10/22/08, 03:15 PM
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Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: NC
Posts: 622
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Get the old broken handle out of the axe head with a drill or a punch and a hammer.
Check the fit of the new handle. Use a draw knife or whatever you have to shave it until you are sure it can be driven in until the wood comes out the other side of the axe head or at least comes level with the other side. To get ithe axe head driven on all the way, I stand the axe up with the head on top and holding the handle drive it straight down onto a solid wooden surface like a stump. The weight of the head will carry it further down the handle. The new handle probably came with wooden and steel wedges. After you get the handle all the way through the axe, drive the wooden wedge in the slot as deep as you can get it with a hammer...a wooden hammer if you have one so it doesn't get too smashed up while it is being driven. Then drive in the steel wedges at a 45 degree angle to the wooden wedge. Then you're done.
The only other thing i do to keep the axe head tight on the handle is to never leave it out in the rain. If the wood gets wet, it swells, crushing the grain inside the axe head, then it dries and gets loose.
I know folks who soak their wooden handles in oil so they swell permanently and last a long time. I haven't done it myself...just keeping the tools out of the rain seems to make them and their handles last a long long time...decades or more, so far.
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