Loose Handles

[Lysdexik]

"Boiled" Linseed oil has never been boiled, but if you heat it, the mercury they put in it to make it dry will make all your hair fall out and make your brain shrink (google' mad as a hatter) use only raw linseed oil and soak the head and eye only 'cos it takes a dogs age to harden off. If you want to use a real boiled penetrating oil, use Tried and True Oil, its available on the net, works on all wood, will soak up the end grain of your hammer shaft like a rat up a drainpipe and will polymerize in about six weeks. then stop thr moisture loss with a dab of gymnasium "long oil" polyurethane. I have used this on my axes and hatchets for years and they stay tight even in the dryest winters.
Paul.
Don't confuse activity, with accomplishment. and always remember
It's not over... Untill we Win!!!

[Lysdexik]

I kind'a like the anti freeze idea too. Ethylene Glycol is almost pure sugar chemicaly, and if you look at cut wood under a scope it looks like a colection of drinking straws, if you get the sugar inthere it will set, if the fibres/viods can't shrink the head should stay tight.
Paul.

[rthibeau]

I fit my hammer handles tight then wood wedge and metal wedge them. I've never soaked a hammer in aything and have no problems with loose handles. Perhaps all the loose handles are from not fitting them tight enough to start with. My 2 shares of GM stock worth.

[jayco]

In my case, the start of all this 'Loose Handles' thing, came from the combination of my using some hammer handle wood that was not 100% dried and the fact that we had a very hot dry summer here.

I had always wood wedged my handles and had few problems.....until recently!

One day, in late summer, I went to my shop to work, and found that one after another of my handles was wobbly!

So.......I ordered and received a tube of the Sikaflex glue from Glenn.

As soon as possible, I plan to declare a 'Sikaflex' day, and glue 10 or more hammer handles.

[bigfootnampa]

Jayco;

I do lots of handling and I have found that I usually need the cross wedges to get them thoroughly tight. Cross wedging with steel is much easier than using wood and also gets them tighter, I think. Of course I do the first set of wedges in wood.

I make my steel wedges from HR rod (usually 1/4"). I forge them flat and tapering and then cut the top off with a stub of round rod left for hammering. When they are set tightly I chop the little round drive buttons off with a cut-off wheel in my 4 1/2" grinder. I like to fuller the taper with the edge of my hammer so that I get some lttle ridges that help to keep the wedge from backing out. Whenever I encounter looseness (rarely nowadays) I will either add a wedge or tap the handle further into the head and then deepen the set of the wedges with a ball peen end . I have some awesome glues... I think far better than sikaflex... but I have seen them fail anyway. Proper wedging is hard to beat!

[ray-t]

Have you heard of chair-lock? it is used to tighten loose joints in furniture. It swells the wood fibers and may seal the wood against moisture.

[Quenchcrack]

Something I learned from Irnsrgn (Jr. Strasil) is to leave about 1/4" of wood sticking out the top of the hammer head. When you drive the wedges in, it spreads the wood on the outside making it very difficult for the head to loosen. Or did you all already know that?

[jayco]

ray-t, Nett had mentioned 'chairloc' earlier in the this thread. I'd never heard of it before.
I haven't gotten or tried any of it yet, but it sounds like a logical solution.

Quenchcrack, Yeah, that's kinda the same way I wedged my handles...except, sometimes I left out the second metal wedge........probably part of the problem.

ONe thing I have noticed during this thread, is that no one else has chimed in and said they were having the same exact problem with loose handles........so I guess this is
unique to me only!

I've only had one hammer actually come completely off the handle while I was using it.
I picked up one ball-pein and swung it about three times. On the fourth swing, the hammer head landed on the ground below the anvil.
I felt it coming loose and aborted the swing.

The rest of the 'loose' ones, I found on examination, that I could wiggle the hammer head on the handle........yet they've been quite stubborn about being removed from the handle.
So although the handle through the 'eye' had shrunk, there was still enough flare on the wedged side to keep them from coming off.
My temporary fix, has been to drive the wooden wedges deeper on my 3 or 4 main smithing hammers.

[irnsrgn]

FWIW dept, the wood wedge spreads the handle in the eye in only one direction SIDEWAYS, the steel wedge spreads the handle LENGTHWAYS of the eye if driven in 90 or 45 degrees to the wood wedge. The factory steel wedges are flattened in a die if you look at one close so that it has ridges that help prevent the wedge from retracting (sliding out) if making your own wedges try lightly putting in small cuts with a chisel crossways of the wedge to get rid of the smooth surface. The round wedges the factories use now usually come loose and fall out quickly, faulty engineering, but easier to make and easier to install with the hydraulic equipment the use to put them in.

Also a handle should never slip in to the eye, it should be at least a 16th of an inch larger than the eye, and driven in by starting the end in the eye and then held in the off hand head down while rapping it on the other end with a hammer, when the rapping drives the handle thru your hand and feels solid its in proper. As quenchcrack mentioned I leave at least a quarter inch of handle sticking out and when the wedges are driven in, the wood expands and forms something akin to a rivet head. It doesn't help keep the handle from shrinking in the eye, but it will keep it from flying off if it becomes loose. (read projectile) damaging a family member or onlooker.

The proper way to oil a hammer handle eye is to put the hammer head down in a container with about a quarter inch of oil in the bottom and let the wood in the eye draw the oil up thru the eye.

Personally I sweat a lot including my palms and a slick handle requires me to hold on to the handle to tight to maintain my place of gripping the handle which will cause Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. I personally use the coarse side of a 4 in 1 hand rasp to lightly rough up my hammer handles for a sure grip. I never get blisters which is another hazard of gripping the handle too tight. I use handles from a small company that pays strict attention to grain orientation in the handle, but they do coat them with some kind of varnish which I usually use my pocket knife on and scrap the finish off as it makes the handle slick. I also thin the neck behind the head down which gives the handle more spring and has a tendency to lessen the shock of the actual blow when the head strikes something solid.

Traditionally in the Smith Shops of old the only auxiliary anvil tool in which the handle was put in tight was the HOT SET or HOT CUT, every thing else had a loose handle that stuck out quite aways past the end of the tool, as these were tools most often struck with a sledge by a striker or strikers and were often in close proximity to exceptionally hot pieces, the handle of choice was usually an old buggy or light wagon spoke as it was suseptible to breakage from a missdirected hit or from burning from the radiated heat. An added advantage to a loose handle in these tools was the ability to not transfer any extreme shock or vibrations to the holders (usually the head smith's) hand.

I smithed for 55+ years with no blisters other than when using a strange hammer, and no sign of Carpal Tunnel. When you are actually using a hammer at the anvil your grip should be such that someone could grab the hammer and pull it from your grip if they so desired.

end of long winded unsolicited reply, sorry.

[irnsrgn]

On another note, if you wish to remove the steel wedge from a hammer handle without destroying the handle, clamp a thin piece of scrap to your welding table, place the handle wedge just above the scrap and tack weld the two together, you can then pry the wedge out and afterwards break it off and grind the weld off for reuse and also reuse the handle.

[rustyshackleford]

After I shave the handle to my liking, I burnish it with a smooth rod (doesn't really matter what kind, horn or bone works too) Compresses the fibres and whatnot; makes it look like you did some work and wore it smooth (which you/I should be doing anyways). Never saw merit in soaking the handle; should be properly wedged IMHO. (takes just as much effort)

[jayco]

Joseph, thanks for that tip on 'burnishing'........Just today I used the handles of an old pair of pliers.....rubbed a new handle I had made for maybe 5 minutes........came out slick and shiny!

James

[jayco]

Well, it has been a WHILE!, but I finally got around to glueing 6 of my hammer handles with Sikaflex adhesive.

I actually did them 2 days ago. (You're supposed to wait 48 hours for the glue to cure)

I put a thin coating on the inside of the hammer eyes and also the 'eye' sections of the wood handles. I used no wedges or anything else (except Sikaflex) to secure the handles. Just tapped the handles in the hammer eyes and wiped off the little bit of excess glue which oozed out .

I finally got to try the hammers today, and all are 'rock solid'. No give to the handles whatsoever.

Now for the 'shameless endorsement', part of this post...........

I got mine from the IFI store.........THANKS GLENN!

By the way, I did 6 handles and have enough left to do several more handles.........It comes in a large,caulking gun sized container.

You gotta try this stuff!

James Flannery

[Glenn]

There is a limited supply in house, so if you want to order the Sika glue, it is available in the IForgeIron Tailgating section of the site.

[hot coal]

i found out that antefreze works fine last a long time , soke them for least 8 hours an wipe off an use .

[philip in china]

As some of you might know I recently got 120 assorted Hickory handles for hammers so am going through my stock and rehandling anything that is at all dodgy. I have got lots of wedges as well but I wish I could get Sikaflex here as easily as you can in USA. MAybe I could ask somebody going to USA this summer to bring me a tube.

What about wedging and gluing??

[ThomasPowers]

James; can you come back and give us a readout after a length of time under hard use? I'd expect any method to work right after it was done...a year or so for your primary using hammer is a much more impressive statistic!

[jayco]

What about wedging and gluing??

I don't think it would be a problem, as long as you don't squeeze all the glue out when you 'set' the handle.

Thomas, I'll be coming back to this thread to let everyone know how it goes.
Like you said.........Time is the test.

James