Wedges - Hard or Soft

Usual prescription is a soft wood wedge. Poplar is the most common. Besides popular I've tried white and green ash, red oak, black walnut, and rock maple. The last three are too hard. As A17 stated they'll just either not seat or work their way out in use.
I've found that white and yellow birch make a superior wedge. If you have access to any you could make your own and you'll have excellent results. It's tougher than poplar by a fair margin but still soft enough to conform to irregularities. Good stuff!
 
KillerGriller said:
Are pine & spruce too soft?
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In my opinion I would say yes they are too soft. But some guys do use fatwood for wedges. I'll have to leave it for someone who's tried it and seen the results over time to really give you good advice on that.
Your local lumber/ hardware store should have poplar wedges. I would suggest using that if you can.
 
KiwiBloke said:
In my experience Black Walnut is just about perfect for wedge wood. Significantly softer than hickory too.
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Yeah you are totally right about that. I meant to include it in my list but not for that reason. It does make a good wedge it just splits a lot easier than birch while driving it home. I'm often surprised at how strong the birch is.
Thanks for calling attention to it. Black walnut is another good option!
 
Old Axeman had mentioned using Koa, and I picked up a small drop to try out soon. 5 bucks can buy a lot of wedges! You just need to cut them out yourself.

I think softer is better than harder. Hickory is pretty compression resistant. I like walnut, birch, poplar. I think I'll like Koa too.
 
I would say never use a hickory wedge in a hickory haft. When I was a very young axeman I thought that if hickory made a good haft (It is the best in my opinion) a hickory wedge would be just the ticket. What did the old guys know any way? The end result was that I was able to drive the hickory wedge so hard that it spread the top of the axe eye on a good 4lb True Temper Perfect Jersey. Learned a valuable lesson.
 
I've not tried everything, but pine fatwood and walnut are my two favorites. It only takes me a minute to carve one out of fatwood with a hatchet. The walnut was supplied, and it worked and looked great. Both have been good enough I'm not looking for a better option.

I don't mind the standard poplar and use it quite a bit, when supplied with the handles. Wouldnt buy them separate though.

I think pine that wasnt fatwood would be too soft.

Fir fatwood seemed too brittle. The pine I've had best luck with comes from right above the roots, and is stringy and splits less easily when driving it in than higher in the trunk.
 
It's not just about softness or hardness. Poplar is soft. But it also has a coarse intertwined grain. That grain may be helping to keep the wedge in place.

I've had good luck with other woods that have a coarse intertwined grain, specifically elm, London plane and black locust. Granted, you have a greater chance of damaging an eye with hard wood as Old Axeman noted. Care is needed. But I've also split open an eye with the stock poplar wedge that came with a handle.

I think the wedge wood should be softer than the haft wood. Being compressed helps keep it in place. Plus it conforms to the shape of the eye and kerf better. But I think you want that coarseness of grain.
 
This is kind of funny. I was just pulling a head and it was wedged with... red cedar. Lol. Anyone who stumbles upon this thread in the future, don't do that. That's an example of way too soft. At least it was easy to pull!

I'll also add that it's my belief that if you're gonna use a harder wood it's advisable to spend a little extra time getting the taper right. One of the things I like about poplar is that there's not much worry in this regard, it compresses a good deal. Harder wood wedges, I have found, are best thinner than their soft counterparts. If they aren't you can drive them in what may seem to be enough, but they don't seat as far down and are more apt to spit out.

This may be self evident, but on the other hand I just pulled a cedar wedge...

As an aside, I had one axe come that did not have a sawn kerf. The tongue was actually split (more like a riven kerf) just a bit, and there was one small, narrow, non-stepped metal wedge. The split was no more than 2" deep. I should mention the tongue was carved absolutely perfectly. It was an old axe and the hang was actually rock solid. I think it had been an old timer who also dunked his axe in motor oil, every void in the eye was filled with crud that suggested as much.

ETA: I want to clarify that it was not me who wedged with cedar, it was that way when it came to me.
 
I only asked about pine & spruce because they are readily available in my shop, as well as cedar and red oak...all the "no-go" woods :rolleyes: Black walnut seems pretty standard from what I've read, and it provides a nice colour contrast too.

All my other woods are pretty fancy, for interests' sake has anyone used cocobolo, ebony, or birdseye maple?
 
I have used poplar, black walnut, cherry, oak scrap, and hickory scrap and a few unknown hardware store wedges.
So far I like a well fit cherry wedge the best I have been cutting them out of a junk 4x4 I bought locally. No hard use time on any of my hangs yet so can not comment on longevity of it as of now. Other than a few peen hammers and sledge hammers most of my tools don’t get a lot of use sadly.
 
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