What is the difference between Grade A handles and Grade B handles?
This is the bigger brother of our popular 30C!
I bought an old, old, old steel pattern from a fellow axe junkie on eBay because I fell in love with the shape and that pattern was used to turn the 30C and for inspiration for the 28C and now the 32C.
There is something so awesome about getting a forgotten piece of history back into working hands. This pattern was made when people depended on their tools for survival so when it came to designing them they were not kidding around.
This curvy hickory single bit pattern is designed for axes that have a bit of a taller eye (Connies, Jerseys, etc...) but I'm sure it would feel comfortable on any axe you can fit it into.
The edges of the swell also curve slightly upward to give you more grip when swinging.
This is one of those handles that looks fine and dandy in pictures but you don't truly understand how awesome it is until you get to work with it.
Top of the Eye (eye is tapered): 2 1/2" X 15/16"
Shoulder: 2 7/8" X 1"
Customer Reviews
Picked up a B grade and it had a decent amount of runout despite very good grain orientation. Seemed really solid overall. Plenty of meat on the tongue to shape to size. Hung a 5lb Honaker head on it and it unfortunately split along the runout lines on day one after ~25 strikes on some fairly hard and knotty maple. Technique was solid, no overstrike involved with it.
Maybe a little too much head for one of these given the curves and runout I guess, but I still expected a bit more. Hickory was well dried but seems a little brittle after the break. I'd split blame between the runout, heavy head, and wood being split.
Absolutely gorgeous handle, but now ill be more cautious with them in the future. See pics for the runout and break.
Great service, the handles I bought we # 2's. And they are great looking handles! Thank you
This handle is very nice. However, it has a small knot or defect, which runs through the handle perpendicular to the axis of the swing. I don't think this should occur in the "A" grade of handles. I would be perfectly happy with this as a "B" handle, but because I spent extra for "A", it would have been appreciated to not have the defect.
The handle feels great and I love the **** at the end, but I think they should cut the wedge slot about 1/4in-1/2in more, but that’s nothing you can’t do with a saw and steady hand.
The handle had more runout than I expected for a premium made handle. I do not like having a combination of heart wood and sapwood.