Plywood for axe handle


treesner

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I don't think the plywood laminations would help. In this case the forces are primarily axial and bending and you want grain running the length. You might try hard maple. People also use ash, or even cherry. Ideally you want straight grain that runs the entire handle length. An additional concern with plywood is delamination, as axes are often used in wet conditions. If you do go for plywood, I would make sure more of the plys run the length of the handle than not. 

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Use ash. It should be readily available in CA as there are lots of factories making guitar bodies in CA (think Fender and Taylor).

I echo others that using plywood is not a good idea otherwise axe manufacturers will have been using plywood for years. Were baseball bats made from ash onetime too?

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49 minutes ago, wdwerker said:

Seems like a lot of time and $$$ spent on materials for something I would be ashamed to even put on display or admit to the world that I had any part of. Maybe it's a millennial thing ?

Its a YouTube thing. I don't see anybody making one of these and not filming it.

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"Mr. Madison Brown , what you’ve just said done is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response video were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul. "

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15 hours ago, TerryMcK said:

Use ash. It should be readily available in CA as there are lots of factories making guitar bodies in CA (think Fender and Taylor).

I echo others that using plywood is not a good idea otherwise axe manufacturers will have been using plywood for years. Were baseball bats made from ash onetime too?

Yeah. What he said.

 

Baseball bats are STILL made from ash

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I think if I made one out of plywood I’d finish it with a coat of epoxy resin to avoid delamination but it’s siunding like the flipped grain orientation would be against the axe strength. Is it common to do laminations of different woods for handles when using different woods to add some strength to the more brittle woods?

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Almost any straight-grained hardwood could be used for an axe handle. Hickory is most often used here in the US because its properties are better for this application than most other NA hardwoods, and it is readily available. I bet other parts of the world use whichever local, cheap hardwood works best for them. I would not be surprised to find tools in Indonesia with rubberwood handles.

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