Axe Handle Fitting

[aesmith]

The handles on both my axes were working loose. They're conventional old axes, no special splitting axes or anything, although they're almost exclusively used to split firewood.

Anyway I've extracted the wooden wedge from one, done some cleaning up of the head and done a bit of shaving of the handle so it fits tight on th handle side. It's not tight on the other side, the wedge will take up the side to side clearance but there is space top and bottom. The opening in the head is taller that side, so nothing that will fit through can ever be tight top/bottom.

How would the panel approach this? Starting with the easiest I could make the wedge full height. Or separate wedges top and bottom. Or something completely different.

Any comments welcome ..

 

[--Tom--]

I’d taper the sides of the wedge so that when tapped in the eye is filled.
You could also add a cross wedge at 90 degrees but I don’t see the need in your example.

 

[heimlaga]

I normally make the wedge flat sided and drive it in with enough force to compress the wood

 

[TRITON]

If you look at the hole of an axe head- (a proper made one) the hole isnt straight sided but is infact hour glass shaped. This gives a mechanical locking effect when the wedge is driven home.

 

[pidgeonpost]

Completely filling the eye of the axe-head is aesthetically pleasing but hard to achieve, at least in my experience. I settled for as good as I could get and being satisfied the head was solidly wedged and there was no chance of it flying off.