Is there a recommended and secure method for attaching a pick axe head to a suitable handle? The handle on my pick axe just broke and I need to get a new handle, but having never attached one before do I need to do anything in particular?
I vaguely recall once reading about soaking the handle in water once it was attached, but the memory is vague.
Thanks for any advice anyone can offer.
Mine is loose. The way I swing it always drives the head away from me, and the handle is fattest at that end, so I never have a problem. Mine is the variety known as a mattock, this may not work on a true pickaxe.
Andy
I'd imagine it's just an interference fit as tight as you can get it,probably by hammering the head on to the handle , then hammer in a wedge which you'll likely find in the old handle . Stuart
A pick handle needs no securing; the pick is slid onto the handle from the top. The very bottom of the handle is flared so that it is much larger than the "eye" of the pick. Be careful, when you start using the rehandled pick, that the pick doesn't slide back down the handle onto your fingers when you raise it above your head. HTH.
You drop the head on from the handle end, the tapered eye in the head and the taper of the handle fix the head once you use it.
AJH
Just a thought: You could always heat the pick-axe so that it shrinks tight on the handle in a barrel-hoop kind of way.
mark
The message from Andy Champ contains these words:
According to the hardware shop owner where I got a new (hickory) handle for my mattock last week they use the same handles. Mine too is currently loose but the previous incumbent (my third I think) was stuck on so hard I had to perforate the butt with a drill before I could drive the remnant out.
Have a look at the old one. You'll find wedges in the end of the handle at the pick end.
Fitting a hammer or pick axe head needs to done well or it will come loose or worse fly off... It's not difficult but something that needs to be done with care to ensure that the handle is splayed out by the wedges to fully mate against the inside of the head. The wedges also need to be very tight. If the old wedges are metal I'd rescue them and reuse, timber I wouldn't. I think you can buy new metal handle wedges.
Not all pick handles are like that!
The many that I have changed over the years generally needed hand-fitting into the head, a slot cut in it to take a hardwood wedge (or two as the case may be) and then a couple of 'hefty' metal 'quillets' driven across the grain of the wedges.
Ah.. the good old days of being an apprentice and 'cussing' at all and sundry who dared to bring a broken shovel, spade, pick or sledgehammer handle into the workshop - I hated the damn things then and still do 40 years later :-)
Brian G
No. If you do attach it rigidly, you'll break it.
Picks are pretty standard sizes: there are two, but they're obviously different. Any handle (a "heft" if you're picky) should just drop through from the top.
IMHO, a good fine sanding and a coat of Danish oil on the shaft is worth it, for reduced wear on your hands.
If you're talking axes or hammers instead, I posted that to rec.woodworking a while back. In glorious OCD-detail.
That to my ears is the proper way of fixing a pick head to handle. Yes, the pick end of the new handle may well have a taper but that needs to fit the hole in the head snuggly and then be forced into contact by the wedge(s) to stop it sliding down the handle on your hands and/or head... The quillets hold the the wedge(s) in and stop them working loose.
Sorry Andy - but that's a load of cobblers!
Depends on whether it is the 'quick' fit type handle or the older method of fixing with wedges etc.
Good for slipping out of your hands you mean - a shaft should NEVER be oiled or coated! For those who's mind tends to wander - read into this what you will - wink, wink.
Differences of opinion I agree, but that's life.
Brian G
My thanks for all the replies. :-)
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