How to Grow Axe Heads onto a Handle

Gray Wolf,

"Ötzi the Iceman died by himself, yet we know what he ate, carried, wore, his tools, his weapons, that he was in a fight with at least two people, won, but died a few days to a week later. and he was from 3300 BC.
Isn't history amazing.... "

Ok what was his language, religious beliefs, cultural distinction?
Aboriginals seldom had written legacies to leave behind oral traditions were the norm.
As we have seen with residential schools once the the culture is gone so is most of the learning, not all is explained by the sciences.

Here is a the "Ocala Home" Magazine (fall 2008).. It depicts a paint brush with grass for bristles, and a hammer with roots growing out of it to form a handle.

http://www.wilderness-survival.net/f...&pictureid=242

While it is a cool drawing it has nothing to do with growing a handle for a tool, but rather a metaphor for going green. http://www.ocalahomemagazine.com/

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Originally Posted by tsitenha

Gray Wolf,

"Ötzi the Iceman died by himself, yet we know what he ate, carried, wore, his tools, his weapons, that he was in a fight with at least two people, won, but died a few days to a week later. and he was from 3300 BC.
Isn't history amazing.... "

Ok what was his language, religious beliefs, cultural distinction?
Aboriginals seldom had written legacies to leave behind oral traditions were the norm.
As we have seen with residential schools once the the culture is gone so is most of the learning, not all is explained by the sciences.

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I wonder how the axe that Otzi had was constructed they didnt realy talk about that.

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Originally Posted by crashdive123

While it is a cool drawing it has nothing to do with growing a handle for a tool, but rather a metaphor for going green. http://www.ocalahomemagazine.com/

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ok, perhaps you said right. but the implied simularity, is well... simular. thanks for the link Crash!

The ax was made from fairly pure copper, poured molten into a mold and shaped. Surprised a lot of people with its relative modern technology per say.
Short form: Copper has the ability to harden as it slowly cools off and work hardens further as it is used, not terribly hard but very abrasive.
By adding zinc or tin; bronze or brass alloys were later achieved.
Opposite to iron which hardens with rapid cooling in water for example often it is too brittle to do specific task. By decreasing/or managing the carbon content and tempering the ore steel is produce. Short form of course

This is what I am going to try , three years from now i will know how well it worked.

http://www.wilderness-survival.net/f...&pictureid=243



And it is set into a split in the wood just below a branch.

http://www.wilderness-survival.net/f...&pictureid=244

It seems to me that instead of actually splitting the green wood until the head can be forced in that it might be less damaging to the tree to rather bore an oblong hole through it large enough to just barely fit the axe head. That would leave the wood immediately above and below the head relatively untouched. Looking at that photo it seems that one side or the other could very well die or at least take a very long time to heal up that long split above and below the stone.

I would imagine that in order to maximize the regrowth/healing of the tree that the bark should be split vertically and then held open and undamaged while the inner wood was bored out. This would allow the vertical split in the living cambium to have very little distance to heal, as the vascular bundles in the cambium run up and down the wood splitting it vertically would cut very few of them. I would also try to start such a project at the end of winter before the sap starts to run in the tree allowing it to scab over as soon as it does.

It also seems like a good tactic to use a larger section of green wood and shape the outside of the handle down to the proper proportions once it is healed, cut, and seasoned. Shaving down the outside of such a handle would be no big deal even with stone tools.

I don't think this exercise has much to recommend itself to wilderness survival but it is an interesting experiment in stone age methods. Mac

Edited to Add: As a kid growing up in PA we would make formidable war clubs by taking a green stick and boring a hole (with an auger) in it just large enough to force a railroad spike through. They had a hammer head on one side and a sharpened chisel spike on the other. We never thought of leaving one on a living tree but come to think of it, it probably would have worked as long as the spike was painted with that black stuff they use to seal wounds in trees. Of course by the time they would have been ready we would have been beyond the years when we walked around with rail spikes in our belts for "protection". Yes, my childhood was a fusion of "Stand By Me" and "Lord of the Flies".

To prevent that branch from dying you may want to put some wound dressing on it and close it up a bit with grafting tape. Granted that would not be in keeping with the primative methods, but it may give you success with the project.

I am trying to figure out the methods that have positive results, as I mentioned the weapons book may have not fully explained how the axe head was placed then grown into the handle, i'll try different trees and see what happens

Wouldn't binding the split at bottom of the stone head keep the limb from further splitting and maybe minimize the injury; also binding the top of the split kind of force the limb to repair itself.
Adding a little pine gum, pitch to the expose parts help with re-healing and insect control?

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Originally Posted by erunkiswldrnssurvival

I wonder how the axe that Otzi had was constructed they didnt realy talk about that.

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Yes they did. In detail. Also see tsitenha's post #86. They even know how his clothes were woven and what materials were used.

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Originally Posted by tsitenha

Wouldn't binding the split at bottom of the stone head keep the limb from further splitting and maybe minimize the injury; also binding the top of the split kind of force the limb to repair itself.
Adding a little pine gum, pitch to the expose parts help with re-healing and insect control?

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I would think so. That was the point I was trying to make. Sorry if it wasn't clear.

possibly so, binding above and below prior to splitting may make a difference, I will try that. thanks

this is another attempt at getting it right, i just pushed these into the living wood without splitting it. these bones are for cutting wood.


http://www.wilderness-survival.net/f...&pictureid=246

I still havent found a good photo of an axe mounted in this manner . But i will keep looking

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Originally Posted by erunkiswldrnssurvival

this is another attempt at getting it right, i just pushed these into the living wood without splitting it. these bones are for cutting wood.
http://www.wilderness-survival.net/f...&pictureid=246

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Those are minute (mī-nūt') compared to the other one you posted. With these tiny ones, you could have split the branch just under the size of the bone, and pushed them through the branch until a small part came through the other side and then you would not have to worry about killing it. Same as what the book said.

Until I master a suitible technique, I'll stick to this trusted method of hafting an Axe....

http://www.wilderness-survival.net/f...&pictureid=272

Maybe it's the shadow in the picture, but that edge looks mighty thick. You could crush walnuts with that, but chop down a small tree????

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Originally Posted by Gray Wolf

Maybe it's the shadow in the picture, but that edge looks mighty thick. You could crush walnuts with that, but chop down a small tree????

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Yea that axe head was not too good, It did however manage to chip back to a sharp edge during normal use (self sharpening) Because of the direction of the grain pattern in the stone when it chips it leaves a sharp cutting edge. that axe cut pretty good and was also in poor condition.

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

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.

I've heard some stories about that.(growing handles to axes.) Here it includes this kind of stone axe:
https://extras.csc.fi/arctinet/kivik...g/vasarak2.jpg
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.

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)

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

http://www.pooktre.com/

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.

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!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v9...e10002-1-1.jpg

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

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Originally Posted by 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.

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

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.

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.

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!

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.


http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y13...CT0777crop.jpg