Hafted my hand axe today

Post by **son of liberty** » Tue Feb 05, 2013 9:04 pm

I carved the handle from Osage with my Mora, Then topped it off with leather conditioner to preserve the and protect the wood an metal some. I still need to make a leather mask for the edge but it goes great with a mora as nice chopper and its small enough and sharp enough to use as a knife.

Post by **son of liberty** » Tue Feb 05, 2013 9:08 pm

No, Its an old craftsman head. I have not beat any metal in a bit, need to finish up the building but im playing keep away with funds right now.

Post by **justang1997** » Tue Feb 05, 2013 9:34 pm

You have giant hands :llama:

Nice handle

Post by **Kadnine** » Wed Feb 06, 2013 12:54 am

Whittled a few duck calls as a kid. Osage Orange always cracked on me when drying out blanks. Did you do anything special to season the wood?

(Honest question. For the life of me I cannot find a way to phrase it that doesn't sound dirty. Sorry about that.)

- Keith

Post by **son of liberty** » Wed Feb 06, 2013 1:45 am

Kadnine wrote:Whittled a few duck calls as a kid. Osage Orange always cracked on me when drying out blanks. Did you do anything special to season the wood?

(Honest question. For the life of me I cannot find a way to phrase it that doesn't sound dirty. Sorry about that.)

- Keith

Yes I season all Osage in the traditional bowyers manner.
The Osage is split wet , you never want a growth ring to make a complete circle.
The ends are sealed with latex paint , and the bark is left on.
The wood is then left out side but elevated off the ground for as long as you can stand it, Wood drys at about 1 inch of thickness per year.

If you look at the pictures of my haft you will see that the growth rings run flat , it was split from a much larger chunk of wood to keep the growth rings true.

There is so much one could add, seal your ends and split your wood is the easy way to say it. If you split the wood wet you can dry it much quicker by heat or what have if the growth rings dont make a circle, if they do it will cause stress on the inside that will migrate a crack all the way to the outside. Contorted wood will also crack very easy due to all the crazy stress, slowing the drying time is the only thing that will fix this.

Post by **son of liberty** » Wed Feb 06, 2013 1:45 am

double tap

http://www.youtube.com/user/ssracer02 · Post by **ssracer** » Wed Feb 06, 2013 7:53 am

Nice!

Post by **Kadnine** » Thu Feb 07, 2013 1:57 pm

I would season two inch thick, quarter sawn chuncks inside paper bags along with some bone dry wood shavings from the shop to reduce condensation. Placed them on a high shelf in the basement shop (warmest air) and wait two years. Seemed like I'd have about 80% of them crack on me, but Grandpa could do the same trick, place them closer to the coal furnace, and season them over just one Winter! with about 20% breakage.

I guess experience counts for a lot.

- Keith

Post by **son of liberty** » Thu Feb 07, 2013 2:03 pm

Kadnine wrote:I would season two inch thick, quarter sawn chuncks inside paper bags along with some bone dry wood shavings from the shop to reduce condensation. Placed them on a high shelf in the basement shop (warmest air) and wait two years. Seemed like I'd have about 80% of them crack on me, but Grandpa could do the same trick, place them closer to the coal furnace, and season them over just one Winter! with about 20% breakage.

I guess experience counts for a lot.

- Keith

Interesting, paint them maybe because your method seems sound.

Kentucky Armory Club