Use of Pine Tar on Axe Handle?

rfwoody

Treehouser
Joined
Jun 1, 2017
Messages
800
Location
North Mississippi
Do any of you professionals use (e.g. baseball bat) pine tar (or other sticky substance) on axe handles (e.g. for pounding wedges or knocking out face cuts).
...In order to get a better grip on the axe handle if your hands are sweaty, etc.

...OR ... would it be undesirable because the pine tar would tend to get all over everything else and make everything else sticky?

Thanks!
 
It would blister even the most hardened loggers hands up badly.

How often do you see someone swinging a baseball bat relentlessly for 1½ hours?

That is what you can easyly spend wedging a large hardwood up, if you misjudged the lean.

I would image our PNW crowd have spent even more trying to get a large tree to fall, all the time wishing they hadn't been to lazy to carry the Silvey to the tree.
 
Beside the short term effects, there's the long term effect : a repeated exposure of your skin (moreover likely damaged) with a very close contact of the nasty tar's substances, added to a heavy massage (good penetration): tumors, cancers...
 
I will wrap a good bit of tape around the end of the handle so my hand isn't so likely to slip off the end but I like to slide one hand as I swing. Boiled linseed oil rubbed in the hand will help preserve it and that's about all I do. Oh, and I despise the clear varnish that comes on most handles!
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #7
One thing that prompted this question is that I was watching the Gerald Beranek DVDs on "Felling the Tree" and it looked like most of the guys were using a shorter axe to drive wedges and knock out the face slab.
I had been using a sledge hammer... either a long one or a short 4# hammer size to drive wedges, but I wanted to get an axe like real loggers have (to use on my normally 24" max DBH trees), so I ordered online a Council Faller's Axe with a 20" handle and 3.5# head, but it's too heavy for me to handle comfortably and the handle is slippery... but since it cost around $50 including shipping I want to try to make it work. But now I wish I had gotten a 28" handle and 3.5# head.
My truck has been in the shop a lot during the past month or so, so I am probably overthinking all my gear and like the Texas cattleman who is all hat and no cattle... I appear to be 95% chainsaw and 5% tree.

Yeah thanks Buddy, I think this one was bare wood (must be because it was mail order and wasn't sitting in a store for the handle to get dirty).
I started putting BLO on the handle, so hopefully that will give it some grip.
 
I think those little short handled Collins axes are a PNW thing .I use a 4 pound dead blow hammer so I don't ruin the nylon wedges .Different strokes for different folks .On the rare occasion I use steel splitting wedge it gets thumped with a 7 pound sledge hammer .I've got sledges up to 12 pound .The big one I kind of like to avoid for obvious reasons as I've found as I age they seem to weigh more than they used to .
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #9
I think those little short handled Collins axes are a PNW thing .I use a 4 pound dead blow hammer so I don't ruin the nylon wedges .Different strokes for different folks .On the rare occasion I use steel splitting wedge it gets thumped with a 7 pound sledge hammer .I've got sledges up to 12 pound .The big one I kind of like to avoid for obvious reasons as I've found as I age they seem to weigh more than they used to .

Thanks Al.

".... as I've found as I age they seem to weigh more than they used to" :)
 
There have been several threads over the years that explore different wedge drivers folks use.

A 3.5 pound head is too light....not horrid, but still too light. 5 is ideal.
 
There have been several threads over the years that explore different wedge drivers folks use. Here is one I recall...

https://www.masterblasterhome.com/showthread.php?9116-What-size-mallet-for-felling-wedges

A 3.5 pound head is too light....not horrid, but still too light. 5 is ideal. I'm sorry, rfwoody...but if you can't swing an axe of that weight, and bring it up to high head speed, and hit a small target repeatedly, then I have some doubts about your whole business plan. It's not easy work.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #12
Thanks a lot, Burnham!

haha, I was talking about one-handed... two-handed is ok, just seems short for two-handed wielding.

I hope you weren't talking about it should be easy to wield one-handed... then maybe I really need to re-re-re-consider! :)

But regarding the 5 pounds... the largest trees I have most often felled are less than 24" DBH .... so even then 5#?

Currently I had been using a small 4# (?) blacksmith's (?) type sledge hammer or a regular sized sledge hammer (either 6# or 8#)
I like Al's idea of the dead blow hammer, but I also like the idea of having an ax head too.
 
Robert, even a 20 inch tree needs to be wedged with authority, if it has back lean. Which of course is when you need to wedge with authority :). One handed will do fine for placing and keeping wedges tight, but to drive, you need to set the saw down and swing with both. And yes, a 5 pound head ought not to be too much to use one handed for the former tasks, imo. A shorter handle is better for that. A long handle is a pain to manage in the brush, so I've never done any wedging with a full length handled axe. Not because I didn't fell many a roadside tree, but because I never owned a long handled axe :). Shoot, I'm a little fella...I almost always choked up on an already short 30 inch baseball bat, back when I played. So what do I know?

Yeah...check out that thread...lots of opinions on this subject, don't listen to me alone.
 
I used a 36" "Babe Ruth" special ,Louisville Slugger ash bat in High school .Of course I was 6 feet tall and weighed 186 pounds as a senior .
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #17
I'm going to check out that thread! Thanks!

For what it's worth, I am happy to report that I may have cleared the wimp hurdle :) at least partially...
... the Boiled Linseed Oil I have been applying to the handle has given it some grip so wielding the 20", 3.5# axe one-handed isn't as awkward as it was when I first "unboxed" it, when it was just smooth, sanded wood and real slippery to me.


(As much as I liked baseball (well, yeah, and softball later) I tried all kinds of bats and grips and never was too good at hitting... I think I never got the concept of rolling my wrists)
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #18
Very interesting thread. -- and 10 years old. ... Gives one some context and perspective on some of you guys!
Seems most responses in the thread using some sort of sledge hammer vs. axes.
So I wasn't really all that odd with my original method.
 
Hey woody, that linseed oil will soak into the wood and give a nice looking protective coating. It will also smooth up the more you use it, it won't stay tacky very long.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #21
squisher, what does long gone mean?

Thanks Buddy, it is good and tacky now. I plan to keep applying it for several days and I'll keep an eye on it after.
 
Back
Top