How to Hang an Axe. Vintage Plumb 4lb Axe Head

[Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] all right i'm here still with august hunnicky i'm actually getting ready to leave tomorrow but today i am working with jeff here and jeff works with august how long have you been with august jeff primarily uh full time for the last two and a half three years yeah and jeff builds axes so and he is so kind as to he's gonna build me an axe and i'm gonna film it and we're gonna talk about it and i'm thinking we're gonna talk about how to choose an axe head it looks like we've got a whole bunch of different options they all do a bunch of different things and jeff is going to explain it to us you know what how let's say somebody wants to make they want to hang an axe themselves how would they choose what sort of head to put on it um well it depends on what they're using it for if they're going to be split in firewood are they going to be chopping little trees down um they want it for banging wedges you know so basically find out what you what you want to use the axe for and then and then he picks that pick the axe head and the handle that's desired for that do you find yourself mostly doing wedge bangers for people mostly wedge bangers uh i like building splitting axes though uh they're a lot they're a lot of fun to make do you have any heads like that yeah this is a splitting axe right here so what would make this different than the other heads that you got on the table oh it's fatter so it's got a fatter profile [Music] um and then a lot of the i got some more over here i'll show up let's see how this one's fat is that prize that would great yeah and it's convex right here so it's not going to get stuck in wood so it's it's not flat right here it's it has a little bit of convex going on you know when you hit your axle in the wood and get stuck um these ones are less likely to get stuck because um less surface area is touching the wood whereas that's okay a lot of the jerseys are kind of in between they're really good for banging wedges and then some of them have really good profiles for splitting also and then an x for chopping for if you want to chop trees down um you want a real thin a real thin profile this this isn't i mean yeah actually that has a real thin profile you know so that's going to sever into the wood far you know so you're hitting a log you're going to hit it bam like that and then you're going to come over here and hit a band like that and it's going to split a big wedge out yeah so i'm looking for a wedge banger yeah i like the nationals because uh um good for banging wedges and it's got a longer bit for shaven bark this is a plum four four pounder and how how could you tell if you're looking at a well-made head versus a cheap axe head good for steel you know like you want a forged accent um you'll come across some that are casted and um they'll work fine they'll but they won't hold the temper as well like the bit of this has been tempered so if i were to take a grinder and just start grinding on this and get it over 400 degrees it'll lose the temper i sharpen my bits with a sander like if i were to take an angle grinder to it and start grinding down on it you know there's a chance you could lose the the temper in the bit but like like a like an axe that you buy at home deeper or something won't even be tempered at all i don't think so i think most of those are casted so they're like they're put in a mold metal poured into a mold and i don't know if they temper the edges or not but you can tell because you'll see like a seam on the bottom you'll see the seam like this one doesn't have it but a casted axe head you'll you can see where it's been poured into a mold and sometimes you'll see a seam down here or up here i noticed a lot of like the arboristy guys they want like a three and a half pounder um all the loggers timber fallers they want four to five pounders if you're swinging this big heavy five thing you're only gonna be able to do so many of them before you get tired right the lighter one you'll be able to whip it around a little easier and get more swings out of it before you type in and now the next thing so we pick the head out usually my process is uh i make sure the head is all good to go which this one pretty much is um i'll usually i'll take them over to the wire wheel or i'll wire wheel the whole thing and just kind of get it looking nice and then i go to the sander and put a nice little edge on it and then pick a handle [Music] i like to do a little extra where the emblem is so it's pretty visible a lot of times when people put them put the heads on and off they'll bang they'll slam with a hammer or whatever they're doing and this will be all kind of chewed up you know or mushroomed over and this one's not too bad at all this one's actually pretty good but one of the things i check for is the eye to make sure it's all good to go [Music] this one looks pretty good and then next is the edge [Applause] [Music] i'm gonna have to put a different uh belt on here it usually goes a little faster like a coarser like a coarser new one where'd you get one of these uh it's belt sanders i think i got this one at harvard actually it's just a cheap one there's just a couple spots i'm trying to get out of there i had to make it i mean you can see a little divot right there and you can see a couple right there so that's all i'm really going after [Music] so we got all the little dings out they're not there no more oh one thing i wanted to say is uh so those low spots were on this side of the axe but if you notice i kept flipping it over yeah because i want it i want it to be even on each side so if you have a bad spot on one side you don't want to just keep sitting there sanding on one side i always flip it over that way um you're keeping the right angle going you know if i were just to do one side um the edge would be over here not in the middle and then you get a burr the burst not too bad on this one lot of guys will rub leather over it to get knock that burr off if you put this in the wood a few times the barrel come off i usually just take my thumb and knock it off there get that burr off so yeah yeah it looks beautiful yeah so yeah the next thing is picking a handle for it a lot of the a lot of the old-timers they like the little 24 25 inch straight straight handle so i make them 28 and if they want it shorter they can cut it down some guys like a palm swell some guys don't um this is a palm swell some guys like that at the end some guys don't it's all personal preference really so you always want the grain going north and south i've used axes where the green's going the other way and i've never really had any failures but i guess it would be uh more likely for an axe to break with the grain going that way the x is going to bend more yeah because your forces are you know you're you're pushing it on the handle like that so if your grain's going this way and you have run out they call it grain run out um that's where your handle is going to break those pros and cons straight versus curved handles or is it just the feel mostly uh curve handle you know it's gonna it's gonna when you're using the bit side um that you're gonna have the momentum the momentum is gonna be easier it's gonna feel nicer it's gonna be whippier you know by having that curve yeah i like the way the curved handles feel i don't particularly know why but i just like holding them yeah so when you're banging wedges with it it's going to be opposite you know i mean um the curve is going to be the other way um that's why a lot of guys like straight handles but um because you can swing it either way yeah it's the same thing either way so i look for grain i look for any imperfections you know like knots or so there's sapwood and heartwood uh that looks like a little piece of heartwood that got in there and that's not a vital spot of the axe where it's gonna matter you know that actually kind of looks cool but uh if it was like in here you know where this part sapphire and that parts heartwood you're gonna have a weak spot where they connect you know and then i start matching it up to the eye you know that's looking pretty similar you know i'll put it on top and kind of like look down and see where the gaps are i'm going to make sure i want i want this handle to fill the whole space in here i don't want any gaps you know i want the wood to fill up all the space so um this one is actually too big right off the bat which is what you want so i'm gonna have to sand it down and and make it fit perfect then you wanna make sure you have enough space here so [Music] this axe is going to fit on this head so i'm kind of trying to see like how far down i want to get it this is called the shoulder this is the shoulder and i like them sitting almost right down on there so ideally i'm going to want the head right there i like to have at least a half inch quarter inch hanging over after that the head's on there i like it sticking out at least that far this is a 30 inch curved handle with good grain orientation i buy these handles that only have the good grain orientation you can buy the cheaper ones they're like half the price but um not as good quality so i pay more for the next one oh the other thing i was going to say is so this head fits on there right there's enough room sometimes when you get a an axe head that's fatter longer this like this handle wouldn't work right see anything all right there's not enough room i'd have to get it all the way down to here and then that's just not right it wouldn't work this handle works for this head so i know i know this eye is a little too big for that so it comes down to taking taking wood off i use an angle grinder with a sanding pad on it a lot of guys use a draw knife and just start taking the wood off like that you know i find it faster and more efficient to use the the angle grinder so i'll go all i'll start smoothing it all down and then i'll actually like take this edge off all the way around the eye i'll just like chamfer the edge a little bit you know that way i can get the head started on there i've tried um multiple different ways of doing it and this is what i came up with works the best for me is this style sanding so while making an axe you're going to put this head on and take it off a number of times it's so it's on and off on and off until you get it all the way down and so basically i just want to get it started on there so i can see i can see where it's too fat right here and right there so that's the spots in my head so when i'm getting them on there i want to make sure they're right now it's not super important once i start getting it down here i really want to make sure the head's going on there straight this way um you don't want it racked forward you don't want it racked back a lot of times i'll look at the pole and make sure it's in line with the handle and then you want to make sure it's it's on there lined up this way too so i'll look down the bit with my eye and i'll make sure it's in the middle of the of the palms well by hitting the bottom it's driving the handle into the head every time i'm looking for where the gaps are so there's a little gap right there a little gap right there how come you don't hit the top of the head i don't want to damage it and uh this hitting the bottom of the handle seems to to work the best um it just drives it in there you know and i gotta get it out which [Music] and then you so you can see where it's touching right and uh so when i come in with the sander these are the spots i'm gonna sand i'm not gonna sand here because it's not touching there yet you know by the time you get it all the way down to here you should have marks all the way around [Music] see almost all the way around we're touching now we don't want the gaps there's still a gap right there so i'm not gonna sand anything right here so this gets fatter as it goes down so eventually it's gonna end up touching right with the draw knife it'll it'll flake off and you'll have like little edges you know i just feel like the angle grinder is more efficient because i can get it flatter [Music] like i said you'll probably take this head off and on probably 20 30 times now how'd you get into ax making billy ray inspired me quite a bit i bought an axe from the saw shop and it broke within the first week the first few times i used it the head came off you know and uh so i went and bought a replacement handle for it and um i was i was struggling with how to put it on there and how to get it on there right and so i started youtubing videos and the rest is history now i started watching buck and billy race stuff and and a lot of other guys stuff too there's a lot of a lot of guys out there making axes and then it turned into like i got obsessed with it you know yeah and then i started making axes and posting them on my instagram and then people wanted them and then i started selling them and then uh then i started collecting axes you know i started buying like collectible axes that um spend a lot of money on on axis you know probably two months you know so it's kind of just turned into a thing but uh my most enjoyment is making a quality axe for somebody that's gonna use it um and be happy with it you know uh some guys want a wall hanger you know an axe that looks nice and perfect and they're gonna hang it up somewhere and show it i mean they're fun to make but um i don't know i like making axes they're gonna get used so this one's gonna get used right yeah so another thing uh i've lined them up perfect right before and not noticed that the handle was was warped oh you know what i mean so actually when we were picking out a handle that's one of the things we should have been looking for is to make sure the handle is not warped so this one's looking pretty good [Music] [Music] uh i do have an etsy shop too where i sell all my splitting axes oh cool um i post splitting axes on my instagram and um all the arborists you guys don't they don't really want them and they're more expensive you know i like it i like it up here more because i see that so these handles were turned on a lathe and that's where that was the label lathe was holding the handle um after we get the wedge in there and i sand it down i don't really like to see that hole so if i bring it up more it gives me more room to sand down and get that out of there yeah we're getting there man i think that's pretty close see the little bit of curling of wood right there that's because on this side the inside of the eye is sharp that's why i pulled this file out because before we put it on there for the final time i'm gonna file the inside of the eye they call that sitting on a shelf so when it peels the wood down it's sitting on this on a shelf right and you don't really want that you want it um snug pinched down on the handle and basically at this point once i know i'm going to do it one more time the next thing is making sure the kerf [Music] so this is the curve that's where the wooden wedge is going to go in here to spread this out to hold the head on because um this side of the eye the bottom side is smaller than the top so the handle is going to be in there and then the wooden wedge is going to spread the handle out which makes it a wedge inside of here you know what i'm saying and that's what holds the head on so you want to kind of be in between two thirds and three quarters of the way down this way so that'd be about two-thirds that's about three-quarters so we're right about sometimes i gotta cut this down farther so i don't think we're gonna have to do that what i'm gonna do is i'm gonna open i'm gonna make the inside of this a little bit wider to feel more wedge in there i like the curve to be a little thicker so i can fit more wedge in there i don't really do a whole lot i just make it a little bit wider sometimes i'll stick it in there upside down [Laughter] [Music] so we're getting pretty close now now it's just down to now i get the handle all dialed for finish so yeah i start out with a 40 grit and sand the whole thing and then i do the burning and then i do the i'll put my my brand on it i'll burn my brain on it then i'll burn the whole handle and then i'll sand it again with 80 grit [Music] sporting it's pretty rough but i find that it burns better when it's kind of rough like that and then we finish it off with the with the 80 which makes it smooth uh i don't ever really go more than 80 grit because i noticed uh if you get it if you use like 120 or above it gets it so smooth that it won't accept any oil or very minimal you'll notice it kind of just wipe off you know like with using 80 you'll actually see it all soak in and it'll take more oil and then i find when they're super smooth and slick your hand slides around a lot and um i kind of actually like the the grippier feel here we go i gotta move it around to make sure all the edges this one's probably the hardest one to do looks like it turned out pretty good though [Music] a lot of guys like hardwood a lot of guys like software i think this is walnut black walnut that's nice yeah oh sage uh red cedar all right you like the walnuts yeah okay all right that's the wedge we're going with now i'm gonna get how we were talking about how the eye see how it's got a little ridge right there it's kind of sharp and it was making the wood feel i'm gonna get that off there i'm gonna face the edge away from myself that's what does it right there [Music] now instead of digging into the wood it's going to slide on there and make a better fit so we got lucky with this one that the eye is in really good shape a lot of times uh you'll have to go through and clean the whole thing out like um there'll be old pieces of wood stuck in there or our rust pits or or whatnot you know and you have to go in there and really clean all that out because it'll affect the hang when you're putting it on the handle this is the fun part putting the wedge in my so my favorite parts are putting the wedge in and then the final putting the oil on to get to see how the handle is going to look so so i'm checking the mixture straight again i can serve straight that way [Music] and i'll all look down so like you can see light through the top right there after i seat the head on that should be gone and i try to look around any of the edges if i can see light anywhere you know a little tiny bit i make sure i'm not peeling wood right and i'll give it either another tap or two now we need now i need to get the wedge to fit so as you can see it's it's too big right so i gotta cut i got to cut some off there [Music] that's how they get dull right there i do it every time too so yeah perfect and then you just eyeballed that yeah nice i always try to get it a wedge shape i'm gonna use the sander and i'm gonna i'm gonna take these edges down right here so this whole thing not only is it a wedge that way it's going to be a wedge that way too so i'm going to taper these down a little bit this one's pretty straightforward sometimes you'll be you'll have bigger gaps in the back so you'll need to fill more space right so you'll you'll want you'll want the wedge fatter on the back end sometimes you'll be filling more space up here and this will be fitting real tight back here so you'll want it you'll want the wedge fatter on the front i take glue and i i pour it down the curve i do one bead of glue all the way across that way the wedge is pushing through the glue instead of because i've done it where i put glue on here probably straighten it off the side yeah you slam it in and it scrapes all of it off and it goes everywhere and you only get a minor amount in there so that's all i use i try to get it even all the way across and i dial up my wedge while i'm letting the glue soak down in there i get my wedge all perfect see how the glue is starting to set down in there so there's glue getting all the way down in there by slamming the wedge in there our goal is to fill all those gaps a lot of guys will take like a another axe and they'll put that axle on the ground and they'll slam the wedge in like that i did that for a long time um i do it a little different now so i'll take the whole axe i'll turn it upside down i'll put that on the ground and remember how i was seating the head by hitting the bottom yeah so i'm hitting the bottom i'm seating the head and it's driving the wedge in at the same time but i only do a few hits like this so here we go ready yep you actually can see we got a little bit more progress and we're we're getting the wedge in at the same time so look hardly any more gaps yeah it's really tight i do it with the little mini sledge and i'll hit one side try and i try to crack this thing in half why because uh so when you you know when you're driving wedges into a back cut and you have two wedges yeah one and you're hitting every other they're helping each other so it doesn't crack every time and sometimes i'll just slam the whole wedge in but um i'll kind of try to get it to crack in half and then i'll hit this one and that one this this one then that one and it they go in simultaneously yeah that's just how i do it so this one didn't crack but it's getting in there tight when it starts mushrooming out that's pretty much means it's bottomed out and it's not going to go in much more i think we're about there checking for gaps not seeing a whole lot of gaps so um then i'll cut i'll cut all this off on the bandsaw [Music] all right i'm still going to sand it down a little and make it look nice remember how i was talking about that hole yeah you can kind of see the hole i'm going to try to get that out it's still there a little bit but i'm going to leave it like that because i like to leave um a lot of people will just cut all this off flush to the axe head i i like leaving i like leaving a quarter inch or even more sometimes um because it sticks out it's it's wider than the head so it's a hole that's actually um an advantage by holding it on there better then i'll take the exacto knife and like clean this stuff up get those off there basically just trying to make it look nice from here on out so i'll get those burn marks off with the sander [Music] yeah it looks beautiful yeah black walnut's nice i'm pretty happy with that so now it's time to put some oil on it wow that's my sharpening test right there i mean it's not razor sharp or nothing but it's sharp enough oh and then i use uh a lot of people use boiled linseed oil a lot of guys use walk code danish oil i mix them so i use both that's what's in here all right [Applause] [Music] you know how i was talking about um getting it sanded with too high of a grit you won't see it soak in like that now it's all about getting the wood to soak up as much oil as possible and then one of the most uh important places to get oil is in the eye if you do have little little spots like that i just i fill it full of oil get oil down in there you know and then i will head to this is a sweet axe you know garrett awesome you'll have to show this to him and kind of show it off because this is his favorite pattern oh really yeah so he loves you so you should rub it in his face look what i got yeah i've never met him i've corresponded with him a little bit he seems like yeah he stopped by like colgate weeks ago i met him for the first time this is this is a working axe this is meant to use you know so if i was building a wall hanger i'd sand it down farther and get all these little things out but um i mean this is going out in the field it's gonna get used and thrown around and what awesome gifts that you have yeah it's really rewarding it's a lot of fun and the cool thing is seeing guys out there using them you know yeah and uh it's like i didn't make this axe head i didn't make the hand a lot basically what i'm known for is how i put them together how i do the half do you know and that's why i put my name on it you know um my name represents the halftime job that's it i didn't make this like that basically the process how i make an axe a lot of guys out there making them different ways different styles and different methods and stuff this is how i do it i really like learning from selling axes to people and having them going out there and using them and being like hey i like this i don't like that this one broke this one didn't um i was buying crappy handles for a while and they were snapping left and right and so i made it right with all those people that i got axed with one of those handles you know and never bought any more of them you know a lot of people get discouraged from the price but um i really like i'm trying to remember i paid close to 100 for this head uh this is a 20 handle so before the work even started i'm 120 into it so yeah you know um a lot of guys will say oh man you want 200 for that x well uh basically making 80 bucks you know right a couple hours of time well maybe they'll see this video and they'll be like oh dang it let me get my money's worth yeah well go to your local sauce shop and buy an x and see how long it lasts right totally and this this is a vintage head so you're getting a vintage it's a piece of history yeah this piece of history it's better it's a piece of art you know and it's something that you're packing around with you in the woods or on the job site it's you know it acts like this is special i do engraving too i just got a laser engraver you want to do it kind of yeah that sounds pretty sweet look at that this one's this one's all done eh yeah man yeah so yeah jake that's that's your axe to use man that's awesome that's my gift to you i hope your youtube channel takes off and uh i mean that's the least i can do to help to help you out start you out on your your new little path you know thanks jeff i really appreciate it yeah all right everybody thanks for watching here's the axe jeff made me if you are interested in this axe jeff made an identical one and he's gonna be doing a giveaway on his instagram channel i'll put a link in the description for that but his channel is really easy to find it's just jeff schroeder1982 on instagram i'm really grateful for him for making me this thing i really love it and i'm grateful for you for watching this so once again don't forget to like and subscribe and i'll see you guys later you

Channel: Guilty of Treeson

Views: 54,256

Keywords: chainsaw, arborist, tree work, logging, logger, tree felling, tree topping, wood, wood working, construction, blue collar, manly stuff, wood cutting, chainsaw carving, tree, trees, dangerous jobs, extreme jobs, Landscaping, arboriculture, send it, axe, axe building, axe hanging, replacing an axe handle, wood axe, Jeff schroeder, plumb axe, plumb, plumb 4lb, tassie, axes, axe men, blacksmithing, blacksmith, hafting, smithing, axe builder, vintage axe, 1940s axe, history

Id: MyYIAaUoXCA

Length: 41min 49sec (2509 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 29 2021