How to Grow Axe Heads onto a Handle

[erunkiswldrnssurvival]

its been 7 months since i last posted on this thread. the axe head is wedged tight and the wood is encapsulating it as predicted.ive uploaded a pic to my forum album. this is an exelent method. in three years this stone would be lost in the wood.i guess using the crepe myrtle was a good choice,with encouraging results in just 7 months. mabe after the spring growth period it will be ready.i'm uploading a video today to my youtube channel

[erunkiswldrnssurvival]

one of my friends in NC makes knives (like the ones that FVR posts),nice pointed flint and chert, that have been grown over by wood. only he uses honey sucle trees (red flower). the flowers of the huney sucle tree are edible,the bark is good for rope,and the wood grows fast(up 8 feet per year) i have access to one of those so ive started a couple knives,the spring growth is already closing in on the stone.

[NCO]

I've heard some stories about that.(growing handles to axes.) Here it includes this kind of stone axe:
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The you just place it on the ground upside down so that a small rowan goes through the hole and crows in tight. The core wood of a rowan is very hard and is still often used in axe shafts here.

[erunkiswldrnssurvival]

wow thats realy nice NCO. ive seen simular tools to that. they were for boat building. some of them are for hammering off aspen slats where you beat a length log and peel up the strips of wood loosened by the malot. others are for wedging wood burls ect..stump hafting is an awsome way to wail! thanks for the post NCO. cant see the size of it but that one may have served the ambergris industry. (Whale oil and perfumes)

[Smok]

As I remember it when we made those it was not axes we were making bot war clubs . On the berth of a son the farther would go out and start some of these so that when his son was of age he would have a good war club

[erunkiswldrnssurvival]

the scrimshaw industry demanded its tools too, the far traveling hunters of seal and whale would also as SMOK said use those same tool/weapons to break up the animal bones to make tools and scrimshaw which was as valuable as the oil. and at that time the spongy porous bones were used for the wicks to burn the oil.

[erunkiswldrnssurvival]

most stone axes and hammers that i have seen have been bone working tools. dont forget, work habits developed during the iceage with the wooly mammoth. the tools were passed down by need and tradition.

[Rick]

Scrimshaw was the making of tools. Later, it became known as little more than the whaler's way of passing time. Very similar to knot tying.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrimshaw

[erunkiswldrnssurvival]

I would like to have a set of Fids and Darners made out of bone,but whale and seal parts are extreemly hard to get raw and the finished work too expensive to buy.

[Barefoot]

this post made me think of this art form.....

http://www.pooktre.com/

[NCO]

The axe I posted here was actually a war axe. The great "industry" in here during stone and Iron(viking)age was furs. Not so much seal or whale oils. Seals were hunted of cource, for food, but they used big stone maces for that.

[ClayPick]

I rounded up an old axe head and am going to set it on a ash sappling. I would really like to have buddies pooktre chair in my yard. Check out the poplar that's been eating my private road sign!
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[erunkiswldrnssurvival]

exelent links and pics, thank you for your contribution to the thread. that chair is AMAZING!

[erunkiswldrnssurvival]

The axe I posted here was actually a war axe. The great "industry" in here during stone and Iron(viking)age was furs. Not so much seal or whale oils. Seals were hunted of cource, for food, but they used big stone maces for that.

its perfect too, no visible chips or cracks. I bet that would break some bones,bend metal, wow

[NCO]

Yup, and see the seam(?) on the center ridge of the axe. They made it so that the axe would look like a metal one.

[erunkiswldrnssurvival]

I noticed that, to be threatened by someone wielding that hammer would be terrifying.those guys back then must have had nerves of steel,and plans that they could depend on. by understanding what that thing could do to you ,you know what you need to protect yourself from it,and that takes planning equal to the "Brawn" so to speak.

[your_comforting_company]

I just got hold of this thread (thanks gryff)

I'd like to suggest red and paper mulberry trees. rather straight saplings, it's a thicket former and I've seen old ones that had trunks that would dwarf many live oaks. Might be worth a shot. I'm not sure about growth rate, I've only recently planted either in my yard.
Sparkleberry has similar characteristics to crepe myrtle and so does littlehip hawthorne, might be worth a go, I don't have access to a lot of them.. wife won't let me stick rocks in her pretty trees (yet).
One more thing with the axe head idea is Red tips. Mine are overgrown and it's a good hard wood that grows fast. makes good handles in my little hand tools, and I've been using one limb for softening hides for quite some time now. very durable.
I have a couple old axe heads I'm gonna try this with, and maybe knock a rock or two into shape and see how long it takes to heal a split.. I'll let you know what I find.

Also, I'd imagine that a forked limb in that crape myrtle could be trained to twist around, like they do bonzai trees..

you got my primitive wheels turning. good stuff.
Thanks for passin this along gryff!

[hunter63]

James Michener mentions this in his book "Poland", was kind a peasent thing to do.
http://books.google.com/books?id=Hxg...age&q=&f=false
I sure it wa done by a lot of peoples over time, I mean, wasn't like they had to go to work..........

Couple pieces I found in a dried up river bead, appears to be an adz and top pf a bow drill.


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