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Finally a place that's not house handle that offers octagonal handles! Thank you Liam.
One tip Hoffmann. As I see in 8:30, the hickory is ring porous species as ours, across the pond, European ash (Fraxinus excelsior) that we often use for handles. For ring porous species is characterized that the faster the growth, the denser and more solid the wood is. Slow growth = more large pores. The difference is noticeable with the naked eye and even better under a microscope.
would like to see some historic examples in a second video please
Mr Hoffman no question you make the very best top quality axes. I just cant afford one on my income but I still enjoy your videos. you explain very well what you do and that will put you in every door of business . always waiting for your next video and your outstanding crew. Thanks
Great tutorial. This the same way I evaluate wood for making longbows.
Now that's funny!
M P exactly when I would get my yew in I would evaluate the same way
Which begs the question: Why not use Yew for an ax handle? Does everyone ALWAYS use hickory or could there be something as good or better out there?
@@danowen9142 I am seasoning currently birch wood to make my first hatchet handle as i read upon Swedish and Norwegian history and apparently since we do not have naturally growing hickory in the countries prior to import of hickory from U.S. firemen even military used to use birch wood so giving it a go since birch is common hard wood in these countries even oak but since its harder to work with i am going with birch also as its been used by firemen and military feels a safer bet as well as it has a nice white color to it so i find it being a nicer base to apply finish and get a good result, hope it helps you, have even heard of people using pine but its not hard wood also it tends to get sappy feels like a cheap quality, google about different woods and seems people are using pretty much anything however seems hickory is one of the best standards as of today but for a custom you can try some different ones that you find on the net some more information on and see what fits your liking as to carving it, durability and end look of it. Also to add depends on your handle if its for a hatchet or axe, short or long handle, seen short handles even out of cherry wood and that looks damn good! im doing a shorter birch hatchet handle ca 40cm total length, not too big or heavy iron axe head, my own custom viking style reshape of a Hultafors Swede brand. again hope it helps you out some what.
Octagonal !!! You’re right, just looked at my hand, knuckle, first joint, second joint, all angles and straight lines. Food for thought. I’m on this. Thanks for sharing.
My all time favorite framing hammer has a hatchet handle. It's 22oz & i use it for a trim hammer i like it so much. I'm really interested in the old octagonal handle designs, especially in a curved hatchet design. Your hands look like mine. Great work! Raise the bar. The market is crawling over it now.
Pretty gnarly cut on your thumb... gonna be a video about that? Great info. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you!
Nice to see someone putting so much thought into this. Ergonomics is so important with impact tools. I've been replacing my gardening and woodsman tools with octagonal shafts
Awesome channel and great content Liam! It's nice to know there are still people making tools with a true focus on function, performance and improvement. Beautiful handles!
I'm 70 years old. I own an axe that my Dad had when before I was born. The handle is so thin and sweet to handle. I suspect handle makers make them bigger knowing that some folks like a bigger handle. You can always make a heavy handle slimmer but not the other way around.
Well done 👍🏻!!! Keeping the public aware of OG axe handles is important. I wish we were all able to do that kinda outside work like our fathers use to do! Much simpler life and a simpler way of living kept most men honest! Lol. Remember mom used to put homemade pies in the window to cool down! The smell was wonderful!! Keep up the great work you guys are doing!!!
It's great to see a young man with a head full of knowledge great video.
Yes, I did learn something. You put a lot of thought into what makes a great axe handle.
Brother man has some fresh stitches. Legit.
Awesome. Handles! Noticed the stitches!
I was just notified that my ax order was ready and have paid. Can’t wait to see this work of art and see the handle. Keep up the great Liam!
Lovely exotic handles you make!
YOU ARE A LEGEND! THANK YOU FOR THIS
Thanks for the tips an knowledge Mr. Hoffman
Great educational video! I am sure your axe handles will do well, keep up the great work!
You are always surprising. Your knowledge of your craft is amazing. You having truly found your calling. Thanks for sharing!
Good job presenting that information.
Really nice to see someone who actually knows and cares about what makes a good axe handle. I’ve been looking for a while trying to find somewhere to buy quality axe handles because while I do like making my own it does take a long time and I don’t want to have to do it every time
Great video, glad you are offering these handles. I’d imagine you will have a back log soon!
Great vid and great handles and great sutures in your thumb.
Awesome! Great information, thanks!
So much good info. Can’t wait for those single bits to be in stock again!
Really great overview. Thanks!
At last, a man who knows axe handles!!! He's spot on people. Listen to the details he explains, around the middle part of this video. Also, alweys remember, If you put stress on a thick axe handle or a thick knife blade, it doesn't bent much if at all before it breaks. Thin on the other hand, does bent very much before it breaks. That allows for shock absorpion and it's an indicator, for the user to know the limits he can reach. Where the thick ones, don't allow any of these advantages.
Awesome product
Very informative video...thanks!
This man speaks wisdom.
That's some serious stitches
Great video, lots of good information. You hit a LOT of great points. AND.... I have an very old traditional axe that was BADLY re-handled before I got it: I think I will be looking over what you are offering in hopes of finding something more appropriate for it.
Good info! Thanks
I was cutting wood on Tuesday and found my hands getting really tired but I didn't know why, guess it was my handle thickness! I hope I can find an excuse to buy some of your handles soon. Good stuff man
Good info. I've recently been learning some of this stuff from Steven Edholm. I have a couple of axes, and last summer I shaved the handles down a little thinner, and they've been a lot nicer to use. To anyone wanting to thin a handle you already have, you can do a lot just by scraping it with a knife, or get yourself a spokeshave and a card scraper. A pair of calipers is nice too, to check your progress, but that's not essential.
Superb video. Excellent content. And really interesting to listen to. All that knowledge and understanding is sure going to make a great handle.. Really interesting and educational Top 👍👍👍👍👍👍
Good to see your axe handle thickness coming down. There are a pile of factors in axe handle strength and resilience and it's very difficult to reliably quantify them, especially in combination. Much of the over-thickening of handles is in my opinion misplaced and counterproductive. If a handle is to be thick so it doesn't break, that thickness has to be balanced with the size of the eye so as not to create more vulnerability at what is probably the weakest/most vulnerable, and most frequently broken area. I talk about that extensively in this video kzhead.info/sun/fbaDl7auf5R7gIU/bejne.html . Strength of the handle body has to be balanced with overall resilience of the system consisting of the head and handle. Another much overlooked factor is stability. Warped handles of various descriptions are very common and instability ruins a lot of handles. There are proponents for right angled grain, but I still prefer vertical/parallel and no heartwood, though they are not generally the most important factors, with general wood quality and runout being often more important. To rank any one factor as to overall importance is pretty hard since, they have to be viewed by severity and balanced with other factors. I have a huge blog post and video in the works about handle factors, mostly to try to take some emphasis off of end grain orientation and point out that in real life selection often ends up being a give and take between many factors.
Agreed! Check out his (Skillcult's) videos on axe handle design. Very well thought out and backed up by experience. I've made two handles recently going off of his principles and I've been really impressed with how lively the axes feel. I've got one of Liam's farm axes, which has quite a slim handle considering the head weight, and it feels great in the hands also. Liam builds his tools with a heavy dose of both form and function, I'd say.
why am i not surprised to see you here skill lol
Great info and nice to be able to get a decent handle for a change. Great prices on the handles also, just too bad everything I need is out of stock already.
Great video Liam
Just went... Tried to buy.... Sold out... Please make more.
Are you also releasing a new line of premium grade slow mo. pizza eating cinematic sequences? Because that would be good.
Wowwww!!! Muy buen video, gracias por tanta información, soy aficionado a hacer mangos de mis hachas y me ayudará mucho esta valiosa ayuda!! Saludos desde Chile... ;-)
I make all my handles out of laminated 1/4 sawn white oak scraps, fume them for fun after shaping them, before hanging the head. the last part of the handle I make thin because there is no breaking stress there and they come really comfortable right at the end of the swing...so far, so good.
I pictured you guys felling your own trees for wood not going to Home Depot. 😂
Wow! I’ve never seen someone build such well designed handles for resale. I have been making my own handles with similar qualities for a while now, and making them octagonal near the head. Love the way octagonal fits my hand on the choked grip. What’s the moisture content of your wood when you make them? Those I have bought online before have warped and twisted on me after I have them for a little while living in a dry climate. I imagine the BLO dipping helps reduce that problem. I always sand and oil my purchased handles as soon as I get them now. Last thought, have you considered making some of the crooked handles for broad hewing heads? I’d snatch a couple of those in a heartbeat if you made them.
Those are some good looking axe handles. How did you cut your hand?
I thought that is normal for blacksmith...lol
Thanks Liam - you can’t beat experience explaining the rights and wrongs - Thanks
Can't afford it right now, but I can't wait to eventually purchase a LH axe. Hopefully by then the octagonal single bit handles are available as well.
I would be so interested in the 30-32 inch single bit handles, they are kinda hard to find!
How do you feel about Osage orange in comparison to hickory? I know it's not nearly as cost-effective, but I have some Osage orange from some woods I cleared out anyway. I'm limbing a bunch of cedars with about 100 1-4in diameter limbs off the trunks in the first ~8 feet so I can foster the orchard grass taking hold under them and I figured out that it's way more efficient to do a lot of it with my 13in, Vaughan SH2 22oz carpenter's half-hatchet than it was with any size of chainsaw. I don't think I've ever even sharpened that thing and I swear I can cut (not bash or break, cleanly cut) through limbs close to 2in thick in single swings. My only wish is for a handle about twice as long. I can literally swing that little 22oz head all day long, which is not something I could ever dream of doing with any of the beefy monsters of "small axes" at any of the stores in my area. If I had a handle about twice as long, I'd barely need a chainsaw at all and it would be physically easy.
Heart wood or sap wood is fine. But not together. One holds more moisture than the other, so when it expands it does so differently, and it can part, causing the handle to split. Always nice to watch a perfectionist at work. Would really like one of his carving axes and hatchets.
Hey! This is absolute perfection! You nailed it. Do you do any custom work? I recently acquired a 19th century 13" right handed (or left, depending on how you mount it) broad axe head (it weighs 7 pounds!), but I am looking for a right handed handle for it, as I will be building a log cabin soon and need to hew some beams. Can you help? I thought about making my own, I can get some really good wood, and I have a draw knife and a shave horse, but I wouldn't know how to get the ergonomics right.
Amazing news!!! Got heads for days in search of premium hickory. Have you considered just selling select blank planks for us loonies that want to shape our own?
How do you get determan what length of handle to for the size of head, is it so many head size to a handle to get the length?
Liam, how did you cut your hand?
Nice video ! Just wondering if you have ever tried to make a racing axe like they use for the timber sports competitions? You've been specializing in axes for some time now, I don't think it would be a stretch for you. Awesome videos, Thank you. Keep them coming!
Great video! You know your stuff! But try using white oak instead of hickory. It seems to be much more shock absorbent and durable.
very nice video
All the Ash has died off around me but there’s tons of hickory.
How would Carbon fiber work as a Axe hand would it be stronger and more comfortable ?
after a 200 + axes handle one tidpit use softer wood for the wedges and avoid oily and slippery wood for the wedges a and saw wedge chanel to not use onlie chisel to make starting point for the wedges
Hey Liam are you going to be making straight axe handles for your models? Like before Around 1840 when almost all single bit axe handles were straight?😊 thanks for sharing and glad too see you spreading knowledge...."fools multiply when wise men are silent.
I live in Alaska and have no access to hickory. I have on old Finnish axe head that needs a handle that I would like to get a 24 inch blank and carve myself. Would you sell and ship a blank? To Alaska?
Hello Guys, I recently acquired a vintage Germantown hatchet head that weights 1 lb 9 oz and the it approximately measurements 6” long, 3 1/4” edge. Im really interested in buying one of your handles however, not sure which size would be the perfect one for it. Please advise.
When the doctor put the stitches on your hand, what did he say about all your burn scars all over your hands and arms?
I have no carpentry experience whatsoever but Ive recently started restoring my grandfather's old axe, complete with a whole new, hand-made handle. It's been a fun project so far and I'm quickly learning what NOT to do.
Where we come from we call that a hatchet.
Are you producing more handles?
Where are the stitches from
I've got a question for Liam or anybody that has insight... So I bought a Gransford Bruks carving axe and decided to return it... It had a crack in the axehead extending about 1/2 inch on the underside of the eye/handle interface which radiated towards the blade... It should have been brand new and looked unused from one of their distributers. I'm assuming that it formed during the seating of the head just before wedging after being cooled. I'm under the impression that both Liam and Bruks would punch the hole through the stock but looking at the sharp angle that the teardrop comes to, it almost looks as if they folded the metal around a form... which would make a weak line encouraging the crack... I'm really just wondering if that crack is common during the seating of the handle... and whether their forging process differs all that much from what i've seen on this channel
I'm going to watch this again only because I didn't see anything about the thickness of the grain. Depending on how fast the wood grows the grain will mimic the grow season. Does a faster growing wood, even a hard wood grows faster in some parts of the world than others, make a difference in the strength of the handle? One other thing about wood and how it grows, Gun Stock is usually made with wood grain running in the direction of the barrel and then the butt stock is made sometime from the part of the tree that is closes to the roots. an area were the grain of the tree can run in multiple directions. I don't believe a lot of people realize that the inside of a tree dies as it grows and only the outside just under the bark is were the tree is still alive. That would mean as the tree grows the harder wood would be in the center of the tree but only for a limited time. Once a tree reaches a certain age the wood in the center begins to decay. The oldest trees 4000-5000 years old are said to have sawdust in the middle rather than hard wood only because they have decayed not because of bugs. I would think that a good axe handle would be from a tree that took 100 years to mature and then only if it had small tightly packed growth rings.
Dan, everything I need is sold out lol
I know it’s been a year or so, but just now I’ve discovered your channel ( shame ). I couldn’t help noticing the sutures on your left hand. What made the injury?
How do I get a handle?
Have you considered making racing axes? Like as good as a Tuatahi axe.
will you SEND to the UK mate ?
I like almost all of your videos I would really like to see you start making some teaching videos again
Lacrosse sticks are also octagonal
SkillCult channel is huge proponent of thinner axe handles (and this guy uses an axe a lot). He's done some amazing videos on this subject- and he argues that thinner handles of correct geometry are stronger than thick ones due to lack of stress concentration. Interesting thing.
He's not much for curves, though.
Great video! Lots of good info...what the F is up with your hand?! You OK?
Are the limbs of a tree appropriate to use for handles?
It depends on the limb. On the AJ Facebook group someone recently posted a series of photos about how they restricted a limb's growth to force straight, parallel grain to carve a handle. I'm sure at some point, somebody will use steel to force the limb to grow into a curved handle
👍
I'd kill for an octagonal hammer handle.
Make it?
I'de rather kill, but making it is an option also.
just shave it w/ a spoke shave, or even a block plane on just the grip area.
Hey Liam your handles look awesome dude. I would literally set both of my gransfors and all my other axes on fire for one of your axes.
Or do you do the voo doo that you do so well...😳😂
I like axe
I'll just your word for it because I can't see anything on the boards. Camera is to far away. But still very nice to see you care about the wood of a handle.
Dammit someone beat me to it
Wish y’all had zoomed in on the grain as you were describing it.
SOLD OUT!!!
Should of had a spray bottle with water in it so you could wet the wood allowing us to better see the grain.
The title should be "Showing Arm Muscles"
«And you could ax-identally miss swing»
Who doesn't ? I certainly do, you could play baseball with most axe haft's made today and they don't even begin to get the swell or fawns foot right. The funny thing is that hatchet handles are now about as thick as a Boys axe handle used to be, and boys axe handles are certainly fatter than felling handles used to be.
The handles have Been sold out since the 60s
Is there a 3 year waiting list for the handles yet......?? Ha ha ha ha.........!!! Tons of respect for you Liam... Just wish I could track you down and force $400 into your hand for an axe.