He is the real "king" of carpenter's tools. He is the true salvation for those who are lost in the forest. He is a faithful assistant if you need to chop wood for a bath, build a house or butcher game. A well-sharpened ax can be used in dozens of other situations, but the fact remains. The tool will be useful in any suburban economy.
The only difficulty that an economic person may have is the purchase of a solid, high-quality ax. More and more often you are convinced that it is much easier and more reliable to build an ax with your own hands. So let's look at the entire manufacturing process, starting from the preparation of an ax handle and ending with sharpening.
Making an ax handle step by step
The process of creating an ax with your own hands always takes place in a strict sequence. First, a tool handle is made, called an ax handle. When the length and shape of the handle are chosen correctly, the tool literally “burns”, demonstrating high performance and ease of use.
Try to take a stick with a regular round section and plant iron base. You will quickly get tired, because holding such a tool for a long time, the hand experiences a strong tension. Another thing is when the ax handle has a curved shape, the tail is expanded and slightly bent down. Thanks to this design, the axes are firmly held in the hands even when strong blows.
The traditional ax tool consists of wedges (2 and 9), a blade (3) and a butt (1), a toe (4), a chamfer (5) and a heel on the blade (6), a beard (7), and the handle itself (8). The number 10 indicates sharpening. We prepare the material and cut out the first template
Since we need to make an ax from wood, we will take this material as a basis. Best of all, designs made of birch and oak, ash and maple have proven themselves.
A wooden ax can be made at any time of the year, but it is better to harvest the material for it in the fall, even before the onset of frost. The blanks are stored in the attic for at least a year, some experts advise drying them for five or even more years.
It is clear that if the taiga ax donated by grandfather was broken on an impregnable deck with your own hands, you can also take a fresh tree. This option will still be temporary, because after drying, the volume of wood decreases. The butt of the ax will begin to stagger, hold on less tightly.
To prepare a good template, drawings of the future product are desirable.
When there is a cardboard template, it is much easier to transfer the contours of the designed product to the tree. A ready-made ax handle is taken as the basis, with which you are comfortable working. She circles with a simple pencil on cardboard and cut out.
Preparation for the work of the beam From the bar-blank to the careful extrusion of the ax handle
- Before you make an ax, you need to carve a bar from a dried chock. Keep in mind that the length of the piece of wood must exceed the planned size. finished product about 10 cm. As for the width in front (fitted onto the canvas), ideally it exceeds the diameter of the metal eye by 2-3 mm.
- Place the finished template on the bar and transfer its contours. Leave an allowance of 1 cm in front, and 9 cm in the tail part of the workpiece. Before you put the ax on the ax handle, you will inflict more than a dozen blows on the handle. An allowance in the "tail" is needed to avoid splitting it. When final assembly is over, you can easily cut it off.
- We proceed to the main part of the work with the ax handle. In the upper and lower parts of the bar, transverse cuts are made with a depth not reaching 0.2 cm to the contours. A chisel is used to chip off excess wood along the cuts, the final cut is made with a rasp.
- Use a regular file or rasp to round corners, smooth curves and transitions. Sandpaper will help with the final sanding.
- It is still too early to install a steel sheet - the wood is impregnated with a solid waterproof composition. Suitable linseed oil, drying oil has excellent properties. Apply a small amount of the substance to the ax handle, let dry. Then the next layer is applied. The procedure is repeated until the instrument made by you personally stops absorbing it.
- The biggest mistake is to coat the wooden base with varnish or oil paint. However, nothing prevents you from adding a little dye to drying oil (red, yellow). A bright instrument will never get lost in thick grass.
How did our ancestors choose the canvas for the hatchet?
Several hundred years have passed, but the method of buying a good canvas has not changed. Our ancestors knew how to make an ax out of wood and what kind of metal base to use. They have always paid attention to:
- Steel quality. By the way, today this issue is solved simply. Look for the GOST badge on the product - this will be an indicator of excellent quality. No OST and TU!
- Blade. The ideal blade has no cracks and dents, very even.
- Butt ends. They are strictly perpendicular to the blade.
- Eyelet shape. It is better when it is made in the form of a cone.
How to put an ax on an ax handle (video)
When the canvas is selected, a completely logical question arises: how to properly plant an ax on an ax handle and achieve a “dead” fastening? Start by drawing the center lines at the end. There will be two of them, perpendicular and longitudinal. The groove to the depth of the eye must be cut exactly along the contour of the longitudinal line. The cut will be useful for wedging the ax handle.
Having attached the butt to the end, outline the contours of the eye on it - the center lines will be a guide. Use a knife or planer to trim the landing part of the ax handle. It is important that the ax handle does not protrude beyond the edges of the eye by more than 1 cm.
It is convenient to fit the canvas with the help of hammer blows. Do it accurately, with effort, but without too much pressure. You don't want your punches to crack the wood, do you? As soon as the butt went beyond the boundaries, we check the strength of the fit, we look at how the canvas sits. It shouldn't slide off.
Wedge by wedge knock out or wedging method
You can strengthen the fastening of the metal part if you do a wedging. To do this, a small wedge made of hard rock wood such as oak. Because of this, the dimensions of the landing part grow, and it is fixed “tightly”.
Some craftsmen use not one, but two or even five wedges. But as practice shows, even one additional fixation is quite enough.
Wedging an ax. Drawing A proven way to sharpen an ax blade
Sharpening an ax is the initial task after your tool is made and ready to use. Only in this case the product will perform the main function.
For working with freshly cut wood, the sharpening angle in perfect tool is 20 degrees, dry wood - from 25 to 30 degrees. Equally important is the width of the chamfer.
Sharpening an ax by hand How to sharpen an ax on a conventional electric grinder
Stock up on a container in which you will cool the metal in advance. Next, do this:
- Hold the product in such a way that the blade can be directed towards the rotation of the disc. We hold the butt at an angle of forty-five degrees. This is the optimal sharpening angle, regardless of the type of tool, its features.
- To sharpen the ax, it moves smoothly along the circle. The chamfer is ground, the angle of the sharpening being performed is sharpened.
- The final sharpening of the ax is always done with a special whetstone. From time to time it needs to be moistened in water to cool the metal.
- If it is not possible to sharpen the hatchet with a bar, it is replaced with a piece of plywood, which is pasted over with sandpaper.
Do not forget that it is always pleasant to work with a sharp tool, while a blunt ax is more additional and completely unnecessary effort, quick fatigue and not the most good result. After the work on the manufacture and sharpening of the ax is completed, a sheath is put on the blade. This will extend the life of the product, and it will not need to be sharpened so often. The cover is made of leather, birch bark, any other suitable material.
Ax case There is an opinion that the tool can be stored stuck in a log. This is a big misconception. Consisting of strong steel and a hand-made ax handle, the ax becomes an "extension" of the master's hands. Try chopping wood with a homemade tool - and you will no longer want to return to store products.
An ax forged by a blacksmith needs to be planted on an ax handle. Hatching an ax is not such a simple process as it seems at first glance and has many subtleties.
Ax handle material
The choice of material for the ax handle is very important and we devoted a separate article to it. Special attention it is necessary to pay attention to the quality of the material and its drying, the strength and durability of the tool depends on this.
- The shape of the hatchet depends on:
- Ax assignments
- Nozzle method
- Owner's wishes
Axes for felling
Axes used for cutting usually have a long, straight or slightly curved handle. The long ax handle allows you to deliver very strong blows, and if you need to perform more fine work: sharpen a peg, trim a log - you can intercept the ax closer to the butt and deliver neat blows. To ensure greater reliability for such axes, a reverse nozzle is usually used. The eye has a trapezoidal shape and tapers downward, the ax is passed through the eye from top to bottom.
Such an ax will never loosen up and fly off. With strong blows, an ax with a reverse drive is only more firmly mounted on the ax handle. This method of attachment is also used for another tool that has to experience strong shock loads: cleavers, hammers, picks, large felling axes.
It is sometimes said that with a reverse attachment, the ax handle will be too thin and can only have a straight shape. This is wrong. In order for the ax handle to sit comfortably in the hand, we make it even a little thinner than the size of the eyelet allows. The strength of a properly made ax handle does not suffer at all.
The shape can be given the most intricate, as long as all the roundings are smooth enough. In our experiments, we made ax handles of various shapes, including testing the strength of an ash ax handle of such a shape, in which all the fibers were cut.
The most convenient for cutting turned out to be almost straight ax handles with a slight bend at the end. The bend allows you to confidently hold the ax with strong blows with both hands, although an absolutely straight handle also works great.
Handle length
For medium axes (500 - 700 grams) intended for cutting, the length of the ax handle is 60-70 centimeters. Such a long ax makes it easy to cut even hard wood and is convenient when used both with two hands and with one hand. An ax with a shorter ax handle is more convenient to carry, but requires more effort when chopping.
For medium axes, we use a slightly curved ax handle, which has a thickening in the upper part and protrudes from the top of the ax by 20-25 millimeters.
The protruding part is slightly wider than the upper part of the eye, which ensures a secure attachment of the ax.
The place for the nozzle is carefully processed strictly to the size of the eyelet, so that there are no gaps left either on the upper or on the lower side of the eyelet. Then the ax handle is pressed into the ax. We wrote in more detail about the attachment of an ax to an ax handle in a separate article.
No complex operations with the preparation and driving of the wedge on the glue and other tricks are required. The ax sits firmly and securely. 
Buying an ax
On our site you can either buy an ax with an ax handle, or simply buy a forged ax handle, and make an ax handle yourself.
Top ax head
Of course, you can plant an ax from above, as they plant carpenter's axes. But it must be borne in mind that the load on the handle when cutting hard wood is very high. Inside the lug, the tree is subjected to compression and shock loads. When crushing wood inside the eye, an ax planted on top and wedged can loosen.
Using the ax attachment scheme on top of the ax handle, one must be especially careful in choosing the material and upsetting the ax - many have planted our axes from above and are quite satisfied. You can also use a shorter handle. Such an ax cuts less efficiently, but is smaller in size and is subjected to less stress.
carpentry axes
Carpentry axes, designed primarily for hewing, selecting grooves and other work that requires accuracy and precision, are usually mounted on a curved "Dutch" ax handle. This form allows you to better control the ax, deliver accurate, metered blows. 
We will not teach master carpenters how to make ax handles, the photo shows the main features of a carpenter's ax: a straight or slightly rounded blade and a Dutch ax handle.
Carpenter's axes, due to the complex shape of the ax handle, are usually planted on top and wedged. Since such an ax is usually used by professional carpenters, repair of the ax: wedging, re-attaching, replacing the ax handle usually does not present serious problems. In addition, carpenter's axes are less often used on a hike, on a hunt and in other extreme conditions, where the reliability of the ax handle is very important, and it is not easy to repair it.
The ax is the same the right tool V household, during a camping trip or hunting, like a knife. It is not always possible to take it if you plan to hike light, but in this case there are various varieties of this tool. You can learn more about how to make an ax out of wood, metal, tourist, hunting.
The battle ax is characterized by the presence of a narrow butt, a narrow, low blade. It's relative easy homemade an ax weighing up to 0.8 kg on a long handle (from 0.5 m or more). There are one-handed and two-handed, double-sided, with a spike on the back.
In order to make a battle ax, you need to use an ordinary carpenter's blade. The top part needs to be cut so that it forms a straight line. The lower edge of the cutting head is cut with a hook, and the blade itself is rounded down. After that, the surface of the tool is polished to a shine and hardened in the fire. Nozzle battle ax should be such that the lower edge of the blade and the end of the ax handle are connected by a parallel line, this will avoid additional loads on the handle. An ideal material for making an ax would be the butt of an old birch. On the ax handle, where the head loop will end, you need to drill a hole obliquely, and then cut a slot under the wedge parallel to the hole made. After that, the head is mounted on the ax handle, and a wedge coated with glue is driven into the slot.
How to make an ax out of wood
A wooden ax can't compare to the efficiency of an iron one, but sometimes it's necessary. Due to its light weight, it can be taken on a hike to cut thin branches, and it can also be used as a training weapon, or in the household. How to make a wooden ax The ax and the head can be made both individually and as a single piece. The material must be strong, dry, not fibrous. It is better to use oak or maple. For making a blade and an ax like individual elements, you will need two chocks, sawn in half, on which the template is applied. Then they are well glued and joined together. The blade of the tool must be sharpened and fired, or wrapped in a steel plate cut to match its curve.
Homemade ax for hunting
Indian battle ax A hunting ax must have a good handle balance for accurate strikes. It is best to use an all-metal tool, since it is less likely that the ax handle will fall off when cutting a carcass or when cutting animal bones. If it is not possible to forge such an ax, you can make it yourself from a blade and a wooden ax handle. Before you make an ax with your own hands, designed for hunting or fishing trips, you need to make a thin wedge-shaped blade. The point is processed with a fine abrasive disk, trying to give it a rounded shape (but not close to a semicircle) and not overdo it with sharpness. After that, you need to harden the iron. Butt birch, mountain ash or elm is used to make an ax handle. To determine the correct length of the ax handle, you need to take it by one end, while the part with the ax nozzle should touch the ankle. When attaching the blade to the ax handle, its end must be wedged for reliable fixation. In this case, a cut is made obliquely, after which a wedge is driven in. It is better if the wedge is made of the same wood as the ax handle. It can be put on glue, and when loosened inside the butt, the problem is easily solved by soaking the tool in water. It is not recommended to use a metal wedge as it will rust and damage the wood. For hunting birds and small game, an ax handle is made light, weighing up to 1000 grams, up to 60 cm long. For hunting a large game, its length should be at least 65 cm, and its weight should be 1000-1400 grams. In this case, you need to focus on the height and weight of the hunter himself.
The taiga ax is characterized by a rounded blade and light weight, so that it is convenient to carry it with you. The total weight of the handle and head is approximately 1400 grams. It is intended for cutting trees, rough processing of logs, construction of huts, working with firewood. Therefore, it differs from an ordinary ax the presence of a long beard, which protects against breaking the ax handle during strong blows; special sharpening of the blade, in which the rear edge is twice as narrow as the front, as well as a smaller angle of inclination of the head in relation to the ax handle compared to a carpentry tool.
To make a taiga ax, you need to follow the instructions:
- You need to take an ordinary carpentry tool, from which you only need a metal head, from which the front part is cut off so that it is even with the end of the butt.
- The back part is sawn to a rounded shape with a grinder or a medium grit sanding disc.
- On the inside of the chopping head, a semicircle is sawn out for a comfortable grasp of the ax and for precise work.
- To give the tool a lighter weight, you can cut off the upper corners of the butt.
- Sharpen the blade with an emery machine or a medium grit grinding wheel on both sides until a moderately sharp edge is obtained.
Next, an ax handle is made. It should be comfortable, made of durable wood. For this, birch, maple or ash are best suited. For comfortable use, the handle should be 50-70 cm long. Before you make a taiga ax, you need to choose a suitable chock without knots, rotten areas, with a diameter of at least 12 cm. The selected chock needs to be split in two, dried for a couple of months at a temperature of +22 degrees. After that, given desired shape ax according to the template. Excess wood is removed with a small hatchet, knife, then processed with a chisel. It remains to plant the butt and fix it using epoxy resin. Finishing ax handle includes grinding and varnishing.
A tool with ready-made ax handles is always on sale. But what is offered in specialized stores is not always suitable. The length of the ax handle should be such that it is convenient for the master to work. But each person has his own height and strength. Therefore, it is better to make an ax with your own hands.
Do-it-yourself wood harvesting for an ax handle
In order to make an ax handle with your own hands, you must first select suitable material. It is better to do this in late autumn: at this time of the year, sap flow practically stops and the wood will be as dense and dry as possible. The following types of wood are suitable for an ax handle:
- hornbeam;
- rowan (old tree);
- ash;
- acacia;
- Apple tree.
The highest density is characterized by birch wood, taken from the root section of the trunk. The hatchet from it will last a long time.
Tip: to make an ax handle, you need to stock up on wood in such an amount that you get several blanks. During operation, some workpieces may be damaged or rejected.
Blanks for an ax handle
Drying blanks for ax handle
Do-it-yourself ax handle should be made from dry wood. Drying of blanks in natural conditions should be carried out within 3-4 years. Drying conditions: dark and dry ventilated area, protected from precipitation.
Important: making an ax with your own hands from insufficiently dry material will not give the desired result. Further drying of the wood will cause it to warp and warp.
We make a template for an ax handle with our own hands
There are strict rules governing the shape of the ax handle, depending on the type of tool. For light axes (0.8 - 1.0 kg), the handle is made 0.4 - 0.6 m long, and for heavy axes (up to 1.4 kg) - 0.55 - 0.65 m. Axes also differ in according to its function:
- lumberjack;
- carpentry;
- branchy;
- cleaver;
- butcher's ax
Types of axes depending on the functional purpose
How to make an ax handle with your own hands: drawings of various models.
When making a template, consider the following.
- In order for the ax handle not to jump out of the hand when swinging, its tail part is made slightly wider than the gripping one.
- An ax handle for a cleaver with your own hands should be made in a length of 0.75-0.95 m. Carpenters' axes with a shorter ax handle are about 0.5 m.
- To the length of the ax to the will of the butt, you need to add 8-10 cm for an allowance. It can be cut off after the butt is put on. It is important that the wood does not split.
What allowance should be left when making an ax handle with your own hands - a video for your attention.
Note: the template can be obtained by attaching to the workpiece and outlining the finished ax good quality. In this case, do not forget to add an allowance.
Ax manufacturing technology
To understand how to make an ax handle with your own hands, you should familiarize yourself with the technology. The whole process consists of three stages:
- marking the workpiece using a template;
- sawing the workpiece with a jigsaw or other tool;
- turning and grinding.
There are several rules that must be observed in the process of work.
- The processing of the fixing section of the ax should be done carefully so as not to remove excess wood. Otherwise, the butt will not sit snugly in its place. The ax must be periodically tried on to the eye in order to eventually leave a margin of about 2 mm.
- It is not recommended to use a file when finishing the part: this loosens the wood and complicates its further processing. the best way considered to be the use of fine abrasive sandpaper With grinder. The movement of the tool is along the fibers.
- It is necessary to give the final shape to the fixing section of the ax handle, taking into account the angle of the head of the butt. For a cleaver, this angle is chosen equal to 85°, for an ax - 75°.
Wedging an ax handle
Making an ax handle with your own hands: a video for those who use conventional tools in their work.
How to protect an ax handle from rotting
The wood of the ax under the influence of moisture gradually becomes unusable. The instrument must be protected from damage. For processing the handle, you can not use covering agents, which include paints and varnishes. In this case, the tool may slip out of your hand. For protection, it is recommended to use drying oil or linseed oil. There are other antiseptics that are absorbed into the wood.
It is necessary to process the ax handle in several steps. Each new stage of treatment should be carried out after complete absorption of the previously applied agent.
Treatment of the ax handle with a protective agent
Tip: You can add a bright red pigment to the ax handler. As a result, the tool will be clearly visible in thick grass and can be easily found in case of loss.
At the end of the article on how to make an ax handle with your own hands - a video where the master clearly demonstrates the basic working methods.
An ax is an indispensable tool in the household. Especially for those people who live in a private house or spend a lot of time in the country. You can make an ax yourself. If you follow all the rules of this work, then the tool will be reliable and will last a long time. Before you make an ax, you need to study the recommendations of professionals.
You can make an ax handle for almost any shape. It depends on what the tool will be used for. The manufacturing process includes several stages:
- choice best options blanks;
- ax making;
- nozzle and wedging;
- sharpening.
How to choose the stabbing part?
When choosing a stabbing part, first of all, you need to pay attention to the quality of the metal used for its manufacture. It is recommended to choose blanks with the GOST sign. With a large selection of different models, you can choose an ax empirically. If you flick the blade of one ax against the blade of another, then the higher quality metal will leave notches on the less reliable version.
You can check the tool by tapping it suspended. In this case, the quality of the metal is determined by the nature of the sounds.
- there should be no defects on the surface of the blade;
- the eyelet should be cone-shaped;
- blade and eye must be coaxial;
- the end of the butt should be perpendicular to the blade;
- butt should not be too thick.
Back to index
Features of the manufacture of an ax handle
The length of the ax handle should be selected based on considerations of convenience for further operation. This takes into account the growth and strength of the master. For a relatively light tool, you will need to make an ax handle 40-60 cm long, heavier models can be with an ax handle 55-65 cm.
The quality of wood plays an important role in the choice of workpiece. Perfect option- the root part of a birch or growths on its trunk. It is permissible to use oak, maple, ash, acacia and other deciduous tree species.
The ax handle should have a thickening at the end, which will prevent the tool from slipping out of the hands. On the workpiece, it is necessary to make markings along the contour of the future handle and grind the excess wood with an electric jigsaw. After the initial processing, the blade and handle are tried on to each other using a mallet. If the parts fit tightly together, then you can proceed to the finishing of the wood surface.
First, looping is performed. This requires a piece of glass. Next, you need to sand the surface with sandpaper.
If the ax is easily inserted into the eye of the blade, then it will have to be completely redone using another blank for this. Simply inserting a wedge to seal the joint will not work. Back to index
Attachment of the blade on the handle
This stage is very important. Safety depends on it homemade tool. This work is carried out in stages:
- The upper edge of the ax is adjusted to fit the eye. All excess is cut off with a knife.
- A mark should be made on the handle to which the blade will be mounted. To do this, the ax handle is laid horizontally on the table, and a blade is placed on it. In the middle of the distance from the edge of the ax handle to the mark, you need to put another one.
- Clamp the handle in a vise in a vertical position. In this case, the wide part should be directed upwards. In a narrow one, you need to make a cut with a hacksaw to the upper mark. A wedge will be installed in it.
- From wood, you need to make a wedge of the same length as the depth of the cut, and the same width as the eye. Its thickness can vary between 0.5-1 cm.
- Set the blade upside down on the table. Install the ax into the eye and perform several taps, when the ax begins to enter it, you need to turn it over and tap with the lower end of the handle. This must be done until the blade is completely planted on the handle.
- Next, a wedge is inserted into the cut. It must be driven in with a mallet almost to the end or at least to the middle. The part that remains sticking out needs to be cut with a hacksaw.
- Next, the tool is lubricated with oil. You can use flaxseed, sunflower or motor. Excess should drain and the surface dry a little. After that, the hatchet is wiped.
