Seth Simonyi-Gindele - T1 Woodworking Project - Axe Handle

Here is my Woodworking 10 T-1 project presentation.

Note - This is a school project not really a tutorial.

Materials Used:

• American Ash, For The Handle
• A scrap Of Wood, For Wedge That Holds The Head On
• Linseed Oil, For Finishing
• Glue

Tools Used:

• Table Saw
• Knife
• Chisel
• Small Cabinet Plane
• Wood Rasps
• Dremel Tool
• Power Sander

I contacted the company that makes this axe for some measurements of how big the handle should be. After I got the measurements from them, they were also kind enough to send me a photo of a handle without an axe head. I opened the image in Adobe Photoshop converted it so the handle was just a solid black silhouette on a white background. I then resized it so as to how the handle would be in real life and I printed it off. and cut out a cardboard template.

I then traced the template onto the piece of wood and made some cuts with a table saw. I purposely left a lot of wood on the handle piece for two reasons - I have never made an axe handle so I wanted to have some leeway in case I made a mistake. I also needed the project to take 40hrs(ish). Otherwise, I would have saved time by cutting it out more precisely with a scroll saw and a jigsaw, so I wouldn't have needed to remove as much material by hand.

I roughed out the handle shape using a knife, chisels, rasps, and a hand plane.

I traced the inside of the head onto the end of the handle where the head would go. I then used a combination of a chisel, knife, rasps, and Dremel to get it to size. This was the hardest step, if I made any mistakes the handle would be useless. I finally finished this step and was pretty happy with how it fitted, though it is slightly rough around the bottom of the cheeks.

This was an easy step, I just marked out where I needed to cut. I also wrapped it in masking tape, because I was worried about it splintering when I cut it with a handsaw.

This was also an extremely easy step. I got a small scrap of wood that I had lying around, cut it to the correct width, and sanded it into a wedge shape. I damped the surfaces then applied Gorilla Wood Glue to all the surfaces and hammered down the wedge as far as it could go. Gorilla Glue is amazing stuff it sticks to anything, is unbreakable once cured, and expands when it cures, which means the axe head is wedged on even stronger.

After the glue was cured I cut the wedge sticking out down then sanded it flush to the head.

I did some final shaping using 60 grit sandpaper and then sanded the handle all the way up to 220 grit. I wiped on about 5-6 coats of linseed oil buffing the handle between each coat. (I don't have any pictures of doing these two steps, because I never thought of someone taking them for me, also oil and dust are bad for cameras, but the first two photos are after I finished all the sanding but before I applied the oil to the handle)

I am pretty happy with how the handle turned out, for being the first I have ever made an axe handle. The head seems to be on very solidly and the handle feels good in my hand.