Repair old wood handle

[zendriver]

I have this old mattock that what is likely the original handle is loose.

Maybe i could set it in epoxy, but Is it possible to to swell the original wood.?

I’d like to keep it original, if possible, but be usable, if even in a much minor role, of digging in tight areas since the head is somewhat small.

Thanks






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[Don1357]

All you need is a metal wedge to expand the wood. That's how it was meant to work. Heck a hardwood would do it if you precut the slot smaller than the wedge.

 

[Moosefire]

Maybe a light sanding to clean the wood then soak in boiled linseed oil?

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[Leaflessshadetree]

It looks like one of the old wood wedges is missing, the other appears to be there. I'd remove the old wedge and make 2 new ones.

 

[mitusa]

I've had really good luck using superglue on those old wooden handles.

Clean the wood and apply the glue. Then set the handle where it's supposed to be and maybe add a wedge. The glue will keep out any moisture and will hold the wood together.

HTHs

 

[Dumber than lumber]

I think you should supplement the wood a little bit. If you could bond a strip or two of hickory on the tool end of the handle with epoxy you could have a more solid and tight fit.

 

[georgiadave]

Is is an adz, not a mattock. For shaping timbers. It should have a leather pad, about 1/16-1/8 thick on the front and rear of the eye, between the eye and the head of the handle. This is why the head is so loose. It looks like someone tried to put wedges in, but the leather pads would probably still work ok.

 

[driz]

Soak it in some ethylene glycol ( green) antifreeze when you’re done. Leave it in there a couple days. Whatever soaks into that handle supposedly will stay in there forever swelling the wood and rot proofing it at the same time .


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[zendriver]

Is is an adz, not a mattock. For shaping timbers. It should have a leather pad, about 1/16-1/8 thick on the front and rear of the eye, between the eye and the head of the handle. This is why the head is so loose. It looks like someone tried to put wedges in, but the leather pads would probably still work ok.

That's why I hang here.

 

[captain14]

That's why I hang here.

Agreed. I learn something new and worthwhile on a regular basis here.

 

[Skiff Builder]

Somewhere a Hewer is rolling over in his grave

 

[Ton ton]

Nice thread .

 

[RTM]

I agree with whoever said it was An adze. However, you don't want to lock the head to the handle, makes it harder to sharpen if you can't remove it. Also breaks down for carrying A bit nicer.

I've never seen reference to leather pads to size the head to the handle, tho it might be an easy fix. Wwhere do you find that? I have had several with factory heads and handles, never seen leather, or evidence there ever was leather on them.

 

[georgiadave]

I agree with whoever said it was An adze. However, you don't want to lock the head to the handle, makes it harder to sharpen if you can't remove it. Also breaks down for carrying A bit nicer.

I've never seen reference to leather pads to size the head to the handle, tho it might be an easy fix. Wwhere do you find that? I have had several with factory heads and handles, never seen leather, or evidence there ever was leather on them.

I have one with the leather pads. It was my Grandfather's when he was on a bridge building crew for the Great Northern Railroad. He was rugged guy, basically uneducated, but a successful, very intelligent man.

 

[Griff79]

I just did a Google search for Adze with leather hafting and didn’t find anything. Not to say it isn’t a way of securing head to handle.

There are some really cool tools, if this kind of implement interests you.


Here is too much information.
Griff

Major Categories of Adze
Adze with long handle (foot adze)
The traditional way to use an adze is to straddle the timber or log while holding the adze by its long handle and swing the adze up out in front and center to the users body, then swing the adze down to strike the timber or log. There are many ways to use a long handled adze and various stances or positions for the user to take as the work dictates.
Foot adzes are most commonly known as shipbuilder's or carpenter's adzes. They range in size from 00 to 5 being 3 1/4 to 4 3/4 pounds with the cutting edge 3 inches to 4 1/2 inches wide. On the modern, steel adze the cutting edge may be flat for smoothing work to very rounded for hollowing work such as bowls, gutters and canoes. The shoulders or sides of an adze may be curved called a lipped adze, used for notching. The end away from the cutting edge is called the pole and be of different shapes, generally flat or a pin pole.

Adze with short handle (hand adze)
An adze with a short handle is used for hand work of smaller wooden projects and items. For example the adze with the shorter hammer style handle is used to rough shape the concave of a chair seat.

Carpenter's
A carpenters adze is used for smoothing large surfaces and bringing timbers to rough dimension or for smoothing one or all sides of a large timber. This adze is also used for leveling boards for flooring and for hewing large post and beams for building construction.

The blade of a carpenters adze is typically flat and the weight of the carpenters adze is considerable, the heft in this adze is beneficial for having the leverage and swing in order to remove large amounts of material quickly.

Cooper's
The coopers adze is typically a short handled adze used with one hand. It has a hammer face on the opposite end of the adze for setting the hoops in place over the barrel. This adze is used for barrel making mainly, the 4 chime of the barrel is created with the coopers adze. The chime is beveled at the top and bottom of the barrel where the end of the staves come together.
The coopers adze will have a bolt that is inserted through the entire length of the handle. The cutting edge of the coopers adze is typically 2" to 3 1/2".

Gutter
The gutter adze is aptly named for the gutter shape form that it makes during use. The gutter adze can be used for shaping out canoes, chair seats and any other type of work that requires an elongated scooped out form.

Ships Carpenters Adze
Adzes are used to chip away at the surface of the timber, either to reduce its size or to shape it to a particular dimension. Depending on the size of the adze and curvature of the blade, a skilled adzeman could plane the surface of the timber quite smoothly with little trace of the adze blade.

 

[RTM]

I have one with the leather pads. It was my Grandfather's when he was on a bridge building crew for the Great Northern Railroad. He was rugged guy, basically uneducated, but a successful, very intelligent man.

Maybe it was something he did to fix a loose handle, or to ease the strike to the hands? Hard to say, but second hand knowledge is about all we’re gonna get anymore, unless we can find vintage literature.

As Griff said, not much out there on leather, but if it worked for Gramps, may have to try next time I have a mismatch between adze eye and the shaft.


And I have to grimace a bit at the OP calling it a mattock. My first one came from a guy who rented out his house, and the tenant used his beautifully sharp adze to weed the garden. He was so disgusted he sold it cheap, and it took me forever to get it back to sharp. Two years later I found a few more, and now I think I am up to five, mostly sharp and ready to use. Hidden well away from the garden tools.

 

[Weissbier]

I’m a purist and I don’t like the idea of using epoxy. I’d try to put in a few new wood wedges and a metal wedge, then swell it both BLO or water.

 

[orangeblood]

I’m a purist and I don’t like the idea of using epoxy. I’d try to put in a few new wood wedges and a metal wedge, then swell it both BLO or water.

agree on the boiled linseed oil recommendation but would avoid water. it will make the wood swell but when it dries the wood will contract. doing this a few times will further destroy the wood fiber and make the problem worse.

just my $0.02

 

[SeisMec]

I'm with RTM (post 13) and "The Woodwright's Shop with Roy Underhill" of PBS fame -

"... Unlike axes, adzes may have curved blades for gouging and are often easily removed from the handle to enable sharpening on a grindstone. ..."

My dad had an adz - handed down when my great grandfather (Norwegian cabinet maker - maybe something else in his youth). Only saw dad use it once; when he showed me how the head was a wedge fit to make it easily removable for sharpening.

I think the two wood wedge slots in your handle should not be there at all and only weaken the handle. Looking at the second picture -

- you can see the substantial taper intended to make it impossible for the head to fly off the handle. If you remove the handle and compare size of the hole in the top of the handle to the hole in the bottom of the handle, you'll see that's the case.

Judging by the first picture -

- handle head still appears to more or less adequately fill the hole.

I would not soak the handle in anything until you've repaired the slots weakening the handle. I don't know what the best way to do that would be, but my guess would be along the lines of:

1. Use a maximum tooth count hack saw blade to clean out the slots and expost clean wood.
2. Use a feeler gauge blade or something similar to fill the slots with epoxy.
3. Put a couple wraps of saran wrap around it to prevent glueing it to the head.
4. Insert the handle back into the head tightly enough to gain a little compression on the filled slots. And let cure.
5. Remove the handle - discard saran wrap.

 

[2oolhound]

I used to build log homes in the 70's and had a few adzes. We could still buy handles for them at the hardware store and the handles came with a wood wedge that fit between the metal head and the wood handle. The wedge was the same width as the squared end of the handle and about 1/2" thick at the top tapering down to a point. As I recall the thick end of the wedge went in from the bottom. It was about 2-3" long. You could bang the lower end of the handle down on something and the head would slide down the handle.

I lost all my old ones and have bought a few more in the last decade but the newer ones don't have the wedge system, just a single tight fitting handle. The leather sounds like a real old timer thing.