Thread: Axe Handle

Bunnings...or a local rural supply store

Spotted Gum maybe, Don't know about 'best'

Tonyz' answer is the simplest solution - and probably cheapest.... However, if you yearn for an artisan look and the pleasure of doing it yourself, I'd look at ironbark - it's tough, rowed grain so it'll take abuse, and will last forever. Bastard to work though. Basically, almost any Australian hardwood will do, I'd think. I have a 4lb axe that is about 75 years old, and the generic hardwood handle is still going strong: I give it oil about twice a year, and soak the head in a bucket of oil overnight once a year to keep the wedge tight and swollen.

Spotted gum is used extensively for tool and axe handles.
It has an almost identical Modulus of rupture and Crush Strength to Red Iron bark.
IB is about 8% denser (ie heavier) than SG which is a small advantage if you want a slightly lighter handle.
IB is about 8% harder


Getting SG could be an issue. Pity you are not closer as I have dozes of dry slabs of the stuff where I mill timber.

Originally Posted by TermiMonster

Spotted Gum maybe, Don't know about 'best'

Good quality shovel handles use Spotted Gum, so it has flexibility. The other thing would be it's ability to absorb vibration. Not sure about how good SG can deal with this but if you compare it to Hickory you might be able to work it out

Commercially in Australia Spotted Gum is the only timber that is used for handles where impact resistence is desireable such as axes and hammers. The few commercial producers left use this timber for most of their other tools too. As well as being hard and dense it has an extremely good level of impact resistence. Some people maintain that it's shock absorbsion is not the best and other timbers may be superior and that may well be true. However those timbers are not commercially available. Also this will only become apparent if you are swinging the axe for eight hours a day and most of us will not be doing this. That criticism I have heard from the serious blacksmiths with their hammer handles.

If you can access some Spotted Gum, you can make your own handle, but otherwise you will have to inspect the labels on shop bought products to see if they state the handle is SG.

Ironbark does not have such good properties as SG for the purpose of axe handles. It also, rather ironically I always feel, can be a little brittle, but the main reason I would shy away from it is the tendency to produce splinters.

Hickory remains the number one choice for axe handles overall. However SG is superior in some areas such as density and modulous of elasticity.

Regards
Paul

I made some once, for a professional axeman, who travels the world cutting in competitions, and used Queensland Silver Ash, as far as I know, he’s still using them.

I used a big piece of silver ash to make a table. I found it to be an unusual wood. It is pale, as many of our gums are, but also strikingly yellow. It is so much like high-quality pine or beech in colour, but then you try and pick up or work a piece and find out it's very dense hardwood.

It was quite expensive though - although my piece was a very long, straight high-quality plank so may not have been representative of what you can get for small pieces.

Thanks Bushmiller I have found some commercially available SG handles. I have just taken up the sport of Axe throwing and would like to experiment with some differently shaped handles.
We throw a small axe head weight of max 790gms this is the main axe /hawk used thrown an average of 100 times a night . the Axe we use as a tie breaker is the Big axe head weight of 1250 gms and a handle length of min 25 inches. thanks everyone for your feedback.

Mark
Bury the hatchet steele chucker