Im wanting to make a handle for my sledge hammer. I was planning on using hickory wood. My question is wedging.. should i cross wedge with metal wedges or should i just use a wood wedge for the center? Also should i use the same type of wood for a wedge? I read a few articles saying a softer wood would be better for the wedge. Any help is appreciated. Thanks
Both. Softer wood wedge, then a metal wedge on a perpendicular/diagonal in the center (after trimming the wood wedge, of course). Then, if possible, soak the head in oil for a day or so- old motor oil is good. At least that's how we renewed handles when I worked in the track department on the railroad. They held up very well, and we ran them hard. Well, the other guys did. I hid out to avoid sweating
I've recently come around to the opinion that whenever using a metal wedge is necessary (only really in the case of a bottomed-out wedge that wasn't thick enough) that it should be driven in parallel with the wedge so that it doesn't actually get driven into the handle itself. It keeps it from accidentally over-wedging and cracking the handle. A good way to lock it in is to drive the wedge most of the way in, then cut it flush and use another piece of wood to drive the wedge below the level of the handle's tongue. This causes the tongue above the wedge to close back in a bit over the top of the wedge, locking it in so it can't back out. Learned that one from Square_peg over on Bladeforums and it works quite nicely even if it's not as cosmetically appealing as some other methods.
Thanks for the replies. I ended up using a piece of hickory wood i got from a friend. I was gonna make a wedge from the hickory but already cut out the handles to length. I am not done with it yet but i am pretty stoked being its the first handle ive made! Still got some sanding work to do but heres some pics of what i got so far
That was a lot of work for a sledge hammer handle! Will i ever do one again? Probably not, now knowing that you can buy one for 10 bucks! Lol
I am also able to find ways to spend several hours making something that you can buy for a few bucks. lol