Medieval Axe Construction - What Many People Get WRONG
Вставка
- Опубліковано 10 лют 2025
- Many modern medieval axe replicas get this construction detail wrong. It works, but it's not really correct for the period - or at least not common in period.
Patreon & Extra Videos: / scholagladiatoria
Support & extra content on Subscribestar: www.subscribes...
Facebook & Twitter updates, info and fun:
/ historicalfencing
/ scholagladiato1
Schola Gladiatoria HEMA - sword fighting classes in the UK:
www.swordfight...
Matt Easton's website and services:
www.matt-easto...
Easton Antique Arms:
www.antique-sw...
The great thing about wooden wedges is that when you leave your axhead in linseed oil the handle as weell as the wedge swell up and give a very secure attachment, I do this with my wood chopping axes and I have never seen it fail
People forget that metal was very expensive throughout history. If they could do the job with something else, they tended to.
@@nathanielkidd2840 yes, and in my opinion, since the wood wedge works very well, the metal ones needed to become quite cheaper then those before being so widespread, and that probably happened later.
brush it lightly with linseed oil, NEVER leave it soak in the stuff. Oil-soaked wood is not good, and your axe head should be secure when dry, or else it's poorly hung.
@@BeetleBuns why never soak it? Would that damage the wood?
@@karltriebel4262 yea, oil-soaked wood breaks more easily than properly treated wood. I've replaced plenty of cracked and broken gunstocks that were soaked with oil, the wood just doesn't hold up to constant pounding. With a hammer or axe it's even worse. It's better to just hang the head properly in the first place, there's no reason to ruin good handles by soaking them. Besides, it takes WEEKS for a soaked handle to stop oozing oil, it's disgusting to work with.
My best guess is that using a wooden wedge in a wooden shaft might actually have been a premeditated choice - if the shaft starts changing size, the wedge would follow.
With a metal wedge, you run the risk of the 'join' coming loose due to difference in how metal and wood react to environment changes.
Interesting point. Could you use a different even more sensitive wood?
I have made axes a couple different ways. Sometimes you use a wood wedge. Sometimes a metal one. Sometimes a wood one and THEN a metal one set at 90 degrees. It depends on a number of things including size, use, materials, and as you so cogently point out the environment.
That’s a really good point!
I think a secondary reason may be that metal was too precious in some societies or areas in certain time periods for metal to be used as wedges. Why use a metal wedge when a wooden wedge could be obtained easily and cheaply.
It may not seem like much to us but maybe two or three metal wedges could be made into one good nail for shoeing a horse, and maybe three or four good nails could make a small thin knife a leather worker, seamstress, tailor, net mender, quill maker, fletcher, thatcher, etc.. would need to pay good money for to make a living.
Many carpenters did not use nails or used them only sparingly because of their expense. That’s why there’s so many different joint types in carpentry. I can think of two right off the top of my head, mortise&tension joint and dovetail joints.
I would have guessed the friction of wood on wood is bigger than metal on wood (dry and wet), and moisture expands wood but not metal.
@@phillipmargrave That is something we forget in our metal-rich present. The first axe I ever made was a copy of a trade axe from Fort Vancouver. Tool steel was very expensive, so the tiny piece was sandwiched inside the plain iron body. Good quality wootz was used sparingly in the best swords and cutting tools thousands of miles away in the Philippines centuries ago.
I work at a living history museum in Denmark covering, among other things, the iron- and viking age. We have tons of reconstructed axes for a variety of purposes and every single one has the head mounted in the way you describe (from the butt-end up)
One peculiar feature of this is, that the head has a marked tendency to work itself upwards with use (and especially with the kind of abuse that our dear guests subject our axes to) meaning, that when we re-shaft an axe we take good care to leave 5-7cm of shaft protruding from the top (as seen on Matt's tomahawk but even more pronounced), because the head WILL work itself up the shaft with use, and if you mount it with just a centimeter or two protruding at the top, the head will come flying off within a week.
Also, slightly off topic: You will not believe the kind of abuse these axes see on a daily basis. People have no appreciation what so ever for how to use a tool like an axe. During high season it is a constant rush to keep up with the wear and tear. An ash shaft on one of our splitting axes will last maybe two weeks before we have to replace it.
Why the guests are using your axes at a museum??
@@mat5473 mostly to chop wood for the fire - or really just so they can experience what it feels like to use an axe. Most of them have probably never held an axe before in their lives.
@@mat5473he started by saying he works in a living history museum, so people are invited to experience the period not just look at it from a distance.
An interesting thing about axe eye shape. It has to do with how the wood is shaped. Norse axes typically have a tear drop or kite shaped haft because they processed wood by splitting the logs so the length of the haft ran with the grain. Much like how they hewed planks for their ships. So since a log split multiple ways is triangular in shape they made the eyes of their axes also triangular in shape.
Axes from Slavic regions however have a rounder ones because I believe they used saplings and tree limbs to make the hafts of their axes.
I'm not convinced. I've certainly found in the past that orienting a haft radially in the log means it crosses many growth rings, almost guaranteeing it will warp dramatically as it dries, bending out of the plane of the axe bit, rendering it basically useless. It's worked better for me (and I think is more conventional) to orientate the haft tangentially in the log, so that there are fewer growth rings running through the haft and shrinkage is front-to-back, rather than across the haft; you get very little out-of-plane distortion that way. Trees haven't changed since the dark ages and I think they'd have had the same problems, hanging axes as you describe.
Also, a cloven piece of wood makes for a really uncomfortable grip, so you're going to have to carve the haft into a softer shape anyway and it'd be barely more work to reshape the head-end while you were at it; you'd have to taper the head-end to firmly fit the head regardless.
@@SmevMev the other advantage to orienting the grain as you describe is that the wood is much less likely to split from impacts in plane with the head. Growth rings in plane with the edge of the axe is what I always aim for when cutting a handle.
@@SmevMev I'm trying to understand what you mean. Collin is describing splitting the log like a pizza, which is a traditional way to do it. Split the log in half, then split each half again making quarters, etc. It's difficult to split a log in any other way, because if you're not starting the split in the middle of your piece of wood, the split will tend to run off to one side.
I'm having trouble understanding why this would make the handle prone to warping to the side. I'd expect this would be the way the caused it to warp front-to-back.
Good point about them having to reshape it for comfort though.
I have made oval hafts from small branches and they have worked so far.
@@IndigoBees If you imagine a log, with the growth rings concentric, I'm suggesting you orientate an axe haft tangential to the growth rings i.e. with the bark-side to one side of the axe eye and log centre to the other. The original poster was suggesting you orientate the haft so the bark side is to the back and the log centre to the front. Once the head is hung, the first method will show the growth rings parallel to the axe bit, whereas the second method will have them at 90 degrees to it.
The growth rings in drying wood shorten along their circumference, by some percentage; the further you get from the log centre, the longer the circumference of each growth ring and so the more noticeable the shrinkage. If you orientate the axe haft so the back is towards the bark-side and the front towards the centre, you have loads of growth rings crossing the haft and the ones at its front will shrink much more than the ones at its back, resulting in stress which warps the haft off to one side of the head and sometimes twists it too. This means the blade is at a different angle to the haft, depending on how far up you hold it and makes it harder to use accurately. If you do what I'm suggesting, you include fewer growth rings in the haft and so the difference in amount of shrink is less and therefore the stresses don't build up as much, plus any warp remains in-plane with the axe blade, so you can hold the haft where you like, without changing the angle the blade presents itself to the wood.
The only real downside to this second way is that you need a wider log to be able to fit the front-to-back length of the axe eye at a tangent to the heartwood growth rings, but then you just have to find a bigger tree.
I've tried both methods and simply had better results with tangential orientation.
My group has a number of axes that slide up from the bottom. We usually just tie cord or a bit of leather under the head after tamping it down to help keep it in its place. Helps make sure you don't get your fingers munched by your own axe head.
Ooh!, that's a good idea.
I would also think a leather or cord wrap on the handle part of the haft would provide plenty of grip to avoid the axe coming out of the hand.
@@natehammar7353 I can definitely see the benefit of a band of leather or rawhide just below the hand position, as a stop for sweaty or wet hands. Good thought there!
The best part of the slip on hafting method is, if you need a new shaft, the only tool you need to carve it is the axe head itself.
Reference the orientation of the wedging on the axe heads my experience with North American tool axes comes from the pioneer tools used during my military days. The advice I got from the combat engineers was to put a large wooden wedge along the long axis then, if you want to make it extra secure, pound in one or two much smaller metal wedges at a slight angle from the wooden wedge but not at an extreme 90 angle. I've also had a number of people advise me not to use the metal wedges at all as they make it harder to chisel out the axe's eye hole if the handle breaks and you need to replace it. I've re-hafted axes both ways and, so long as the axe head and axe handle are the correct size the wooden wedge is usually more than enough for infantry work.
That said, someone in the lumber industry might have better advice as, despite the use of chainsaws, they still occasionally use axes.
Exactly like we do it here in scandinavia. I have an inkling that the metal wedge comes in to play if the handle experience much shifting in moisture. Like if you take it inside your home after a trip in the woods. I have read that swedish lumberjacks sometimes used coins before ready made wedges were available, but they took their axes into the cabins to prevent the edges from getting brittle from the cold (all logging in norther sweden was traditionally done in the wintertime, no sap in the timber, easier to transport logs by sleds and nothing else to do.)
Our club does a lot of axe throwing and we've found that putting the head on from the bottom prevents the head from coming off whereas when you use a wedge the head tends to come off after repeated throws.
My twin brother use an axe in his work. He reshaft the things roughly a little more then once a year. And he prefer wodden wedges rather then metall wedges. Because a wodden wedge gives more freedom (to reform and saw off the piece sticking up). Oh, and he prefer Hultafors before Gränsfors - mainly because of balance and because he resharp even a new axe to get the edge slightly out of center (because of how he use the axe).
I believe one thing has been overlooked, it should be clearly visible in which way the head was put on the handle simply by looking at the eye. If the eye is wider at the top than at the bottom it was a tomahawk style friction fit (as seen on modern day basque en rinaldi Italian axes). If the eye is wider at the bottom it was meant to receive the handle from bellow and be secured by a wedge.
If you take this into account there should not be a lot of discussion I feel.
Or maybe some historical examples had a perpendicular eye, in which case I would assume a wedge, since it would not work wel for a friction fit.
Some years ago there were found a bunch of weapons and helmets in Poland from the 11-12 century, some of the axes had surviving hafts and no signs of any wedges. Probably hafted from the bottom
I've hafted more than a few axes. I was taught to always use a longitudinal wooden wedge. I was also told to always use a softer wood for the wedge so you don't crack the haft. The wedge will mushroom and break before the haft fails. When the wedge won't go any farther, saw it off flush, then put a nail or screw in the top to give a little extra push against all sides of the eye.
As far as I know that's the way we do it in my country to, although I don't know isn't quite obvious ;
You can use either softer or harder wood for the wedge, it has the same effect of sticking better to the haft. Just don't use the same wood as the haft, then the wedge might be pushed out.
Around here, we often use harder wood for the wedge, because hard wood is more expensive. But if you are using stuff like hickory for the haft, then a softer wedge is easy to find.
I've got a German Goosewing Hewing axe, the end of the haft is tapered and fits into a tapered socket/eye like a chisel. The very end of it has rotted away but it doesn't look like there was ever a wedge in it or even the space for it. My guess is it was just a friction fit when it was dry and that was it. How tight it is depends on the weather and where I keep it, it's lasted since whenever people still hewed timber until now but I'd probably replace it if I expected to use it.
these goosewing axes are part of the axe myth themselves - even now they are sometimes identified as battle axes :) (even in academic publications)
7:23 these types of axes are still in traditional use in Hungary, and folk dances seem to have "drills" to secure the head back on if it would slide down (I remember swinging sticks and pounding them to the ground)
Matt clearly had an Axe to Grind about this subject. 😎
@Aiden Smith Well if we stay sharp and ignore any cutting remarks from our detractors I think we can chop this problem down to size in 1 good slice.
Grips the shaft with a ring so the head doesn't come off everywhere.
Great video! Most of the spike tomahawks favored out in the Eastern Woodlands had wedged head-handle connections and oblong and even rectangular eye geometries. A lot used wooden wedges, and I was advised by my mentor, Jack Vargo, to always use wooden wedges, preferably from the same wood that’s used in the handle so that there’s no mismatch between the wedge and the handle in the wood’s natural shrinkage and expansion at different air moisture and temperature levels. However there are examples of spike tomahawks where nails were driven into the eye-often these look quite sloppy in execution, and Vargo speculated this was done in the field in order to secure a head that may have gotten a little loose. Any metal wedge can eventually lead to a loosened head/handle connection, especially if the head is hung in a hot and humid environment and taken to a cold and dry environment. The wood of the handle shrinks from the dry air, and the metal of the wedge shrinks from the cool temperature. A tomahawk hung with a metal wedge in the summer in Arkansas can be sold to a customer in Canada in the winter, and the axe head can be loosen in a day.
Hey Zack,
while watching this video i asked myself "what would that wingard guy think of that". Now i know.
Love your products and your videos.
When I was a young boy my neighbor teach me how to substitute an axe shaft, and the method he used was to slide the head from the bottom and hammer it in till it was extremely firm and cant hammer it up more without damaging the shaft. Then, he used to hammer a band of some kind copper alloy in the wood just below the head to keep it in place just in case as an extreme safe measure (I don’t remember if with a couple of peg or needle or not). But those axes were tools, I didn’t know that system was used also with weapons.
Huh. In my childhood and youth in Finland, the wood axes I had the pleasure to swing around (to the horror of my mom) all had wood wedges. Including the Finnish Army in the late 1990s.
P.S. The Army axes were trash. Many a dark winter day was spent cursing and trying to find the axe head as it went flying into the snow. Whump, with the channel of snow collapsing behind it. If you were lucky, you at least managed to see the direction the blasted thing went as it sunk in, so you could just dig a trench through the snow. With an effing entrenching tool... Ah, good times. To be young and foolish again. :P
Hehehe...in every compartment on Soviet nuclear submarine there was set of firefighting equipment, with handles painted red and heads painted black. It included a large sledgehammer and an axe. The axe was dull and cumbersome but with wooden wedge, of course.
The pranks you can play on your mates with cardboard copy of sledgehammer were hilarious :)
@@sasasasa-lx6cl The prank story made me laugh heartily, thank you.
My fathers woodcutting axe is with a wooden wedge. So my first thought was wooden wedge. I think most modern european axes are still with wooden wedges... At least the ones I know.
I Learn so much from this channel. Thanks
Proud of you mates💙🔥
i learn a lot more from you matt and you guys in the comments than i will ever learn in my classes🔥💯
You know what's kinda ironic? By adding so many wedges, they split the handle so many times that as soon as that handle gets old it's going to fall apart and lose the head.
It would literally be a better, safer axe if they just stopped at a single wedge lol
It looks like some different people tried to fix the axe, each one just banging in another wedge...
concerning the eye shape, some axes are constructed by folding a bar of steel back on itself and forgewelding the join partly, opening the eye in this example will more naturally result in a teardrop shape
Good friction fit axes are a sight to behold, especially if it is dry when you put it on and it swells a little bit; it sits so darn hard it aint coming off unless you are actively hammering it.
Also regarding the debate about how axe heads were fit, isn't it possible to look at the eye and see whether or not it slants towards the top or bottom? While the example wasn't perfect, I think I recall one example at the Vitenskapsmuseet in Trondheim (upper floors, wall to the back, cant remember museum number) having an eye getting narrower towards the bottom, but this was seen from only one angle.
Definitely an interesting debate tho; on one hand you can have premade handles ready incase one breaks with a friction fit, but as long as you don't have to make it on the spot it doesn't really take that much more time to shaft a axe with a wedge either. It would probably be a bit safer too due to being able to insert more wedges expanding the wood inside to fit incase handle and head isn't made specifically for each other. (assuming that handmade axes from the middle ages and back have more variance than machine made ones today)
I have been using slip fit axes for years (all my life indeed), they are the easiest, lest work time needed (by far) and safest way to hang an axe. To fix wooden part problems (potential and real) you have to have basic limited knowledge which may look child level knowledge to those who life in societies used to use these tools.
Here you have one of the axes which evolved from the original Tomahawk in its birthplace, a Basque axe in this case. Note the sistem doesn't need even to tap it, but just put it in it's place and make a few swings. Regards
ua-cam.com/video/ImBQCe1snO4/v-deo.html
We had a modern axe handle break when clearing trees, and the wedging was so solid and secure that we chose to burn out the remainder of the handle. Yeah, not necessarily good for the temper, but it's not our best axe anyway. it's the one we use when chopping roots to clear stumps.
Metal wedges are not used because they are kind of terrible, besides breaking the wood, they don't move with the wood and loosen up pretty quickly. Metal Wedges, nails, screws, and other non-wood debris, are definitely a modern thing. Wooden wedges are way better for when the handle needs to be larger than the head.
Edit: To provide a flair out at the end you can either glue another piece of wood on the handle after the head is attached, and then shape it, or you can also put some sort of ferrule around it.
I work at a home improvement store, and in our garden center we carry tools such as axes, mauls, mattocks and pickaxes. It is actually common for these type of tools to have wooden wedges. In fact, we sell a pack of replacement wedges that has 1 small metal wedge and 1 large wooden wedge.
Even nowadays most traditional European wood cutting axes use wooden wedges (always following the direction of the blade, never crosswise, as that is more likely to split the shaft further with chopping). You can also buy those wedges separately in most hardware stores.
Metal wedges are probably a recent innovation. When I was a kid growing up on my gradma's small ranch we had an old farrier's barn. Inside were lots of old tools, probably dating back to the farrier, and tools that had belongrd to my mom's stepdad, who was a carpenter. I clearly remember that all the axes had oval handles with wood wedges holding them on. They probably dated back to the late 1800's and early 1900's. I remember because the first time we ever needed to buy a modern axe was we our family went on our first camping trip in the late 1960's. My dad took me to buy some necessary equipment, including a campcaxe. I was surprised because that was the first time I'd ever seen metal wedges in an axe head. I thought it seemed cheap and silly and of lesser quality.
so good u took the time to publish
I'm a big axe guy. Camping and bushcrafting, not weaponry. I usually soak my axes in water for 24 hours so that the wood swells. It holds the axe head firmly in place.
Wood after several cycles of wet-dry tends to rot and get more fragile, also in the drying process it shrinks getting time after time narrower. I used to do it on my pick with a good quality beech handle, bad idea.
Just put on some good wedges and let them do their job
If you soak the axehead/axe-eye in boiled linseed oil instead of water, you will get the same effect. But boiled linseed oil will crystallize and 'harden' inside the pores of the wood, making the swelling more permanent. I've only recently tried it, and so far so good. However, I'm not sure it's a 100% permanent fix.
Ethylene glycol should do the same thing. I believe it is how they preserve old wooden ships.
Interesting... The common axe you find in Switzerland has the head put on from the rear, with the handle getting thicker towards the top... And then, once you've hammered it up there and it's firmly fixed, you drive a wedge into the handle from the top just for good measure (usually with a wooden wedge, it seems). I always thought this was the common way to mount axe heads. No idea about surrounding countries, but I've seen the same construction in Bosnia. Maybe it's a continental thing?
Definitely saving this to practice later !
When I lived in the Himalayas about 10 years ago I had an axe that was assembled from the butt end, it came loose once and a friend helped me ram it back on, so I guess they maybe still use that technique in India sometimes.
My English light infantry axe is done without any wedge , you just pound it on the ground until it’s firmly wedged on.
You are right for the most part. But: I have seen axeheads from early mediaeval sites that can't be classified by their construction. In some contexts they are labeled as tools, because they are found among other tools, in burial sites the same axeheads would be labeled as weapons. Both of these have thin blades and might have been used as multi purpose tools and/or weapons. Not meant to refute your point entirely, but especially in early sites things are not always cut and dry. Love your channel!
Here in Spain (still today) made the axes getting the axehead from the bottom... But also, we put the shaft in water, what inflates it, and put the shaft harder when it dryes.
Really thought this was going to be a discussion of whether the axe head was forged flat(ish) and folded round to form the eye or if the eye was created in a solid block with a drift. Still interesting!
My theory is that expense plays a part as well. Metal has always been expensive, so why would you pay for a metal wedge, when wood is abundant and does the job, arguably even better than metal?
You should be able to see the method of attachment by looking at the taper of the eye.
You ideally never want a straight walled eye for any tool - it would never really lock onto the shaft (actually, "haft" when talking about axe handles"), no matter what direction you drive it in from. You would be able to hammer that down into a conical haft, but it would damage the wood, causing a potential point of failure. Those damaged "step" portions could just shear off during an impact, or just slowly "bite deeper" - making the axe wobbly, needing continous attention to retighten them. A tapered eye would naturally lock onto the (tapered) wood by compression.
If you want to do a friction attachment like in a pickaxe, the hole should be tapering wider at the top to make the fit as tight as possible.
On a wedge-secured head, you would want to have the hole either being tapered the other direction - wide at the bottom (or being hourglass-shaped, tapering in both directions), for you need something preventing the head being driven down the haft by the wedge, as well.
While the bottom taper sitting snug against the haft, locking it securely against slipping down, ideally, the wedge would need something for the wood to expand into to make the fit tighter, so you would want a taper for a wide top, as well ( thus hourglass shape). Such a hourglass ey would not only secure the head via the friction of the wedge , but also due to the wood now being conical in both directions, too. Such a construction is pretty much permanent, only drilling/carving out the now deformed wood will allow the parts to become seperate.
All "decent" quality axes today use wood wedges and a small steel wedge perperdicular to the edge of the blade to split the haft and 1st wood wedge "front to back" basically as security-it helps prevent lawsuits but ensuring the maker has done all they possibly can but the steel wedges are really not needed in any axe
Can validate this. My small Gränsforbruks axe use a singular wooden wedge in the direction of the blade and nothing more. Tight as the day I got it. A dream.
Yeah, this is what I've seen the majority of the time. At fleet farm they sell wedge kits with one wood wedge and several smaller metal wedges. The third way he talks about are how most pick-axes are done now
@@willek1335 Gransforsbruks axes are amazing
A single wooden wedge, or a wooden wedge plus a cross wedge (also of wood) are all the security a good axe can need. I think the metal cross wedges we see are more often in mass produced items as an attempt to take out any slop and looseness that might occur in their process. The metal cross wedge can be reliably and quickly driven into a wooden handle as an additional security measure. A wooden cross wedge also does this but takes more time-you have to use saw or chisel to cut an “entry path” for the wooden cross wedge. I do this for our tomahawks and it is time consuming. However, unlike the metal cross wedge, the wooden wedge will contract and expand with the handle as the environmental conditions vary. Any metal wedge, whether primarily or cross wedge, can eventually result in a loosened head/handle connection if the axe is subjected to enough change in temperature or humidity.
i can vouch for this. My own small outdoors axe(hatchet) is the best
i usually use a wood wedge in line with the tool then a metal wedge cross ways. sometimes i’ll just do the wood wedge and use the metal wedge later if the handle loosens up (the most wedges i’ve seen in a tool handle was a hammer that had lots of wedges and nails driven in after the fact to keep the handle from falling off and there was more metal than wood).
i also notice old tool handles tend to be narrower (and i’d figure this habit would carry over to weapons) and the bit of handle holding the head on lasts longer on narrower handles since less shock is being absorbed directly by that joint. my theory is people who use hand tools more frequently move to a looser more confident grip which is easier on a narrower handle. a thick handle is more ergonomic for the tight grip of someone who only picks the tool up once in a while and wants to know they can rely on it.
so both i can see wood wedges lasting longer in a tool with a narrower handle of the user of the tool/weapon being more comfortable with a narrow enough handle that can fit through the eye of the tool.
On this episode of scholagladitoria Matt Easton takes a break from discussing penetration to discuss fat shafts.
Many years a go was working in coal mine. In some of last one that still use hand digging method. you use axe for building support from wood. What we do before working, you put the axe in a bucket or just puddle of water to let the wood to expand. Can now a clearly see the people before battle was doing the same.
ps: great video thank you
I friction fit my axes from the bottom and use wedges to prevent sliding down- works like a charm and they don't break. The "points" on the eye that face downward toward the shaft act, by the way, as excellent guides and insertion points for wedges. I think their presence is fairly good evidence for wedging from the bottom, after doing it myself.
I've never seen so many wedges Matt, save maybe at a particularly large Pizza Hut.
Yeah, whoever made the shaft and wedged that axe head on didn't know what they were doing. I'd never seen a perpendicular wedge in anything until he pulled that monstrosity out. The workmanship reminds me of the "monkey trying to f*** a football" analogy 🤣
That Indian axe looks weird.
I haven't seen that many wedgies since 1st year.
@@darthkek1953 Wedges ??
Again, a very detailed and informative video. You're very knowledgeable and passionate on your subject 👍
You mentioned the way the way English axes were constructed, any comments on the Celtic or Brythonic methods?
With a pick axe it's usually fairly easy to knock the handle out if you need to pack it away. I could see that being handy throughout history, especially to nomadic peoples. I rehafted more than a few picks in my younger days and although getting a really good fit often entailed a bit of filing they were usually useable as supplied. Fair enough, most tool handles are machine made these days but fitting a wedged axe head still needs a lot more work than that just to get it through the eye and if not done carefully it will soon work loose.
Hi.
Another benefit worth considering with respect to a Tomahawk type construction i.e. axe head sliding up towards the head of the shaft, is that the axe head can be easily removed for both sharpening and for use as a cutting tool, such as processing food and game, fine wood work and general cutting duties.
This allows one to have fine control over the cutting surface without the problem of the handle getting in the way.
Star Citizen Alpha: Not to mention being able to quickly REPLACE a broken haft, WITHOUT the need for a wedge
Friction Fit. And I've rehafted two small axes and I've used hard wood wedges. It works.
+scholagladiatoria *I'd expect the handles of axes and adzes to closely approach the heads' hollows in size as well as shape.* The example axe Time 1:02 is liable to have the shaft break at the head attach point as a result of excessive wedging and the consequent splits in the wood.
Very nice video! Thanks
I don't know how you kept a straight face...shafts swelling at the end, etc. :p Good work:) And informative as usual.
And what about powerful thrusts to fit the shaft in the eye? Or is hammering a better technique? Should the shaft or the eye be lubricated beforehand to ease the passage? Does the thickness of the shaft matter more as opposed to its length to make a better coupling? So many interesting points are left unanswered :(
Are there any examples of shafts with a tear drop cross section with a tappered shaft?
Very interesting, thanks !
I'm surprised that it is not evident with the shape of the eyes on the axes that have been found as I would have expected a taper with the wider end at the top unless the finds are too corroded to tell or the smiths gave less of a fudge than usual in their weapon construction.
Of course there is always the possibility that it didnt really make any odds because they expect to be changing the handles over relatively often so they dont need to go through the extra step of making the taper as they dont intend the same head/handle to be used again and again for an extended period of time.
But my guess and your point match up nicely. I'd have assumed it was a "bottom up" construction primarily for the sake that it is much easier to re-handle
regardless of if the axe head is installed from the bottom or top of the shaft, both ways you would expected the eye to be tapered wide end top
and with most axe head you would not know what was the top and bottom side, they would be too symmetrical, so a tapered eye does not tell you much
even with a asymmetric axe head, like a bearded axe, so people might prefer to mount it beard up so they can thrust, so you really can't tell much
@@portkapul1283 I disagree with your symmetrical statement on axe heads but i did forget about the taper of a top-fitted axe.
Well, i guess we will have to fall back on logic alone
The large set of Iron Age "tomahawks" with handles remains was found in Illerup. I believe they were with round eyes and without wedges, but is need some double-checking.
Yes the friction fit method also makes handle replacement mush easier than the wedging method.
Love this channel
"Native American tomahawk" isn't really as accurate as just North American tomahawk. Although the weapon(more so just the name) is Native American, the tomahawk that comes to most people's minds when they hear the word is the steel/iron-headed weapon, and these were not only introduced by European settlers, but, especially here on the frontier, the white settlers used them every bit as much as the Indians did.
As I sit and type this, I'm in a part of the country where the tomahawk played a vital role as a literal weapon of war, as well as a bushcraft tool. There wasn't quite as much tomahawk use by whites following the advent of repeating firearms. This is why, for example, the tomahawk doesn't have as much of a history in the far West. By the time that part of the country was being settled, revolvers and lever-action rifles were more prevalent, so weapons such as the tomahawk and Bowie knife became a little less relevant. However, the Bowie knife remained popular for a little longer, probably because it came on the scene RIGHT before the change in firearms in the 1830s, unlike the tomahawk, which had been around since at least the early 17th century. Also, as far as tomahawk heads having a round eye: I've only seen a very few. It's been my experience that the vast majority of them are designed to receive a haft with an oblong/ovoid cross-section.
I liked this comment. I’m a tomahawk maker in SE Pennsylvania, and the tomahawk played a big role out here when firearm technology was so slow and unreliable. I posted a video about warclubs earlier this year that touched on why tomahawks weren’t as relevant out west. I think it has more to do with the context of horse based transportation and warfare. The warclub played a bigger role in the Plains and out west, even into the 1870’s.
@@wingardwearables , Thank you for the reply! I will definitely check out your video. I must admit that I don't know nearly as much about warclubs as I do about tomahawks, so it's more than possible that I overlooked the role they played.
Your being from Pennsylvania makes me think of the event that basically sparked the French and Indian War in 1754, when the Seneca warlord Tanacharison(the "Half King") brained Ensign Jumonville with his tomahawk after he had been wounded and taken captive by a young British officer named George Washington! What's crazy is that a similar incident played out here in Indiana, and it involved several Pennsylvanians! Several fighting men from Westmoreland County had been recruited to join Geo. Rogers Clark in his campaign against the British-allied Indians in the "Illinois Country"(as the whole mid-Midwest was known at the time) in 1781. Unfortunately, the Pennsylvanians were ambushed on the Ohio River as they were bringing up the rear trying to catch up with Clark, and their leader, Col. Archibald Lochry, was tomahawked to death, and several of the Pennsylvanians were taken captive and delivered to the British up at Detroit.
@@andreweden9405 did not know about the Lochry incident but I've been listening to the American Revolution Podcast and the content hasn't reached 1781 yet. I think they're covering events in 1779.
I do use historic materials whenever they can provide insight into tomahawk design and use from their period of use. February 1779 was the massacre at Fort Laurens, and provides rare archeological evidence of tomahawk injuries, so that (and experiments) was helpful in sizing the chopping blade of our first tomahawk design--the Backripper Tomahawk.
@@wingardwearables , Ok. It's interesting that you mention February 1779, because that's the exact same month that a very pivotal event of the Revolution occured out here on the frontier as well: It's when Geo. Rogers Clark and the American forces retook old Fort Vincennes from the British, who were under the command of Governor-General Henry Hamilton. In order to instill as much fear as possible in the British garrison, Clark ordered the public tomahawking of a hunting party (I wanna say about 4 or 5) British-allied Indians who had made the mistake of returning right when Clark and his men were besieging the fort. There were some very dark episodes that played out in this theater of the war, and this was definitely one of them. However, the British did end up surrendering, Hamilton relinquished his sword to Clark, and he was taken back to Virginia in irons.
By the way, this is the Wikipedia article about Lochry's Defeat in 1781...
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lochry%27s_Defeat
I am very interested in your work as a maker of tomahawks! We have quite a legacy of tomahawks and long rifles here in Indiana, and it continues to the present day with some VERY fine makers. Are you familiar with Kyle Willyard aka Old Dominion Forge?
@@andreweden9405 I am familiar with Old Dominion Forge but do not own any of his products. I hope he's still in business--their website hasn't been updated in a long time.
Can't the construction method be deducted by the tapering of the eye? If you are using a wedge, then the eye should be hourglass shaped, while if you insert it from the bottom it would simply be conical. It is likely that the eye was brought to size with a drift, so both tapers were as easily achievable.
That is only part of the topic, however.
There is the part about which way, and with which material the 'top-down' axes were wedged.
The main attraction for me for friction held heads for an axe as a tool (e.g. tomahawk) is the ease of replacing the handle if it becomes damaged when away from a work shop. I wonder if ancient folks on campaign felt similarly about weapons consteucted that way.
I have a 14th/15th century, wrought iron executioners axe. It weighs 7lb The socket is D shaped. I hafted it with yew and used an ash wedge length ways to secure it. The profile is quite like a Dane axe. It is heavily pitted but maintains a sharp 8" edge. I sold it once to an antique furniture dealer. But bought it back again, as he'd become ill at ease with the axe's macabre past. I'd only sell it now, to a medieval era enthusiast. Someone who'd appreciate it as much as I do.
Thanks Matt, another great video, axes are a special interest of mine. Question: How long/deep would the wooden wedge be on the axe you showed us around 4:00 ? I ask because I feel like the bottom edge of the cut in the shaft (to accept the wedge) would be a stress-raiser (weak point) so you would not want that to align with the bottom edge of the hole in the axe head. It would be better above or below that line, but I could not see that detail in your axe. :)
looking at the thumbnail for the first time I thought Matt's gonna do a "HEEEEEERE'S JOHNY!!!"👀😋😂
Matt Easton using the word "concise" in the first sentence of his elaboration.
Dis gon be gud.
There are pubs in Ireland that serve the same function you mentioned Matt.
You want a round steel wedge. But first. Let the wood eye handle soak in oil first for a while. Then it’ll be good to use the round steel wedge, and BAM!!! You got a tightly fitted axehead
Wonder why no one used rivets. Costs maybe? There are some examples of axeheads being riveted in place from the later periods, but from the medieval age?
Come to think of it, I do not seem to recall ever seeing a modern axe with this kind of construction. Maybe it has something to do with how easy it should be to replace a broken shaft?
I have a modern RMJ Tactical tomahawk, as well as a traditional tomahawk by Devin Price, so I guess I enjoy having the best of both worlds!😁
Rivets will keep the head from flying off, but if the handle loosens from the wood shrinking you have no effective way of tightening the handle, and the rivet will need to be removed if the handle ever breaks.
Alec Steel made a great point in a video: if you only put a wooden wedge in, you still have the option to also put a steel wedge in later, if the head gets loose for some reason. I think this is a genius idea and I really don't know why all axes still came with a wood and steel wedge together.
One may also bore a hole with a drill and drive in a circular tapered peg to expand the wood in all directions, and this may be done several times if need be.
@@FortyTwoBlades I've never heard about this technic, but sounds great, I will give it a try!
another thought on but threaded handles. To replace a handle away from a forge, or wood tools, planking, in a forest for example, you would cut a horizontal branch off a tree near the trunk. Choosing one that is about the size and shape of the eye of the axe, this could be trimmed and slid down the eye of the axe. The collar of the branch would stop the axe from comming of because of its natural tapper. I am not sure if this would be benificial as a haft, given the grain of the branch would be circular as well as travelling down the handle. It would mean if you designed an axe with a top tappered hole, a replacement handle would be near by in a branch or sapling with little need for complex wood work. This is speculation as i dont know how handle suitable trees grow in the northen hemisphere. I can see this working with a few apropriate trees in Australia.
Thank you
The most surprising thing in the video to me is that it sounds like my dad and i are a rarity in still using just wooden wedges in the axeheads. (On the other hand, in the shop i went for a shovel handle last time, wooden axe head wedges are still sold next to the metal ones.)
Wooden wedges were easier to make and way cheaper than any metal during the Medieval Period.
Could you do one on the construction methods for halberds and pole axes? I'm a blacksmith and have been having some difficulty figuring out a good way of forging one out.
I would lean more towards the latter method where the head slides up from the base of the handle to wedge itself at the end. It is much easier to rehandle the axe this way rather than using wedges at the end of the head.
Some family friends had throwing knife/axe targets, so I grew up around tomahawks and thought that's just how *all* axes were constructed until I was much older.
I know that of the method of putting it on from the bottom you need to have a very dry handle and after you bang it on you soke it in water. The wood swells and bingo! the head does not come off even if it's pushed down by something. The only thing you have to watch out for is that the handle doesn't get too dry, and if it does just bang it back on and soke it again.
In northern Italy most of the times woodcutting axes are still constructed without wedges putting the head from the bottom
I wonder, is there any chance they used leather or other cloth like material to wrap around were the axe head and the haft connect in order to stop it from slipping off in anyway if using the method of not wedging it? Somehow a tight wrap of leather seems like maybe it would help keep it from slipping in my mind, but i must confess i have no idea if that is in anyway functional.
The smaller wedges (like for a hatchet or hammer) also work quite well at really, really ruining locks. Just stick it in the keyhole and give it a few solid bangs with a hammer. :-)
Dane axes often have pointy triangular parts facing up and down on the left and right sides of the eye. Do you think these are supposed dig in to help the head from sliding back down?
Great video.
Putting the head from the bottom of the shaft is how my grandfather and then my father fitted the heads on their wood chopping axe. The shaft was hand made.
9:05 many were secured with wedges and not just the friction fit
With wood cutting axes at least there should be a wooden wedge as well. The wedge should be very dry so that it swells in tight after it's pounded in. The wedge is often soft wood so that it has a bit of a crush fit. Metal wedges are not great long term and will often come loose after time since the do not swell with the wood and they are going to actually crush the wood of the handle so that there is no pressure from the wood to hold in the wedge. If metal wedges are used correctly they used transversely to the edge to push the wood into the point of the eye shaped hole. The shape of the hole come from when a piece of plate was wrapped around a mandrill and then is sandwich welded to a piece of carbon steel. By leaving the loop an eye shape there was no metal to spring open and let the handle loose.
Interesting video, Matt. I wonder though, how would axes with spikes at the top be fitted through??? Was it forge welded on after the axe itself was fitted onto the haft, or would the axe and spike have been one solid piece that would then fit over the top of the the haft and then perhaps riveted through the sides of the axe head?
We're rivets historically used? I.e. a pin driven through holes in both the head and wood, then peened over?
Or is the compression fit sturdy enough to render a pit moot?
@scholagladiatoria how were axe/hammer heads with a top spike fixed to the shaft?
i ask as access to the top of the shaft is blocked by the spike for a traditional wedge
Question what shape were the bevels on war axes? Concave, flat or convex?
PS I never use metal wedges on my axe handles.
Straight axe handles without flares are quite common. In the visual art of medieval europe the is no evidence of flared handles. It could be argued that this detail was omitted by artists but you don't see it in the highly realistic art of the 17th or 18th century art either. Not until the 19th century and modern fawns foot style do you see flares. But even then double bit axes often don't have a flare. Also besides that contemporary Japanese axes are almost always straight without any flare.
I've got an ~18th century French axe head that is designed to be fitted slip over style. Excellent axe and its great as falling axe or Joggling axe.
The north eastern spike tomahawks are often wedged like a typical axe but it seems the more utilitarian tomahawks have a Basque influence many Basque failing axis made today have the same hefting method . This method could’ve possibly been introduced by the French but I’m not sure
metal wedges tend to be at 90 deg to the cutting edge, with wooden wedges being in line with it, as viewed from above..also I may be wrong, but I think that 'all the wedges' method is taken from a genuine find.
My grandfather was a blacksmith and even though he could make as many metal wedges as he wanted, he used wooden ones and said it is better - unfortunately I didn't ask why :(. I just know he used acacia wood for wedges and ash wood for shaft.
My Peterson type c axe from arms and armor is put on from the bottom of the shaft
Was the drilled stone from the old Egyptian war club not also put on from the butt end.
I once handled a bunch of modern east european blacksmith's hammers, made by a blacksmight, which were constructed in the way of making the shaft wider towards the top.
Maybe horn wedges were used some of the time, if it was perceived to be more advantageous than wood. Like on top and bottom of some bows. I assume that horn would also decay over time, and thus not be found archeologically, unless in bogs, and the like.
I really like 1-handed battleaxes with spikes at the top and hooks/picks on the back. Show me those!
What no talk about the Finish way of fixing an axe head? Total madnesses.