The King of Axes

in this video i'm going to do two things i'm going to put a new handle on that two-pound axe head this is a boy's axe head and i'm going to put a 28 inch handle in it that is what i'm going to use as sort of my definition of a boy's axe and the second thing i'm going to do is make my strongest case as to why a boy's axe like this is the best all-around axe that you can own now when i go through the details on that keep in mind i've probably got 100 axes in here and this is the only one i ever pick up [Music] huh so it's a mistake to try to make the handle fit too tight in the eye keep in mind that you're going to drive a wedge in to push it out and make it super tight so there's no reason to try to make it a perfect fit before you put the wedge itself in sometimes creating space between the handle and the eye cause you know makes you do a little extra work on the rasping and so it's kind of a trade-off between how much more do you rasp to remove it to make it go on and off easier versus how much space do you want to leave for the wedge to tighten up so it's always a value judgment but we've got a good idea now the head itself shows you exactly what the size is so now we're just going to run it down to the full distance try to maintain that size reduce it a little bit and get this thing wrapped up uh so let me just concede that yep a two pound axe is not going to hit as hard as a five pound axe by the way this is a seriously big heavy axe five pounds on a 36 inch handle that's about as full size as a full-size axe gets but if this axe is sharp not only is it going to bite essentially as deep but it's going to come back into your hand back to full cocked position and back into the work probably two more times before you've got this guy shaking loose and back over your shoulder and doing anything with it besides wondering how in the world you're going to pick it up again now it may be because i'm getting old but this principle works for me all the time you've seen me do it with my stiletto framing hammer you've seen me do it at the anvil sometimes you've got to have a big heavy tool but most the time a lighter faster more accurate and more agile tool is going to get more work done and you'll be less exhausted at the end of the day if you use the right size tool [Music] [Music] do [Music] as part of the agility factor of a lighter axe it opens up a whole range of jobs that you can do easier and frankly better for instance you could drive a nail with this or a tent stake you can drive a tent stake with this but i wouldn't try to drive a nail you can split very fine kindling or sharpen very controllably the end of a tent stake right i mean you could sharpen with this you could sharpen a pencil with this sort of now i've never done this but you could skin a deer with this i've read about it right i've read all those books and you could skin a deer with this i mean think of it you could you could open him up you could grab it the other way and you could skin a deer with this now i could do that for about three minutes with this but by the end of that particular project it would obliterate my shoulder and so yep you could do it but you can do it and enjoy it and have a better time the next day when you try to get out of bed using an ax that you can handle [Music] so right now you might be asking if two pounds is so great wadsworth why not just a hatchet well i'll tell you why because the only thing a hatchet is good for is chopping off fingers i mean that is it there's nothing i will assert that you can do with this that you can't do with this comfortably i mean almost anyone if they choke up can use this with one hand and it's just not as dangerous because it's like the difference between a pistol and a rifle right you always know where this is pointing and it's an open question about whether or not this edge might come down on your finger or where you're hoping that it comes down instead so double bitted axes are awesome right i mean they are a double-bedded axe is a romantic tool just because of the way it looks and this is absolutely in my opinion the most elegant beautiful little axe you can buy a cruiser's axe that's about a three-pound cruiser's axe i love it however the only way this beats this for usability is that i can throw this this is fun to throw right besides that i can't remember the last time i picked this up and actually chopped a piece of wood with it because this is so much more useful with the added advantage of having a hammer now besides the advantage and the increased utility that this one has this one is more dangerous because a lot of people will unthinkingly leave a double bitted axe stuck in a stump and then you have a razor blade standing up supported on the end of a block of wood ready to hurt somebody badly if they fall down as they walk by that that stump or that chopping block so leave a double bitted axe leaned up against the stump but in general use a single bit of axe around two pounds on a 28 inch handle if you want to really get a wide variety of jobs done [Music] do [Music] so this little guy turned out great i'm uh i'm pleased this is going to be good for a long time i mean with just a little bit of care an ax handle restoration like this is a semi-permanent condition i mean within the range of operator error that always happens but before i close this out i have to acknowledge something that some of you may have been screaming at your computer for the last five minutes and that is the downside to a boy's axe is also related to its agility what i mean is this is a much more dangerous axe than this is can you see why if you miss with a 36 inch handle that razor sharp edge is going to be glancing around and bouncing off the stump probably beyond the reach of your ever so vulnerable toe i mean it's hard to stick one of those in your ankle i mean you can do it but it's easy to keep that away from the parts of your body that will leak blood if they get cut this on the other hand is pretty much exactly the right length for that thing to end up in your shin or in your toe or you know i don't know where it might stick but the point is the cutting edge is closer to your body and it's lighter and so it will ricochet so even though everything i said about this being the king of the axes for general utility and usability it is also probably one of the most dangerous full-size or relatively full-sized axes there is you're not likely to cut off a finger but it's easy to stick it in your ankle so i told you that i'm going to take this little axe restoration project farther than i've done before well i am and what i'm going to do is i'm going to make a leather sheath for it now nate made these i've never done it and so i'm going to fiddle around with that and see if i can get a cover that'll go on this before i do that though let me just say this when you're rehafting an axe don't sharpen it first make that the last thing you do so after i figure out if i can make a leather sheath i'm going to go ahead and sharpen this baby up and it'll have a safe home to live in if you're interested in that that video is coming up next thanks for watching essential craftsman and keep up the good work [Music] do you

Channel: Essential Craftsman

Views: 228,781

Keywords: anvil, forge, blacksmith, forging, craftsman, mentor, trades, tradesman, career, smith, carpetner, builder, wisdom, workbench, fabricate, tools, tool, tips, trick, hacks, protip, axe restorato, Boys Axe, axe handle replacement, axe safety, axes, chopping axes, sharpening axes

Id: ZaCfzoKNZ8E

Length: 12min 58sec (778 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 10 2020