Wrapping and Axe Handle

[FortyTwoBlades]

Never seen that happen before, but I do agree that the poll-leading drop takes some practice to execute safely and does have potential safety risks if done improperly.

 

[kvaughn]

Never seen that happen before, but I do agree that the poll-leading drop takes some practice to execute safely and does have potential safety risks if done improperly.

Yes. It puts the center of gravity up high on the head when you lift it over you shoulder. I never felt comfortable doing it with any large piece of wood.

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

Yes. It puts the center of gravity up high on the head when you lift it over you shoulder. I never felt comfortable doing it with any large piece of wood.

You also have to make sure you drop it STRAIGHT down or it can fling the piece of wood off the head. The technique itself works great in many circumstances, but need to be careful and judicious in its use. It's not always wise to use on a given piece of wood.

 

[Old Axeman]

I did not actually see the accident happen because my back was turned and I had both hands around a tall blond college girl showing her how to hold the axe properly. Of course I had the sheath on the axe for safety.

 

[The Zieg]

I don't have to wrap my axe handles because I am good enough at using the axe that I do the chopping and splitting with the steel part of the axe, not the wood part.

Infallible axe Jesus don't need no wrap.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

My trick for whapping throwing axes and other axes is to tape them first with hockey tape, then wrap tightly with 2mm paracord. The tape keeps the cord from slipping.

Even then, on many handles the cord wanted to move downward no matter what I did.
I brushed on a very light coat of thin epoxy resin (System Three Mirror Coat). It soaks in immediately and does not look like any resin is there, but makes the cord much more durable and it will not move. It is the same treatment I use for paracord knife handles.

 

[Brent Halverson]

Infallible axe Jesus don't need no wrap.

Actually, just about any boy can learn to hit a moving baseball with a bat very well, so if you can not learn to hit a non-moving log then it is probably not the only thing you have trouble with. It takes no extraordinary skills at all to split firewood with an axe or maul, it is simply a matter of the more you do it, the better you will be at it.

 

[Brent Halverson]

The win with wrapping is to protect the haft when the split goes weird and leaves wood underneath or alongside which the haft strikes and/or scrapes against. Unless you're good enough that you never let the head of the axe go further further than the length of its bit past the edge of the wood. I've overstruck a few times where the bit wasn't significantly further into the round past the bark, but when it split the bark didn't, leaving a ring under for the haft to strike.

That is the key in splitting firewood. It is a rookie move to try and split a log by hitting it further in than the width of the blade. It actually makes it less likely you will split the log, besides risking damage to your wood handle. Imagine tearing a piece of cardboard in half, you are going to make it easy by starting the tear at it's edge, if you try tearing it in the middle to begin then it will be much harder, same thing with a log split. If you can learn to hit a baseball with a bat when you are a boy, with experience you can easily learn to hit a non-moving log on it's edge with your axe ever time, and you can even learn to hit the same split again twice in a row if it does not do the job the first time. I would think after a cord or two anyone could do this, it is not hard.