Iltis - Ox Head

Kootaga13 said:
Good evening Garry, the inside eye of the head at the bottom measures almost exactly 2 5/16 at it's longest point.
She measures 3/4 at the widest point across.
As far as length, I'm not 100% sure. I'm thinking 28 to 32" You all might know better than than me. I'm 6'2" and I have long arms. It's actually a curse because I always have to buy my shirts in a tall size or the sleeve lenght makes me look like Jethro Bodine. :( Shucks yall.
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That is a full size eye. Despite the stated dimensions being about what the American axes are I suspect the taper of your axes eye will be over sized. I was hoping for the smaller size and then you would have more options. Not sure there will be an easy solution on that one...
 
garry3 said:
That is a full size eye. Despite the stated dimensions being about what the American axes are I suspect the taper of your axes eye will be over sized. I was hoping for the smaller size and then you would have more options. Not sure there will be an easy solution on that one...
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Thank you Garry. That figures that I'd have an oddball or one that'd be difficult. Welcome to the story of my life.
Thank you for giving it a go.
I guess if all else fails, I do have a hickory tree outback?
 
Kootaga13 said:
Thank you Garry. That figures that I'd have an oddball or one that'd be difficult. Welcome to the story of my life.
Thank you for giving it a go.
I guess if all else fails, I do have a hickory tree outback?
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Take it into your local hardware store and see how it matches up. It does look fat though.
 
garry3 said:
Take it into your local hardware store and see how it matches up. It does look fat though.
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You know Garry, That's an excellent idea. I've sharpened a pencil and traced thru the eye onto an index card and placed it in my wallet. Now where ever I'm at, and they have hafts,, I'm prepared.
 
Does anybody/company sell dried, hickory slabs, ready for me to attempt to carve (butcher) into a haft for this head?
 
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Kootaga13 said:
Does anybody/company sell dried, hickory slabs, ready for me to attempt to carve (butcher) into a haft for this head?
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I know it doesn't compare to riven and air-dried hickory but we have a Woodcrafters that sells dimensional lumber. I've had good luck with it to make handles for tools/axes. The Hickory and Ash were decent enough to use.
The largest pieces cost about $75 but if you can squeeze 5-6 handles that out of them then I guess it gets closer to affordable for handle shapes that you just can't buy retail or at least easily online.

For example:
 
Perhaps quinton will chime in regarding possible availability of a billet or stave. Otherwise keep poking around in hardware stores for a handle. As Agent_H suggests you might check out your local lumber supplier. This won't be a big box store but rather a specialty store (usually with a milling operation out back) for hobbyists, cabinet and furniture makers. In my neck of the woods (Ottawa, Ontario) enticing-looking 2 x 3 'shorts' (bargain bin, anything under 4 feet) show up regularly in Birch, Beech, Ash, Cherry, Maple, Walnut, Elm and Red or White Oak. Finding a piece with straight grain and decent grain orientation is a different story but invoking such a quest will give you the perfect excuse to start visiting the place on a regular basis. My spirits have always been lifted by the scent of fresh dressed lumber.
 
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Photo from cityofthesouth showing the hickory billets he got from House:

cityofthesouth said:
Now things are getting interesting. 4 billets from House. Grain looks good - I can't see any run-out upon close inspection. Looks like one of them is heart wood.

hickory_billets by city_ofthe_south, on Flickr
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cityofthesouth said:
...You too can get boards from House. Hickory is HEAVY - shipping sucks, but the final result is still less $ than a finished handle. However, they have altered the website a little so that the special requests are actually chosen during your order rather than in the comments (and that was a good idea). The negative of it is, it seems they don't bother to read the comments. You'll just have to e-mail them and request the billets.
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