How to Make an Axe Handle: From Start to Finish

in this video I'm going to show you how to make an axe handle completely from scratch and we're going to start by using this axe as a template to trace the outlines on this piece of Ash now that we have the handle traced out on this piece of Ash it's time to cut it out and the easiest way of doing that would be to use a band saw however many people don't have a band saw so I'm going to show you another way and we're going to use a regular saw and we're going to make Cuts all the way around the outlines and then we're going to use an axe to cut it out [Music] f [Music] all right so we have the rough handle now cut out and what I like to do next is that I like to seat the head because that way I can make a new Center Line aligned with the edge and then I can move on to shape the hand now the way that I do this is that I take the head and I flip it upside down and I simply draw the shape of the inside of the eye here and I will use that as a template now a draw knife is a really good option for this specific type of task however this type of Ash is very Terry uh so I'm actually going to use rasps instead I don't want to risk ruining the handle so depending on the wood a draw knife can be really really useful or maybe it could be the fact that I lack skills in using the drae while I'm hogging way material here I want to tell you about today's sponsor which is surf shark now imagine being an American and you want to educate yourself with some quality Swedish shows like pipy long stalking R well with surf shark you can surf shark is a virtual private Network that lets you change your IP address and therefore lets you travel the world with just a tap of your finger now hold on a minute does that mean that you can watch me forging on Swedish national TV and once again enjoy a much younger and more bearded Neils yes and yes not only that but surf shark keeps you safe and private by covering everything you do online as long as you have surf shark active all your information on the Internet is encrypted that means that if anyone is trying to Snoop on you they won't be able to see what you're doing or where you're doing it from now they have 24/7 support and I personally like the fact that I can have an account and my whole family can use it now if you are unsure and just want to test it out surf shark has a 30-day money back guarantee secure your privacy with surf shark enter the coupon code Neils ogren for an extra 3 months free over at Sur shark. deals Neil ogren thank you Sur shark for supporting my work let's get back to the video back okay so we're starting to get a really good fit now and I'm now going to switch to using a knife to do the last of the work and if you look closely here you can see that we have clear lines all around the head which is good we have a good fit however we need to get the head further down so I'm going to use the knife and I'm going to start cutting just before uh where I can see the marks and move my way up towards them I don't want to touch the wood that's closer to the top of the handle because I want there to be Mass there so that we get a really nice and tight fit inside the eye now I will continue this process going back back and forth seating the head removing some material seeding the head again until the head is almost in the position where I want it to be I will save the final fitting until the handle is completed all right so the head is now in a good position and it's time to draw a center line and finally start shaping the handle he [Laughter] d d now I'm choosing to go for a hand card finish on this handle but you don't have to do that you could just continue using rasp then move over to files and then finish off with some sandpaper and you will have a really nice handle no doubt about it however there is something po with a carving ax having a carved handle don't you think I find that if you have an opportunity to carve you should take it especially on a small hander like this carving is really nice and it's a a caling experience you can listen to your favorite audiobook do whatever you want it takes a while but it's really nice and you get a chance to work on your knife skills who would say no to that right now I'm opting to go for octagonal esque handle here which means that it has eight sides and the reason for that is that I really like uh the control that you get and the other reason is that it's very easy to customize so let's say that you received this Ax from me and you don't really like the octagonal handle then you can just take a knife or a file or whatever and you can continue working on the on the handle until it fits you so it's it's very easy to customize and for some strange reason Carvers are really good at customizing wood pieces who would have known right now I'm going to continue carving the handle until I'm happy with it and then we're going to hang the ax all right so I'm done carving the handle now it's not the most beautiful handle in the world if I were to use nice words I would probably call it rustic that's most likely because I'm an amateur knife worker and an amateur Carver however I did enjoy myself and had a lot of fun and most importantly the handle feels amazing it's very hard to show you on camera but it feels really good so it it definitely works however it will have more of a rustic uh look so if you don't prefer that go with sandpaper and files and you'll have a pristine looking handle the next thing that we're going to do is that we're going to prepare the handle for a wedge so that we actually can hang the head so that it doesn't come loose and the way that we do that is that we're going to remove the head first and then we're going to cut a slot for the wedge and then we'll prepare the witch ch so in my opinion there are primarily two reasons why we wedge the head to the handle the first and most important reason is to eliminate the risk of the head flying off the handle in the middle of a swing now that could be devastating either for you or if you have someone close by we don't want sharp things flying around now the second reason is to make the fit even Tighter and reduce the risk of the head getting loose and wobbly now when it comes to wedge material I have seen all kinds of wedge materials on the internet with great results and I guess that it has to do with what types of wood you have available and what you're used to and it also could have something to do with the wedge geometry now personally I the most experience I have is with either Ash or walnut I've tried different ones but those are the ones that I like the most and I suggest that you try out different types of wood for wedges and see what works best for you now another important thing to look at is how much do you actually need to wedge the eye and as you can see on this ax we already already have a pretty tight fit there's not much room here that needs to expand so the wedge that I am using is not super thick now imagine if we had way more space here around the eye then I would need to make a more aggressive wedge or maybe I I even need to consider making a cross wedge and that's when you make a wedge this way and that way it's to push the material both sideways and back and forth all right so let's wedge the X is f so there is still one important part that's missing on this Axe and that's a nice thick coat of linseed oil and in this case I'm actually going to heat my Lin seed oil according to my sources if you heat the Lin seed oil it would actually penetrate even deeper into the wood and therefore leave a much better protection for the wood and if you don't have an option to heat the lined oil you could could also mix in some turpentine it would also help the Lin oil penetrate however once again according to my sources it won't leave as good protection as just the lined oil so I'm heating the linseed up to to about 60 70° C now it could go higher than that H however my brush wouldn't handle that heat and if I got some on my fingers it would hurt so 60° will do let's put on some lined oil thank you so much for watching the video so in today's video we made a carving ax handle from scratch completely by hand and for those of you who have been around a while you will know that the carving ax project is something I've been working for for quite some time together with my friends over at the spoon crank now this is the fourth prototype and we are giving it away so subscribe to the YouTube channel leave a comment including the name the spoon crank and I will pick one out at random that will receive this ax now make sure to read the pin comment all the information about the giveaway is in the pin comment when the giveaway ends how the winner will be announced Etc is in the pin comment and obviously be aware of scammers they are everywhere these days so read the pin comment and you will be safe so for those of you who are interested we are very soon going to launch our first batch of these carving axes so to find out more make sure to head over to the spoon crank you can find a link in the description and in the pin comment you can find more information about the axe you can sign up to get notified once it's available you can even sign up to their email list to get even more information and you can check out some of their other pretty cool products especially if you're interested in carving and sharp things I hope that there was something that you can take with you from this video maybe you so may make a mistake that you don't want to replicate maybe you some may do do something good that you want to try out that's the beauty about sharing information iron sharpens iron there's always something that we can take with us when we share information with each other and that's how we learn and improve our craft I also want to thank everyone who chose to support what I do here on YouTube over at patreon or YouTube membership you guys help support what I do here making videos for everyone to see for free here on YouTube so thank you so much for supporting my work if you want to help out you can find the link to my patreon and YouTube membership in the description below thank you so much for watching the video and I'll see you in the next one goodbye

Channel: Nils Ögren

Views: 42,203

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Id: Nb6nk_dheD0

Length: 17min 31sec (1051 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 25 2024