Loose wood tool handels

[dlbuck]

What do you guys do to tighten loose handels on splitting mauls and axes? I have soaked them in water but that doesn't last very long. I heard about soaking in boiled linseed oil and soaked a splitting maul for about a month. Spilt some wood today and the maul head slides real good with linseed oil. Don't know how to do the funny face stuff. Thanks for any advice.
 

[Bernie/MA]

Most wooden handles have a steel wedge in the end which can loosen or fall out. You can make a better one by taking a large wood screw and flatening it with a hammer on a taper and driving it in. Use 2 if a big handle.
 

[Morgan Flowers]

[quote="dlbuck"](quoted from post at 01:32:01 11/28/12) What do you guys do to tighten loose handels on splitting mauls and axes? I have soaked them in water but that doesn't last very long. I heard about soaking in boiled linseed oil and soaked a splitting maul for about a month. Spilt some wood today and the maul head slides real good with linseed oil. Don't know how to do the funny face stuff. Thanks for any advice.[/quote

I read somewhere that antifreeze would work good because it doesn't evaporate like water. You could give that a try. If that doesn't work, maybe add another wedge in the end of the handle?
 

[PJH]

I read once about using glycerin to soak hammer heads in. They said it would swell the wood, but wouldn't shrink as it dried. I never tried it, in fact, I don't even know what it is or where to find it. Personally, I use steel and wood wedges to keep wooden tool handles tight. I have a splitting maul with a fiberglass handle, and it got dangerously loose. Bought an epoxy kit at Rural King to repair the head/handle fit, and it's been good for a couple years now.

Paul
 

[tractor300]

First make sure handle fits tight, then drive in a wood wedge and one or two steel wedges and you should be good to go. I usually break the handle before they ever come loose.
 

[souNdguy]

yep.. wedges or a nail...
 

[RayP(MI)]

I have soaked tools in a bucket of oil or ATF for a couple weeks = does some good, but you'll do best if you deal with the wedge issue first.
 

[RayP(MI)]

Corn Husker's hand lotion is practically all glycerin. Availble many places.
 

[Goose]

I'd wedge it.

I saw a kid get killed once when the head flew off a slege hammer and hit him upside the head. And he was an innocent bystander.

Needless to say, I get the willies whenever I see a loose head on any kind of hammer, axe, etc.
 

[dlbuck]

The maul I split with came with a wood and steel wedge, I have tried to pound them in farther, I thought adding more would split the handel more and make it worse. When I was younger my Dad just pounded shingle nails in the end. Don't know if that was correct, but they they never came off either.
 

[Jim Naden]

Soaking the handle swells the wood, crushes the fibers and causes the handle to end up looser than before.
 

[2x4]

drill a hole thru the steel & wood on the side, put a nail thru there & saw it off 1/4" past the steel head. Then beat the end with your hammer til its flat against the head, making it a rivet.
 

[VernMI]

Remove the handle from the head and clean both pieces. Then apply epoxy to both head and handle and press together. When the epoxy sets trim the excess handle that protrudes from the outside of the head and then drive in new steel wedges. use a disc sander to smooth the joint and then apply a good lacquer finish to the assembly.
 

[Bret4207]

The first thing to do is drive the head on further by striking the butt of the handle on a solid surface. The weight of the head will drive itself deeper onto the handle. Then try and drive the wedges in further. If you can't, then either make or buy more wedges. I usually make my own out of scrap metal. Once it's tight you can drill for a cross rivet if you want, but to me that's just wasted effort if the head is secured by wedges properly in the first place.

There is nothing you can soak the handle in that will make up for poorly wedged or broken/rotted wood.
 

[d beatty]

I have used the epoxy glue on the plastic handles. It works for about 3 years and than they loosen up again. On the wooden handel axes I have used the wooden and steel wedges and they work loose. What works for me is drill two pilot holes in handel and screw two washer with epoxy glue. The washers are large enough to catch the wood and metal. The ones that I did that to have never worked loose. I split about 4 + cords of wood by hand.