Sorry for the lack of illustrations in this post, but I just can’t take the time. It’s all in the video.
I have been seeing more discussion lately of grain runout in axe handles, and whether it matters. Today, I want to discuss this topic and answer the question does grain runout matter? In short, Yes, but how much runout, what piece of wood, who is using it and how?
What is grain runout? Grain runout refers to the grain of the wood being cut across. Wood has fibers running up and down the tree. The wood can be split apart along those fibers more easily than it can be broken in any other way. That’s what we do when splitting wood. The run of these long fibers is the grain of the wood. The “out” in runout, means that the fibers poke out the side of the handle or board, instead of running all the way through end to end.
If we violate those fibers so that they don’t run all the way through the handle, we make a piece of wood weaker when it is bent. An ideal tool handle would have grain running straight through from end to end. That is almost strictly theoretical. We will violate the grain in making a handle, so that the ends of the fibers stick out the side in places, especially on a curved axe handle. But we could violate it a lot, or very little, or anything in between.
Trees are not perfectly straight. When run through a saw mill, a bent grained tree will produce boards with more runout than those sawn from straight wood. It is often claimed that items made from split wood are superior to those made with sawn wood. People say that because in a split piece of wood, the split usually pretty much follows the grain and you can tell exactly what you are dealing with. In a board sawn from a log, you may not be able to read the grain well, depending on the wood. Of course if you split out a piece of straight wood and make a curved axe handle with it, you will still violate the grain. All splitting really does is tell you what the grain is doing before you start shaping your item from the split blank.
So, one really important factor is how bad is the runout. What this question is getting at really, is how short is the distance that the grain runs from one side of the board or handle to the other. Or, if the fibers only run out at one end, how steep is the angle they rut out at.
Imagine cutting a board from the end grain of a huge log, so that the grain ran perfect perpendicular 90º to the board length. That is the shortest possible distance from one side of the board to the other. Remember that the wood fails most easily by splitting the grain apart, so this is the weakest possible grain orientation. Just looking at that model, we can say that of course grain runout matters.
As we increase the distance that the grain runs from one side of the board or handle to the other, the runout becomes less severe and less weak. Very long, gentle runout, can be fairly inconsequential, but the shorter it gets, the weaker it is.
There is another factor however, the intrinsic strength or toughness of the wood. What we are really talking about is how tough the wood is along the grain or maybe better said, how well knitted together is the wood along those grain lines. Some pieces of wood are just very tough that way and resist splitting. Others pieces will be weak and split along the grain easily. Unfortunately, you can’t look at a piece of wood and know if it is tough or not, at least I can’t. So, it is still best to avoid runout when possible. That is the safest. Grain is less of an issue with a tough piece of wood though. This is a good point to know, because we might see someone beating up a good piece of wood with runout and claiming that maybe runout doesn’t matter that much. In a piece of wood that splits more easily, it could matter a lot.
How severe the runout is, and how tough the wood is, are unchangeable factors any any given handle. Design clearly plays a part here too though. Whatever piece of wood we are working with, more than likely, a curved handle will have more severe runout and therefore it will be less strong than a straighter handle made from the same piece of wood. That is one reason I don’t like strongly curved handles. It doesn’t mean though, that every curved handle is a deal breaker. It doesn’t even mean that strongly curved handles are not going to hold up. And there is one last major factor, which is how we use the tool.
Even the best axe handle can be relatively weak when you attach a heavy piece of steel to the end. having an excellent handle is no guarantee against breakage. How we use an axe has much to do with whether our handles survive or not. Some mistakes, like overstriking, where you basically miss something and smack the handle, just happen occasionally, especially in splitting. Many breakages though, are caused by heavy handed technique. These breaks will often be blamed on the wood or handle design, because users think they are just using the tool normally, when they are actually applying a lot of unnecessary stress to the handle.
Heavy handed technique can involve several mistakes. One is just going at the work very hard and gung ho. Swinging an axe can be hard work, no doubt, but it does not have to be super hard if the tool and user are dialed in. A good user is graceful and efficient.
Another factor is how hard the axe is gripped. Most of us when we are just starting, will take a death grip on the axe. Taking that heavy grip will just wear you out faster, and both the handle and you will be under greater stress. Watch this video below on how to break an axe handle for more on how this actually happens and how to avoid it.
Finally, mistake of mistakes, along with the death grip, is trying to push the axe through the work after it hits the wood. Efficient chopping involves very little, if any work, after the axe hits the wood. The work is really done before it hits, by gaining momentum. It is very inefficient and stressful on both the user and the handle, to push the axe handle after it hits the target.
To summarize, while grain runout matters, it is not as simple as the angle degree or type of runout, because the nature of the particular piece of wood it is made from also matters. Either way, learning to use good technique can save out a lot of otherwise vulnerable handles. Good technique also saves us a lot of extra phycial effort. Heavy handed technique just wears us out and increases the chance of stress injuries, without acheiving much in the way of extra work done. Make no mistake, runout does create vulnerability, but understanding all these things can help us select better handles, and dial in our skills to stack the odds in our favor when using any handle.
