Round vs Octagonal

The look. I would say it is all personal preference. It is cheaper to produce an oval handle than an octagon. I really like the old handles that are octagon at the top but transition to an oval cross section at the bottom where the hands are.
 
paschall hammers require the unique octagon handle design. I was thinking about trying this as well with an axe head.
 
The octagon helps you to register the tools position and immediately sense any change (rotation). This gives you just a tiny bit more accuracy. It probably won't make any difference unless you're using a tool all day long or at least for extended periods. I prefer them on full size axes and pulaskis.
 
Square_peg said:
The octagon helps you to register the tools position and immediately sense any change (rotation). This gives you just a tiny bit more accuracy. It probably won't make any difference unless you're using a tool all day long or at least for extended periods. I prefer them on full size axes and pulaskis.
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This. I use my Pfeil 35mm #7 gouge every day, octagonal handles even on something so small make a huge difference. It's not a swinging tool, so you have no help from inertia in direction the tool's orientation.
 
Square_peg said:
The octagon helps you to register the tools position and immediately sense any change (rotation). This gives you just a tiny bit more accuracy. It probably won't make any difference unless you're using a tool all day long or at least for extended periods. I prefer them on full size axes and pulaskis.
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Never thought about it that way but you are right indeed.
 
For those that make an octagon handle from a regular round handle, what method/tools would you use? Draw knife? Would a belt sander be too much?
 
schmittie said:
For those that make an octagon handle from a regular round handle, what method/tools would you use? Draw knife? Would a belt sander be too much?
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A stationary belt sander works great, but a handheld would be worse than a drawknife IMO.
 
While whittling down an overly thick handle last summer it dawned on me that copy lathes (which spin wood billets up against circular saw blades) are best suited to produce cylindrical or oval-shaped products. On the other hand an octagon is easier to make when using hand tools and provides a firm and very positive grip. Likely as not machine-made/store-bought handles quickly turned public sentiment (starting in the mid to late 1800s) into believing that oval shapes (along with curved profiles) are superior.
Most of us bitterly grumble about overly thick store-bought handles these days but 'octagon-izing' them (drawknife, spokeshave, rasp, belt sander) is by far the simplest/fastest method for slimming one of these down.
 
300Six said:
While whittling down an overly thick handle last summer it dawned on me that copy lathes (which spin wood billets up against circular saw blades) are best suited to produce cylindrical or oval-shaped products. On the other hand an octagon is easier to make when using hand tools and provides a firm and very positive grip. Likely as not machine-made/store-bought handles quickly turned public sentiment (starting in the mid to late 1800s) into believing that oval shapes (along with curved profiles) are superior.
Most of us bitterly grumble about overly thick store-bought handles these days but 'octagon-izing' them (drawknife, spokeshave, rasp, belt sander) is by far the simplest/fastest method for slimming one of these down.
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Sure is, and that's what I do when I want to slim down a handle.
Btw I also like the feel of an octagonal handle, make a circle with your thumb and index finger and you'll see that you've actually made and octagon.
 
300Six said:
While whittling down an overly thick handle last summer it dawned on me that copy lathes (which spin wood billets up against circular saw blades) are best suited to produce cylindrical or oval-shaped products. On the other hand an octagon is easier to make when using hand tools and provides a firm and very positive grip. Likely as not machine-made/store-bought handles quickly turned public sentiment (starting in the mid to late 1800s) into believing that oval shapes (along with curved profiles) are superior.
Most of us bitterly grumble about overly thick store-bought handles these days but 'octagon-izing' them (drawknife, spokeshave, rasp, belt sander) is by far the simplest/fastest method for slimming one of these down.
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This is exactly how I arrived at a love of octagonal handles. You start thinning with lines you can easily visualize, which means profile from two angles. Then you take off the corners, then you realize that the handle is just right and making it any rounder is going backwards :)
 
Park Swan said:
This is exactly how I arrived at a love of octagonal handles. You start thinning with lines you can easily visualize, which means profile from two angles. Then you take off the corners, then you realize that the handle is just right and making it any rounder is going backwards :)
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You got it!. In preparation for 'smoothing-out' the corners I suddenly realized I'd already achieved what I wanted (reduce the weight and slim down the handle) and the grip was fantastic. That's when I started wondering why standard (store-bought) handles were always oval.
 
schmittie said:
For those that make an octagon handle from a regular round handle, what method/tools would you use? Draw knife? Would a belt sander be too much?
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If you want to use hand tools, a spoke shave and a good rasp would do nicely.

For power tools, a stationary belt sander is pretty nice for the job. I once made a jig to hold a regular hand belt sander as a horizontal bench sander, and it worked really well. These days I sometimes use a Rigid belt/spindle sander I got at Home Depot for shaping handles or improving the shape of factory handles.
 
schmittie said:
For those that make an octagon handle from a regular round handle, what method/tools would you use? Draw knife? Would a belt sander be too much?
Click to expand...

A drawknife is too much. You can't pick up the grain changes fast enough and end up tearing out the wood. A spoke shave is better and if you become 'tuned' to feel grain changes you can avoid catastrophic tear out.

Safer is removing bulk material with a coarse rasp followed by smoothing with a fine rasp. The best finish is made by the spoke shave but you can do quite well with a scraper (cabinet scraper, red devil, or even a piece of broken glass).
 
S Square_peg That's a good point, I have had the best success using a drawknife on thinning the handle profile specifically, but run into grain problems and switch to a rasp on corners and rounding.
 
Kevin Houtzager said:
For me its the stationary sander and just a plain old ferriers rasp/file (very coarse). Afterwards Filing the correct way removes a lot of material fast, filing the wrong way smoothens it out. After thats just sanding to about 400 grit.
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A woodworker other than a cabinet finisher or handrail carpenter would resort to 400 grit? That's a new one on me. 220 always struck me as standard fare for 'fine finish' guys and overly luxurious for others.
A mechanic buddy of mine innocently sanded down the Black Walnut truck armrests, that I specifically made for him, with 1000 grit. These no longer looked like unfinished wood nor behaved like it when he applied the stain and finish.
At some point you've really gotta say: "I'm done".
 
Depends on the wood and the specific piece, but for an axe handle I'm done at 120 if I even do that. That's my preference, if I were selling it it'd be higher finished because people don't always want what's best.
 
If the octagonal handle is made so it is even in cross section, as in all sides and angles the same length when looking at a 2d cross section, then I don't see how it will help much with feeling edge orientation.

An oval handle would be easy to tell which way the edge is by feel.
 
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