To pin or not to pin ?

rocketmann

rocketmann

Joined
Dec 24, 2005
Messages
1,254
I am building a hammer pole hawk and I am thinking of pinning the head to the handle with a small mosaic pin.. I know that this will make it harder to change the handle in an emergency (how often is it truly an emergency?) and could in theory weaken the handle, but if the pin is fairly small and epoxyed in place it would become part of the handle and should not weaken it to any large extent... My brother in law and I spent several hours this weekend throwing hawks that I built. On his hawk I pinned the head on with a brass pin and mine is a friction fit.. I had to reseat the head of my hawk several times while his stayed firmly in place.. Also it seemed that my handle took more abuse because it was not held in the head as securely as the one on his hawk and was subjected to more vibration..what do you guys think ??
 
Brass is a weaker material for this application. Go for a steel pin and then use JB weld on the handle, then a wedge. Race axes are all pinned with steel inserts. Throwing an axe produces incredible force on the blade and handle.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top