Making a hammer handle

[Mittlefehldt]

I did a shop made mallet recently and the handle on it would make Alf's look like Duncan Phyffe himself made it, but it was my own and made from bits and bobs about the shop.

 

[engineer one]

very impressive item alf, and as you say a good way to use up the
odds and sods in the workshop, if you actually have need for the
hammer.

or i guess you could sell it as an alf original for a vastly inflated price.

i think the answer is that we all make things for reasons other than just
need, sometimes it is to improve a tool or a job that we want to use
more effectively, and whilst doing so, improve our skills at
other things.

as has been said things are made and sold for ikea at prices we cannot
buy the wood for, and as a short term solution, they offer a solution.
however often it is only once you have bought something, and used it
that you can see how its inbuilt flaws can be improved upon.

manufacturers will make handles for the "mass market" and if you
have short fingers, or broken and badly re-set ones like mine, then
often the original does not work for you. then you have to work
round the design, or make your own. :twisted:

i too have bought for instance file handles from inexcess, in soton,
but the hammer handles just don't look like they would work
for me for too long, and i definately need to improve my
spokeshave skills.

indeed after last weekend, i need to improve my skills using my
mafell dd40 doweller. not for me as easy to use as the biscuit jointer.
but then i will persevere, and that is what alf has done. good on you.

paul :wink:

 

[Frank D.]

That's funny Alf,
I just took two minutes to pop out a damaged handle from an old hammer I picked up not long ago, then I came here and saw your post!
Thanks for posting,

 

[Tony Spear]

I'm about to make a handle for a friend who has a very small hand axe where the end that fits into the head is virtually triangular.

After that it's a new one for my Froe and then the interesting one - a Scythe and I'm buggered if I know how I'm going to do that!

 

[MikeW]

If I've upset or offended folks on the forum, then aplologies are in order. Its just my own personal point of view that I can't get it into my pea sized brain that a standard component like a hammer handle needs to be produced when a perfectly acceptable, machine made, functional, shop bought product in the same material, is available to me locally. If the handle was a 'special' or I wanted to make it in an alternative timber then, fair enoughski. 'Nuff said on this one, going to make a brew - Rob

Hi Rob,

We all choose how to "waste" our time. Hammer and or chisel refurbs, and even what time we spend on the forums...

Take care, Mike

 

[deirdre]

I wanted to thank Alf for this topic, for I'm supposed to show up with a particular hammer to class next week -- and I have only the hammer head (hand-forged and hand-hammered -- pretty thing, really).

I got some dry turning stock (harder than anything I had in the appropriate size) for the handle and will start working on it as soon as I can.

Of course, I have a corneal scratch (making woodworking difficult) and I'm leaving Saturday....

 

[Derek Cohen (Perth Oz)]

Well done Alf. It looked like a fun project ... these little personal touches make such a pleasurable addition to the workshop.

Regards from Perth

Derek

 

[Bernhard]

Hi Alf,

nice and detailed report. Who ever even tried to fittle a broom-stick knows that this is not so easy.

I admit that I prefer to buy the hammer stick reason is lack oftime and hickory.

Now my question: is it also important to follow the rule like an axe handle. I was told that the left side of the tree needs to be set to the front (or vice versa)?

Thanks for sharing

Bernhard

 

[stairman]

Hi Alf,

nice and detailed report. Who ever even tried to fittle a broom-stick knows that this is not so easy.

I admit that I prefer to buy the hammer stick reason is lack oftime and hickory.

Now my question: is it also important to follow the rule like an axe handle. I was told that the left side of the tree needs to be set to the front (or vice versa)?

Thanks for sharing

Bernhard

And how do I get the merchant to tell me which side was left or if I chopped It down how do I remember after felled the tree cut it up air dried it (I think somebody is having you on)

 

[Alf]

Well I must say that's news to me - not something I can recall coming across. Sounds a bit like aligning the razor towards the pole* to keep it sharp. :-k

Cheers, Alf

* Hub, Discworld fans. :wink:

 

[Bernhard]

And how do I get the merchant to tell me which side was left or if I chopped It down how do I remember after felled the tree cut it up air dried it (I think somebody is having you on)[/quote]

I am not talking about a merchants handle as I trust they do not care. I am talking about a selfmade handle (like Alf) and there you have all chances to read from the grain when you start chopping.

Do not believe that this guy is telling fairy tails because I know him very well and he never made jokes about tools. He even told me the reason that one side is more flexible than the other.

 

[stairman]

I mite understand the north side but the right hand side?

I read up on converting timber and yes one side mite be more flexible but it would have more to do with where it was. on the side of a hill,in the middle of a forrest, at the edge of a forrest.

The flex would have more to do with what was around it while it was growing for example the top of a branch is in tencion and the bottom is in compression

But I am no expert and am willing to be corrected all knowledge is welcome

 

[stairman]

Been giving this some thought (yes it hurt)maybe it has to do with the growth rings as they can vary in width in difrant parts of the tree So the right side mite be the widest / narrowest rings (started on the pain relief (my this wine tests nice))

 

[engineer one]

gee alf, and i thought you had to put the razor blades under a
pyramid to keep them sharp. :lol: :lol:

paul :wink:

 

[Bernhard]

Been giving this some thought (yes it hurt)maybe it has to do with the growth rings as they can vary in width in difrant parts of the tree So the right side mite be the widest / narrowest rings (started on the pain relief (my this wine tests nice))

That was exactly the explanation given. Can´t recall which side to show to the face. Sorry if the wording right and left side of the tree is not common in England. We call right side the side which shows to the center.

 

[stairman]

sorry for not under standing, that makes a lot more sense :lol:

 

[Pekka Huhta]

I just wrote a similar story about an axe handle here to a local woodworking forum a few weeks ago. The story was so similar to Alf's that it doesn't deserve its own thread, but I picked up the pictures and items that were different. Just because it all starts with choosing the right part of the wood to make the handle



I had two axes in need of a handle and a small birch trunk to begin with. At least over here the rule goes: back of the handle towards the bark. Never towards the center, and never getting the center on the finished handle. You also should always find some sort of natural croock in the wood. As you can see my trunk had a shallow s-curve in it, suitable for two handles.

As a small note, the trunk shown is almost below the minimum size, you should start with 25+ cm trunk, but these were small workshop axes not intended for heavy hitting.



The trunk was already chopped flat with an axe, the rest of it came with bow saws. Ohyes, they look crude, but one of these days I'll do something about it Talk about "user tools", these are users if anything.

By the way, never take the blank from the end of the trunk as there are always cracks over there. Much more than in a plank, as a trunk is dried with the bark on and the ends crack much further.

Of course you could make the handle from a plank as well, but it's just not the right way



Fitting the end is just the same as on a hammer. I smeared some soot to the "eye" of the axe to be able to see the high spots on the handle.

As you saw, fitting of the handle was done with only preliminary form of the handle showing. Getting the axe head on just right is delicate business and if you get it a bit wrong you can still adjust the angle or twist a wee bit if the handle isn't completely finished at this stage.



Unlike almost all Finnish axes, this one was fitted with two hooks keeping the head on place. They were fitted just as fitting the axe head, with colour. Only that I used red felt-tip pen to colour the hooks, soot would have dirtied the whole handle.



Wedging is just the same as on a hammer head, here was just the addition of rivetting the hooks on.



On the first picture there is the old handle and un-finished new one. As you notice, I am a bit shy on making the final cuts on the blank, so there is at least 3-5 mm extra on every side. On the second, finished picture you can see the handle finished and tarred.

An axe is practically the second most important tool on Finnish woodworking tradition, straight after the puukko (knife). A good axe is kept just as sharp as a knife. On the countryside a man would have built his own house from logs till the 1930's with just an axe and a saw. Even the delicate joints on corners were mainly done with just an axe. No framing chisels, no slicks, no nothing. We are pretty primitive people anyway

To return to the issue of "which side up" or what grain direction to use, there are some rules on using the wood that are almost genetic around here. The skis are always done with the bottom of the ski towards the bark and you ski with top end of the tree back. When putting a plank to the facade of a house it's always "inside out and topside down", heartwood out and top down. Making an axe handle with the back of the handle from the "right side", or center of the tree would really feel like walking with your shoes on wrong feet. I can not thell why it's that way but I just can't twist my mind enough to do it the wrong way.

This is just my intuitive guess why: Sapwood is more elastic than heartwood. Back side of the handle is pressure side and the more elastic sapwood will compress a bit more when hitting than heartwood would if it was on the backside. This gives a bit of flex to the handle to prevent it "kicking back" when you use the axe for splitting or other heavy hitting. Factory handles do this a lot as the grain orientation is whatever the machine produced.

Also, if you put the sapwood on the tension side (front of the handle) and the rigid heartwood on back youl have too much tension on the sapwood. As wood stands pressure very well but doen't like tension, you'll have a handle that might be prone to splitting on the front side if you do it backwards.

So getting the grain dierction right you'll get both a handle that's "nice to your hands" and not too prone of splitting.

On a hammer... the intuition fails me. I would say that the same rules as on an axe would apply: you want to get a bit of flex in the handle. Or then if the rule of the "old wise man" was to put the center to the back on a hammer, he mght have thought that you want minimum flex on the handle. Which would make sense, as the weight of a hammer doesn't hurt you but if you have a badly done factory handle on a heavy axe, it really is unpleasant to use because of the kickback.

Or did he mention hammer handles at all, just axes?

I don't know. He may be right with a hammer, but an axe handle is done this way. That's all I'm sure of

Pekka

 

[Pete W]

This is just my intuitive guess why: Sapwood is more elastic than heartwood. Back side of the handle is pressure side and the more elastic sapwood will compress a bit more when hitting than heartwood would if it was on the backside. This gives a bit of flex to the handle to prevent it "kicking back" when you use the axe for splitting or other heavy hitting.
Pekka

As I understand it (a phrase fraught with danger ) this is the same principle in making traditional English longbows. Yew was a favourite wood because the combination of sapwood and heartwood gives excellent strength under stretching (sapwood) and compression (heartwood) forces. If you take a piece of yew with both types of wood and orient the sapwood to the front, you get a much more powerful bow.

In other parts of the world, they achieved the same principle by laminating bone and other materials to the front of the bow.

And thanks Pekka for a great article on the making of an axe-handle.
After reading Adam Cherubini's article in a recent Popular Woodworking about the usefulness of an axe in the workshop I've been watching a few on eBay; most seem to be missing their handles.

 

[Alf]

Pekka,

Brilliant stuff - thank you so much for posting it all. Looking forward to reading it in more depth later. I think I stumbled across your Finnish woodworking forum a few days ago (maybe there's more than one?), but unfortunately my Finnish is, erm, non-existant and the online translator wasn't much better. It's a shame 'cos I for one really enjoy seeing this woodworking lark from someone else's point of view.

Cheers, Alf

 

[bugbear]

Been giving this some thought (yes it hurt)maybe it has to do with the growth rings as they can vary in width in difrant parts of the tree So the right side mite be the widest / narrowest rings (started on the pain relief (my this wine tests nice))

That was exactly the explanation given. Can´t recall which side to show to the face. Sorry if the wording right and left side of the tree is not common in England. We call right side the side which shows to the center.

Ahh! "Heartwood" and "sapwood".

Heartwood is the centre, sapwood the outside.

BugBear