How to firmly fit a hammer onto a handle without a wedge

What do a sledgehammer, an ax and a hammer have in common? Operating principle. They need a swing to strike. That’s why a handle is needed, and the heavier the tool, the longer it is, as a rule.

During the swing, a centrifugal force acts on the metal part of the instrument, which tends to tear it off the handle. Moreover, this force is greater, the more massive the head and the longer the handle of the axe, sledgehammer or hammer.

Traditionally, to strengthen the head on the handle, a wooden wedge is driven into its end after the metal part is seated. Sometimes one or two smaller metal ones are driven in at an angle to the main wedge.

But there are alternative ways to securely secure the parts of the above-mentioned tools relative to each other. Below we will consider and practically implement one of them.

Place the hammer on the handle without a wedge using rubber

The handle can be purchased at a hardware store or made yourself from hard wood, which includes: oak, birch, maple, rowan, beech, ash, dogwood and others.When choosing, you just need to pay attention to the end of the workpiece and choose the one whose annual rings are located longitudinally and not transversely. Such a handle will be stronger and last longer.

It is believed that the slot in the handle for driving in the wedge weakens it. If you use rubber to securely attach the hammer head to the handle, then loosening does not occur, since there is no need for a wedge fastening, and therefore no need for a slot.

It is necessary to prepare the handle blank for the attachment. To do this, we adjust the side with a smaller cross-section to the hole in the head using a carpenter's knife, a wood file or an emery wheel. The seating part of the handle should fit freely into the hole in the head without tension and correspond in length to it.

Next, we cut out a strip from a bicycle inner tube or any elastic rubber, the length of which should provide a girth around the seat of the handle with some clearance, and the width should have a margin of about 1 cm in both directions.

Lubricate the outside surface of the rubber with lithol to facilitate the attachment process.

To do this, hit the opposite end of the handle on a stable surface. It is best if it is a massive wooden block.

After making sure that the hammer head is in place, we remove the squeezed out excess lithol with a rag and cut off the ends of the rubber on both sides of the hammer head with a sharp knife, so to speak, flush.

Then carefully cover the joint between the mounting hole of the hammer and the handle with glue (PVA, “Moment” or something similar). We do this, on the one hand, in order to strengthen the connection, but, mainly, to ensure that moisture does not penetrate into the connection between the hammer head and the handle.After all, water, once in an unprotected gap, can over time cause rotting of the wood and oxidation of the metal, which will inevitably lead to weakening of the fastening and failure of the tool.

What else is the advantage of fitting the handle into the head of the hammer this way? The presence of a rubber layer between the parts of the tool, as it were, isolates the handle from the head and the force of impact of the striker on another hard surface is damped and the hand does not experience all the energy of a hard and sharp contact.

All of the above can be repeated one to one, both with an ax and a sledgehammer. The glue, of course, may come off in places over time, so you will have to restore it. The handle can be burned with a blowtorch or gas torch and then wiped thoroughly with a rag. This will give the handle a noble appearance and ease of use.

In custody

Grease of mineral origin, which includes litol, has a bad effect on rubber over time and it begins to deteriorate. It is better to replace it with thick soap jelly. It also makes the attachment easier, but after the water evaporates, it loses its sliding properties and further strengthens the connection.

To seal joints, instead of PVA and other adhesives that harden and become brittle, it is preferable to use silicone sealant, which remains always flexible and less prone to cracking.

Since attaching a hammer, ax or sledgehammer with rubber requires considerable effort, the opposite end of the handle should be strengthened while attaching, by clasping it with a clamp and tightening it tightly. The clamp can be replaced with construction tape or vinyl insulating tape, tightly wrapping the handle in several layers.

Also, instead of rubber, you can use a tube made of galvanized sheet metal with a seam, which is put on the handle and inserted into the hole of the hammer. Next, as usual: a few blows and all the parts take their places, and very firmly and reliably.

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Comments (35)
  1. Valery
    #1 Valery Guests 14 November 2018 15:13
    3
    interesting ideas
  2. Guest Vladimir
    #2 Guest Vladimir Guests 14 November 2018 15:38
    20
    The most reliable connection is in the spacer when putting the striker on from below, in second place is the correct wedge. Rubber bands and gaskets are short-lived.
  3. Svetlana Gaidul
    #3 Svetlana Gaidul Guests 14 November 2018 15:40
    6
    All the tips are great! I like it, and I mean a lot of likes!
  4. Guest
    #4 Guest Guests 14 November 2018 20:24
    5
    If you pierce the handle of a sledgehammer with the thin end and leave a little of the thick end, it won’t fly off.
  5. Konstantin
    #5 Konstantin Guests November 15, 2018 00:10
    31
    Complete nonsense.Rubber dries out and crumbles over time even without lithol (and lithol is generally a problem), silicone is protected from water very poorly, PVA glue is much more reliable (tested experimentally). The result of such collective farm tuning can be sad. By the way, in villages, sometimes before chopping wood, axes are placed in a bucket of water with the handle up for half an hour so that they swell and do not fly off.
    1. guest
      #6 guest Guests 13 July 2019 18:55
      3
      this method of attaching an ax with a hammer is very good, it’s been proven that the handle will rot sooner than the rubber will crumble and dry out. And the fact that earlier axes were placed in a bucket of water before cutting is complete nonsense, also proven. We often hear that they used to do it this way, but that doesn’t mean that it was good
  6. SERGEI
    #7 SERGEI Guests November 15, 2018 00:18
    24
    The sledgehammer and pickaxe are mounted on the handle according to a different principle - wedges are not used. Oil, soap and rubber are not science fiction. The hammer handle is a consumable item. The wedge was invented for a reason and has been used for hundreds of years.
    1. Guest Vlad
      #8 Guest Vlad Guests 24 November 2018 22:36
      1
      The wedge was invented when rubber was not even in the project :-) And now in the production of hammers (axes, etc.) they don’t use something similar instead of wedges due to low technology (it’s the same thing - put a hammer on the handle, drive the wedge in and for shipment) and due to the fact that changing the handle with a wedge is naturally easier than picking out adhesives and various sealants. And in the villages they not only soaked axes, but also read with a torch, so what?
      1. iscander
        #9 iscander Guests 26 November 2018 19:35
        5
        never paid attention to what kind of hammers were used to hammer the railway spikes during the construction of the railway, believe me, they never come off without wedges
  7. Guest Leonid
    #10 Guest Leonid Guests November 15, 2018 00:49
    4
    ON EPOXY
  8. Guest Andrey
    #11 Guest Andrey Guests November 15, 2018 10:44
    27
    For information, the sledgehammer is placed through the bottom onto the thickening of the handle without wisdom.
    1. Guest Oleg
      #12 Guest Oleg Guests November 21, 2018 10:28
      3
      Andrey, I completely agree. My grandfathers did this, and my father taught me.
  9. Guest Nikolay
    #13 Guest Nikolay Guests 15 November 2018 22:32
    16
    Such nonsense about rubber and lithol
  10. 123
    #14 123 Guests November 16, 2018 06:00
    4
    You can also wrap it with tape, but it won’t last long, for home use – only a couple of times.
    1. Guest Dmitry
      #15 Guest Dmitry Guests November 26, 2018 02:55
      5
      better blue tape
      1. Vasya
        #16 Vasya Guests November 28, 2018 01:05
        1
        and red?