I've been using that double bit pretty heavy since I got it.
I'm not ready to write a full on review but I did want to provide some initial feedback.
As I understand it he is switching over to a new, more robust handle. I believe it'll be thicker but I haven't seen the new ones yet.
I can tell you that the handle as is, is thin and can be challenging to work with. It's also very slippery, if and when you get glancing blows it wants to twist hard in your hand.
I tried paracord first but that was too thick. I looked around for some alternatives and found a couple pictures of small axes like this that had twisted & waxed sinew for wraps.
I did two of them.
The first one, I used four strands of the 70# sinew, it's thicker than the standard 30# stuff. I waxed it with pure beeswax as I was doing the twist. Once it was wrapped I really went after it with the beeswax, rubbing heavy amounts into the wrap.
I then used a leather glove and friction to heat the wax, pushing and pulling it quickly through the glove. This did an excellent job of melting the wax in, and filling the grooves between between runs of the wrap. I finished that up by doing the same thing but this time with a 100% cotton shirt sleeve. This smoothed the whole thing out, and removed the tackiness of the wax.
This is the result.
The second one, I used the standard 30# sinew but went with five strands and followed the same process as described above. It came out lighter in color and slightly thicker.
Here's what that looked like.
I'm quite pleased with the wraps. They are not sticky or tacky to the touch, but the grip is unreal, bare handed or with gloves on. There is NO twisting at all, control is improved and the handle is now perfect for working with. I used it quite a bit today with the wrap in place and it shows no ill effect. I'm anxious to see how well it holds up over time. I imagine if it starts to wear, I'll just reapply the beeswax coating.
I'm a new fan of waxed sinew wraps!
I'm not ready to write a full on review but I did want to provide some initial feedback.
As I understand it he is switching over to a new, more robust handle. I believe it'll be thicker but I haven't seen the new ones yet.
I can tell you that the handle as is, is thin and can be challenging to work with. It's also very slippery, if and when you get glancing blows it wants to twist hard in your hand.
I tried paracord first but that was too thick. I looked around for some alternatives and found a couple pictures of small axes like this that had twisted & waxed sinew for wraps.
I did two of them.
The first one, I used four strands of the 70# sinew, it's thicker than the standard 30# stuff. I waxed it with pure beeswax as I was doing the twist. Once it was wrapped I really went after it with the beeswax, rubbing heavy amounts into the wrap.
I then used a leather glove and friction to heat the wax, pushing and pulling it quickly through the glove. This did an excellent job of melting the wax in, and filling the grooves between between runs of the wrap. I finished that up by doing the same thing but this time with a 100% cotton shirt sleeve. This smoothed the whole thing out, and removed the tackiness of the wax.
This is the result.
The second one, I used the standard 30# sinew but went with five strands and followed the same process as described above. It came out lighter in color and slightly thicker.
Here's what that looked like.
I'm quite pleased with the wraps. They are not sticky or tacky to the touch, but the grip is unreal, bare handed or with gloves on. There is NO twisting at all, control is improved and the handle is now perfect for working with. I used it quite a bit today with the wrap in place and it shows no ill effect. I'm anxious to see how well it holds up over time. I imagine if it starts to wear, I'll just reapply the beeswax coating.
I'm a new fan of waxed sinew wraps!
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