards the bit at the fawns foot or grip? Some more than others. A couple have a little bit of an up swing right at the end but it is of no consequence as it is past my grip so doesn't dig in.

I would make them a little more closed and see if that would help. You are probably a little to narrow or flat sided for what I would do which may not be helping you.
 
HollyBoni said:
I think I should have left the handle wider initially and then rounded the edges more.
Click to expand...

I think that's right. Wider especially at the swell (grip). We can't really see that dimension in the photos but it looks like they might be thin.
 
Thanks guys, very helpful.

In the meantime I found another tiny hatchet around the house that i'm pretty sure has a stock handle (that someone hung upside down:)). Even though it's much smaller in terms of height than my handles, it's a tiny bit more wider, so it's more rounded. It feels better in my hand for sure.

I don't want to take off any more material from my current handles but I would feel bad to scrap them. I would also like to make the swell at the end wider, more rounded, I just didn't have wide enough material to start with.
I guess that gives me a reason to buy a few more heads and make handles for them. :D It's fun for sure.
 
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Be careful. I accepted a double bit head 5+ years ago and now I have around 50 axes.
 
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