Yesterday, I picked up a nice broad axe at a garage sale - $25. http://www..flickr.com/photos/438361...in/photostream

The present handle is a regular ax handle and I'd like to get a proper offset handle. When using one, I don't know what side of the broad axe, the beveled side or the flat side, is facing the log and/or facing the user, hence to purchase the proper left or right offset handle. I've Googled, but haven't found any info.

Can someone advise me which is the proper handle to get?

I doubt I would ever use it, other than a little practice, as to how one works. I'd like to just have it as a display in the shop.

I'm tempted to find some decent hickory to try to make my own, but that may be a hit-or-miss project, itself. Would be interesting or something to, at least, try, though.

Thanks.
Sonny

On Mon, 23 Jul 2012 06:57:05 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

Yesterday, I picked up a nice broad axe at a garage sale - $25. http://www.flickr.com/photos/4383614...in/photostream

The present handle is a regular ax handle and I'd like to get a proper offset handle. When using one, I don't know what side of the broad axe, the beveled side or the flat side, is facing the log and/or facing the user, hence to purchase the proper left or right offset handle. I've Googled, but haven't found any info.

Can someone advise me which is the proper handle to get?

I doubt I would ever use it, other than a little practice, as to how one works. I'd like to just have it as a display in the shop.

I'm tempted to find some decent hickory to try to make my own, but that may be a hit-or-miss project, itself. Would be interesting or something to, at least, try, though.

Thanks.
Sonny

flat side to work piece, I have never seen a broad ax with an offset
handle, the only way I have ever seen one used only the head was close to
the material being cut. An offset handle wouldn't have acheived anything.

basilisk

On 7/23/2012 9:57 AM, wrote:
Yesterday, I picked up a nice broad axe at a garage sale - $25. http://www.flickr.com/photos/4383614...in/photostream

The present handle is a regular ax handle and I'd like to get a proper offset handle. When using one, I don't know what side of the broad axe, the beveled side or the flat side, is facing the log and/or facing the user, hence to purchase the proper left or right offset handle. I've Googled, but haven't found any info.

Can someone advise me which is the proper handle to get?

I doubt I would ever use it, other than a little practice, as to how one works. I'd like to just have it as a display in the shop.

I'm tempted to find some decent hickory to try to make my own, but that may be a hit-or-miss project, itself. Would be interesting or something to, at least, try, though.

Thanks.
Sonny


The flat side goes to the work piece. You basically are trying to cut a
log flat sided.

The head is what holds the axe offset, not the handle. The handle is a
nice straight grained piece of hicory usually.

If you google online you can see a group of men from all over the world
showing their stuff using different nationalities type of broad axe.

The Japanese/Asian fellow is bare foot and the way he does it is soooo
easy ... But that's the skill, he makes it look soooo easy.

I saw the video a year or 2 ago. Before you hang it, learn with some
videos, there are different styles, then give it a go.. Tools were meant
to be used, and you should at least give it a try.

Looks like a good price for a good blade. A broad axe is used generally
with cuts into the log, then a sideway (sideswipe cut) to remove the
waste between the cuts... so it should be very sharp for the straight in
cuts, and so that it won't bounce off on the sideswipe cut.

"Wood Butcher" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 23 Jul 2012 06:57:05 -0700 (PDT), wrote:


Offset handles are for sissies. Real men use straight handles.

The handles may be straight but the eyes aren't parrallel to the edge for a
lot of them... You need clearance to hew logs...




http://www.howellfarm.org/farm/barns..._finalface.htm

http://www.highfallsmercantile.com/m...oad-axe-1.html

http://ohara-mill.dmlinton.net:81/wp...l/hpim1174.jpg

http://ohara-mill.dmlinton.net:81/wp...log-hewing.jpg

http://lh3.ggpht.com/-vdLOUo_XnZg/SR...0/IMG_2158.jpg

http://www.elmerroush.com/assets/ima...d_008_1200.jpg

http://i.ebayimg.com/t/Antique-Primitive-Broad-axe-hatchet-7-Blade-14-1-2-Handle-Original-Item-NICE-/00/s/MTIwMFgxNjAw/$%28KGrHqJHJCwE-lgbs0YiBPy-0moFug~~60_57.JPG

http://bonanzleimages.s3.amazonaws.c...6/P1010024.JPG

http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/OTE0WDE2MDA=/$%28KGrHqJ,!lIE8MN7KbsCBPL-8P4hSw~~60_57.JPG



--- Posted via news://freenews.netfront.net/ - Complaints to
---

On Mon, 23 Jul 2012 06:57:05 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

Yesterday, I picked up a nice broad axe at a garage sale - $25. http://www.flickr.com/photos/4383614...in/photostream

The present handle is a regular ax handle and I'd like to get a proper offset handle. When using one, I don't know what side of the broad axe, the beveled side or the flat side, is facing the log and/or facing the user, hence to purchase the proper left or right offset handle. I've Googled, but haven't found any info.

The flat side goes toward the wood, and the offset handle, if you get
one, bows out toward the bevel side to make room for your hands if you
squat or kneel beside the log you're working on, as seen by the old
gray-haired guy in the PreCanada link in another post.


Can someone advise me which is the proper handle to get?

One which fits the head. g


I doubt I would ever use it, other than a little practice, as to how one works. I'd like to just have it as a display in the shop.

Then get a straight handle. They're a lot cheaper.


I'm tempted to find some decent hickory to try to make my own, but that may be a hit-or-miss project, itself. Would be interesting or something to, at least, try, though.

Go for it, Sonny! Split your own hickory from a sapling using your
froe and size it with your drawknife! You do know to run the grain
the same direction as the head for best strength, right?

--
In the depth of winter, I finally learned
that within me there lay an invincible summer.
-- Albert Camus

On Mon, 23 Jul 2012 20:52:41 -0400, "John Grossbohlin"
wrote:


"Wood Butcher" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 23 Jul 2012 06:57:05 -0700 (PDT), wrote:


Offset handles are for sissies. Real men use straight handles.

The handles may be straight but the eyes aren't parrallel to the edge for a
lot of them... You need clearance to hew logs...

Not if you stand on the log or next to it but over it. The offset is
mandatory for clean work while squatting next to the log.

--
In the depth of winter, I finally learned
that within me there lay an invincible summer.
-- Albert Camus

"Larry Jaques" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 23 Jul 2012 20:52:41 -0400, "John Grossbohlin"
wrote:


"Wood Butcher" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 23 Jul 2012 06:57:05 -0700 (PDT), wrote:


Offset handles are for sissies. Real men use straight handles.

The handles may be straight but the eyes aren't parrallel to the edge for
a
lot of them... You need clearance to hew logs...

Not if you stand on the log or next to it but over it. The offset is
mandatory for clean work while squatting next to the log.

I guess I've been conditioned to how to hew logs proficiently from my time
working at Colonial Williamsburg... that and a pit saw were sort of an every
day thing to me in those days! Anyhow, I took a look at YouTube and was
stunned at how many ways people hew... many of them waste a LOT of energy!
It was interesting to see some with the wrong hand forward when using a
right hand axe. It was also interesting to see the broad axe deployed way
too soon in the process. To me it was sort of like using sandpaper to
flatten boards instead of a jointer and thickness planner...

Every old broad axe I've seen either had a bent handle with an off set eye
or a straight handle set into an angled and off set eye. The off set eye
left one side of the axe head flat. Outside of a few broad hatchets, that I
suspect were rehandled, none had straight handles with no sort of offset
beyond an off set eye. I suppose for smaller logs a handle in line with the
cutting edge would work but if the log is of any larger size room is needed
for the hands. Failing that it would be very difficult to get a shaving cut
across the entire face of the width of the log.

Here's a video of Roy doing a program for Ted. He did a similar program at
my wood working club a few years ago. This process was used at Williamsburg
and other historical sites I have visited. It's efficient as, to paraphrase
Roy, it takes advantage of the weaknesses of wood.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au1TbIyLcPU

John

"Wood Butcher" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 24 Jul 2012 13:27:48 -0400, "John Grossbohlin"
wrote:

Every old broad axe I've seen either had a bent handle with an off set eye
or a straight handle set into an angled and off set eye. The off set eye
left one side of the axe head flat. Outside of a few broad hatchets, that
I
suspect were rehandled, none had straight handles with no sort of offset
beyond an off set eye. I suppose for smaller logs a handle in line with
the
cutting edge would work but if the log is of any larger size room is
needed
for the hands. Failing that it would be very difficult to get a shaving
cut
across the entire face of the width of the log.

hewing oak - straight handle - straight eye
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqZpXmfMp2M

This one the handle is definitely not in line with the cutting edge
(co-planer)... the handle appears to be staight but the eye is angled
slightly.


hewing pine - straight handle - straight eye
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfYx0CuO21k

http://www.gransfors.com/htm_eng/pro...rbila1900.html

explains the axe used in the video for the initial work. He's got a double
bevel model which is more of a chopping/splitting axe than a finishing axe.
As such, the user calls upon a second axe that has an off set angled eye to
do the finishing. This is very clear at the end of video while it's laying
on the log.

One way or another you need room for your hands when doing the finishing
work... even if it's only slight clearance.