I found this interesting rusted ax head on my parent’s property, and decided to do a little research. Apparently it’s called a brush hook (or bush hook, ditch blade, ditch bank blade, or ditch blade ax), and was commonly used by surveying crews and firefighters to clear out heavy undergrowth from trails. To me, it looks like what an enterprising Orc might take into the Battle of Helm’s Deep. All it needs is a handle!
Remodeling my parents’ guest house, I found some old growth studs (actual 2x4s, not today’s nominal studs). Because of their age, they had become very hard. Check out the rings! They don’t grow ’em like they used to:
I decided to use it to fashion a handle, without doing enough research. More on that in a bit. I first cut it down to the shape and size I wanted.
Next, I used the belt sander to taper and shape the shoulder that will seat inside the ax eye (which took a fair amount of time to get snug, since there was a significant build-up of rust and dirt that had to go first).
You can tell from the above picture where I went wrong, and it has to do with grain orientation. At this point I hadn’t done any research on how to do what I was trying to do, and in fairness, even if I had wanted to do it right I wouldn’t have had enough wood.
Essentially, you want the grain to run vertically with the handle for the most strength, but also in line with the direction of the ax for the wedge to work properly*. A poorly-drawn picture might help explain things better:
Anyway, the reason I’m still writing this post is so that in the event you or someone you love wants to build/replace a handle, you’ll know the correct way to go about it. Onwards!
After a ton of work removing all the rust and build-up (it took me something like 2 hours with a dremel after soaking it in a rust-removing solution), it was on to the fun part.
Here I am cutting a notch for the wedge (red oak) to go, hammering it in so that it secures the head to the shoulder, and then cutting off the excess.
It should be very snug. Next, I cleaned up the blade a bit more and gave it a really sharp edge on the grinder.
For a finish I believe I used teak oil, but don’t quote me on that. In my opinion, for a wooden handle on any kind of sharp tool it’s good practice to avoid a finish that’s too smooth or slippery.
As a final touch I thought it would be neat to brand it with my last initial, so my dad heated up his blow torch and we went to work. Here’s the end result:
Turned out pretty cool. It’s also heavy as hell – looks like I’ll be well-armed for post-apocalyptic life if Trump’s presidency is a bust. Thanks for reading!
*An interesting final note about the grain direction mistake: I tested the strength of the wedge and the fit by repeatedly swinging the ax at a cedar log as hard as I could to try to reach the point of failure. Up until then, I had chalked up this project as a loss. However, even though the orientation of the grain isn’t correct, the wedge and shoulder wouldn’t budge. That’s not to say that this thing won’t eventually fail (wood naturally expands and contracts over time), but this ax handle is very solidly attached. I’ll put this project in the W column for now.
things pat made 