Thread: Axe handles

Ok - axe handles.

Who has a decent stock of the good ones - like the imported Columbia brand from the states? They have a decent size to the haft so they can actually be shaped down enough to fit a full size head like a Plumb, Kelly or Hytest with the 60x24mm oval eye...

I used to get them from the local emporium store but they've run out, and the local hardware shops like Mitre10 seem to just have the locally made ones that are 90cm handles with a haft that fits a hatchet head. It's a bit ridiculous, I have never seen an axe head with an eye that small (45mm by 16mm) even on the imported Chinese cheap stuff. The outfit that makes them has shaped them way too much, should have left them a straight oval rather than taking them down to the tiny oval they are now. Not that bad a piece of wood as far as handles go too which makes it all the more disappointing.

I'm not really set up to quickly make handles from a chunk of tree and most of my chunks of tree are 30cm long for fitting into a firebox haha. Now I guess I could use a chainsaw and hack a piece out of the remains of a bloody dense fir I have here, but it seems a little bit less than traditional.