Some nice old axe handles

[gben]

Got this lot all from one estate. I thought the best part about it was the old handles on some of the axes because it is a lot harder to find them than old heads. One of the single-bits is an "Americanax" from Glassport, PA, the other is a Mann True American. The fireman's head had no marks and I gave it to my neighbor across the street who told me he wanted one. The broad-axe head looks good enough to go back into service. The best handle to me is the one that has no head, but all the SB handles are gems.

 

[Square_peg]

Gotta love a good vintage handle. They feel and swing awesome and the bad ones still make a good pattern.

 

[Woodcraft]

Finding a handle without what I consider a major defect or one I do not have to put "hard time" into to get it out into the field and use seems to be getting harder and harder. Finding a good vintage handle is a home run. Nice finds.

 

[Java_Dude]

Very fond of the old thin handles. They feel and flex great in the hand compared to today's thicker hafts. I bet if you could find a someone to make them like that I am sure people would pay a premium for them.

 

[Square_peg]

Very fond of the old thin handles. They feel and flex great in the hand compared to today's thicker hafts. I bet if you could find a someone to make them like that I am sure people would pay a premium for them.

I attempted to do that a couple years ago. I sent specs to a major handle maker and paid them to fabricate 2 prototypes. The prototypes were not close enough to the spec I sent to warrant a full order and they were unwilling to make corrections.

A minimum order would have been 10 dozen handles. I easily could have found buyers for those. But since the handles would have required re-working to be premium handles I dropped my efforts.

 

[Woodcraft]

I attempted to do that a couple years ago. I sent specs to a major handle maker and paid them to fabricate 2 prototypes. The prototypes were not close enough to the spec I sent to warrant a full order and they were unwilling to make corrections.

A minimum order would have been 10 dozen handles. I easily could have found buyers for those. But since the handles would have required re-working to be premium handles I dropped my efforts.

You know, this is a great idea. If you decide to try again I am on board. It would be well worth the cost I am sure.

 

[DarthTaco123]

I'd buy in for a dozen thin and curvy hafts.

 

[Old Axeman]

25 years ago, when old Mr Link was 92yrs old and still working every day, I had them go thru all their patterns. They had patterns that they had not produced in years, but they made up anything we wanted at the Forest Service. Some truly amazing hafts. Some place those patterns still exist. Somebody on this forum needs to find those patterns and we need to find someone who will reproduce them.

 

[G-pig]

Very fond of the old thin handles. They feel and flex great in the hand compared to today's thicker hafts. I bet if you could find a someone to make them like that I am sure people would pay a premium for them.

I hand carve axe handles and sold relatively few even at 25$ a piece, which was less than 6$ an hour for work that took me years to learn. I raised my prices to 50$, which still feels like too much work or me, and have only sold one since. Could just be that I am a terrible salesman, but when you factor in shipping, people aren't usually willing to pay. Restorations are similarly lethargic-- I tried to sell restored axes fit for use, filed well, and hung on a hand carved handle for 150$ and haven't sold any. I did sell a norlund, probably to a bushcraft person.

I'm not *too* stupid so I've moved on to other things to try to make cash with my wood working skills. Just thought it would be an interesting anecdote though.

 

[Agent_H]

I hand carve axe handles and sold relatively few even at 25$ a piece, which was less than 6$ an hour for work that took me years to learn. I raised my prices to 50$, which still feels like too much work or me, and have only sold one since. Could just be that I am a terrible salesman, but when you factor in shipping, people aren't usually willing to pay. Restorations are similarly lethargic-- I tried to sell restored axes fit for use, filed well, and hung on a hand carved handle for 150$ and haven't sold any. I did sell a norlund, probably to a bushcraft person.

I'm not *too* stupid so I've moved on to other things to try to make cash with my wood working skills. Just thought it would be an interesting anecdote though.

You're not stupid at all G-pig.

Your handles are worth what you are asking in my opinion. I would run any one of them you have made.
In fact, some of them you have shared here kind of sent me in the direction of carving them instead of relying on mass run commercial handles.

I do feel that you are correct when you mention the shipping factored in on top of perceived value of the handle itself.

Craftsmanship is demanded but not valued.

 

[Park Swan]

Interesting to hear both those perspectives Square_peg and G pig. I'd love to produce handles myself, but I don't see it becoming viable beyond a hobby. I have considered doing it myself through purchasing a copy lathe for the initial work. Maybe it's the sort of thing that would be worth crowdfunding? Then different types of handles and woods could be done in batches with enough interest...

 

[300Six]

I hand carve axe handles and sold relatively few even at 25$ a piece, which was less than 6$ an hour for work that took me years to learn. I raised my prices to 50$, which still feels like too much work or me, and have only sold one since.
I'm not *too* stupid so I've moved on to other things to try to make cash with my wood working skills. Just thought it would be an interesting anecdote though.

The only way to profitably (and affordably) make handles is via a copy lathe and/or multiple power tools. I admire your work G-pig and only paying $50 for one of your entirely hand-made handles constitutes theft as far as I'm concerned.

 

[gben]

Here is an old Bingham's Best Brand axe from Cleveland, OH sporting an old handle. Notice how it has been abused with misses and the beating the poll has taken, then notice how this handle has the grain oriented..........

 

[quinton]

Here is an old Bingham's Best Brand axe from Cleveland, OH sporting an old handle. Notice how it has been abused with misses and the beating the poll has taken, then notice how this handle has the grain oriented..........

Big difference in old air-dried hickory handles and modern kiln dried hickory. I can immediately tell the difference in feel of the wood when I pick an axe up. Air-dried feels smooth and alive, kiln dried feels rougher and dead to me.

 

[junkenstien]

Any of you fellas know where to get staves besides thrane,looking for a 42 inch piece of wood they want 62 plus shipping

 

[Agent_H]

If you mean a larger piece of cut your own materials, try a wood place like Wood Crafters. $62 is almost what I paid for a large quarter sawn "plank".

It won't have the same properties as staved-out and air-dried wood but it will allow you to make a custom something or handle an axe/tool that takes a handle you can't purchase domestically.

I don't know anything about Thrane but if they source, rive, and dry their own wood I would be impressed.

Just an option to add to the list.

 

[gben]

Big difference in old air-dried hickory handles and modern kiln dried hickory. I can immediately tell the difference in feel of the wood when I pick an axe up. Air-dried feels smooth and alive, kiln dried feels rougher and dead to me.

Quite a few years ago Roy Underhill, who everyone knows from the TV series "The Woodwright's Shop" started publishing books on traditional woodcraft. In the 1970s Underhill was key in work done in Colonial Williamsburg restoration and research. In one of his books he has a chapter on making ax handles from younger second-growth trees where he makes billets and seasons them for a year before fashioning them into axe handles. He orients the grain of the handle as it is shown in the handle of the BBB axe I just put up. He explains that if an axe handle is made with the grain in this direction as it undergoes further aging it will tip the head of the axe forwards or back a little instead of warping to one side, which is much more inconvenient. Underhill has probably had an axe and other tools in his hands as much as any man alive, and the same goes for his research into the history of woodcraft and wood itself. It may be that the current fashion of having the grain oriented in line with the direction of travel of the blade came about with the mass-production of axes in the 20th century and the use of quickly kiln-dried wood for handles. It is also noteworthy that studies have shown that baseball bats made of maple as have recently been used in major-league ball work best when the grain is ninety degrees to the direction of travel when striking a ball....

Anyway, when splitting a young log into billets with a triangle cross-section that cross-section makes it natural when fashioning a handle out of it to have the grain crossways from the direction of travel, especially single-bit handles which have fancy curves in them.

 

[garry3]

I have been told that House air dries their hickory...

 

[Woodcraft]

It is also noteworthy that studies have shown that baseball bats made of maple as have recently been used in major-league ball WORK BEST when the grain is ninety degrees to the direction of travel when striking a ball....

This is a very misleading claim and untrue as you have written it.

 

[Woodcraft]

http://m.mlb.com/news/article/3708319//
After studying thousands of broken bats and hundreds that shattered into multiple pieces, experts concluded the cause was the poor-quality "slope of grain" and ruptures caused by excessive bending.

"Slope of grain" is a wood-industry term that defines how straight the grain runs along the edge and flat faces of a piece of wood. The more it runs diagonally, the easier chance it has to splinter across that line. If it runs straight through the bat from handle to barrel, the less chance it has of coming apart at all.

"That's what's causing the majority of the multiple piece fractures," said David Kretschmann, a general engineer for the Wisconsin-based USDA Forest Service, pointing to a pair of broken bats. "There are substantial slope of grains in these bats and as a result of that they have catastrophic failures and fall into multiple pieces."





In the end had they just called an feller he could have saved them the time. Just avoid run-out.