Like many seasoned handymen, my truck bed has become a temporary resting place for broken tools. Recently, it’s been axes – specifically, axes with shattered handles, victims of overzealous swings from friends tackling firewood duty. As the go-to axe repair guy in my circle, I’m often tasked with the job of re-hafting these trusty tools, always accompanied by a quick safety lesson: give yourself more space from the wood block and mind your stance to avoid any unfortunate shin incidents.
One of the biggest hurdles for DIYers attempting axe restoration is Handle Off removal – getting that broken piece out of the axe head’s eye. While drastic measures like throwing the head into a fire might seem tempting, they risk damaging the axe’s temper. Drilling can be tedious and ineffective, especially if the eye is packed with metal wedges, or worse, improvised fixes like nails and bolts.
Having tackled countless axe re-hangs, I’ve streamlined the process with a few key tools and techniques to make handle off tasks faster and far less frustrating. Let’s explore some effective methods to get that stubborn handle out.
Wedge Removal: The First Step to Handle Off
Before attempting to drive out the handle, the first crucial step is to remove any wedges securing it within the axe eye. Resist the urge to grab your best chisels or screwdrivers for this task; they are easily damaged when prying out old, stubborn wedges. A far better tool for wedge removal is a farrier’s hoof nipper. Designed for trimming tough horse hooves, these nippers excel at grabbing and removing wedges, metal shards, and anything else jammed into the axe eye.
If a wedge protrudes slightly, simply grip it firmly with the nippers and rock them back to lever the wedge free.(1) For countersunk wedges where the handle extends slightly, you can use the nippers to carefully cut away the surrounding handle wood until you gain access to the wedge itself.
Utilizing a Shop Press for Handle Removal
In cases where the handle is flush with the axe eye and wedges are deeply countersunk, removing the wedges might be impractical or overly time-consuming. Begin by measuring the length of both the top and bottom of the axe eye. Most axe eyes are either symmetrical or slightly wider at the top. If this is the case, flip the axe head upside down. You can then use a hydraulic shop press to push the old handle out from the wider end of the eye.(2 & 3) The controlled pressure of a shop press makes quick work of taking the handle off, even when it’s tightly fitted.
Crafting a Handle Drift for Manual Handle Removal
If a shop press isn’t available, you’ll need to create a handle drift for manual removal. A drift is essentially a punch used to concentrate hammer blows for driving out objects. While a large bolt is sometimes used, it often gets stuck within the remaining handle pieces. The goal is to push the entire handle out in one piece if possible.
My preferred drift solution came from an unlikely source – a flea market dollar bin. I found an open-ended wrench with a crescent shape that closely matched the shape of an axe eye. Using a cutting wheel, I modified the wrench, preserving the crescent width and cutting the handle down to about 6 inches in length. This created a perfect, robust drift for hammering out old axe handles. (4) With the drift positioned against the handle end in the axe eye, hammer blows are focused effectively to push the handle out, making the handle off process achievable even without specialized machinery.
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