On 4 Sep, 14:43, Ignoramus15584
wrote:

1 I used a bench grinder to resharpen the axe.

There's a good way to ruin it.

I did pay attention to
seeing that the edge would not overheat (turn blue).

It's knackered long before you see it.

Fortunately it's an axe, rather than a chisel, so the carbon of the
edge steel will be lower and it's thus a bit more resistant to
overheating. However an axe of this pattern is probably a carbon steel
edge welded into mild steel or iron and not a modern heat-resistant
alloy steel. It's just not designed to be sharpened on anything faster
or hotter than a slow water-cooled wheel, or by hand.

What I want to
know is what shape of the edge is right. I made a concave shape.

Concave is _totally_ wrong (and getting to be dangerous). It should
have a _very_ slight convex crowning to it for this pattern of axe,
possibly with the corners radiused off too, depending on the use you
intend to put it to.

Don't grind a convex edge onto an old (i.e. forged) axe of this
pattern. If you want a convex-edged axe for carving, find one that
was forged that way and intended to be used with a convex edge.
Otherwise, if you just grind the edges back too far, the thickness of
the forging ends up all over the shop and you've ruined a nice tool
that deserved better.

2 The handle looks like it would benefit from some wedges inserted to
support the axe head on the handle more tightly.

Never wedge the head onto an axe (i.e. steel wedges hammered in
afterwards). It's a terrible way to do it, and it doesn't work at all
well.

It takes three days to put a handle onto a big axe, although you can
do a little one like this in maybe one or two.

Start with a good piece of timber for the handle: hickory, ash, or
probably osage orange (I've no experience of osage orange). You need
something that's strong in bulk, but also has good crush resistance.
it also has to be well-seasoned (at least 5 years old of proper air-
drying and seasonal cycling). It also need to have been kept dry for
the last month.

I don't care if your grandad did it, you can't fit a green ash handle
and expect it to stay in place.

Shape the handle, as you prefer. Then shape the handle to fit the eye
of the head _perfectly_. This takes a long time and a lot of care. You
might use a drawknife to start, but only a real expert can finish with
one - anyone else should switch to a spokeshave or rasp. The split is
sawn in afterwards. Then make a wedge to fit, which is itself nearly
as careful a fitting job as the handle. Especially watch the taper
angle and the length. The timber can well be the same as the handle,
although many favour a slightly harder timber (no-one can justify this
choice).

Assemble. Do it right, get it perfect, because it's the only chance
you've got and you'll be living with it for 10 years. Assembly is
easy - you did the hard part when you fitted it.

Fit the wedge. Leave it long.

Now another important bit. Leave it alone. Leave it overnight. Come
back tomorrow and drive the wedge in again, just that bit further.

For a felling axe (4-5lb upwards) do that again for a second day.
That's why it takes 3 days to fit a handle.

_Then_ trim the wedge down.


There's no need to soak a handle on a well-fitted axe. Ever.
It doesn't need it because it shrank (it was dry when you fitted it).
If it does need it, then the handle is possibly worn out, because you
either used too soft a timber or else you've been using your axe as a
prybar. Possibly you fitted the handle carelessly and it was only ever
bearing on a couple of points.

The handle hasn't "dried out and shrunk". It can't do this, because of
the care you took in choosing and making it in the first place. So if
it's not moisture shrinkage that's causing it, soaking isn't going to
put it back right for you. If you've crushed the timber instead, then
soaking does little to aid that - the wood swells, but the structure
is now softened and it'll be loose again by lunchtime. Time for a new
handle.

OK, so it _might_ need soaking if you move to somewhere extremely hot
and the eye expands, but this still isn't because the timber shrank.
Don't fit handles to cold heads in winter.

Don't use steel wedges. They damage the timber and they reduce the
handle's strength inside the eye such that the handle's fit no longer
lasts well. They're a quick hack for crude hammers (hammers aren't
used by levering as axes tend to be), they've no place in an axe
handle.