A LIVING HISTORY BLOG.

18TH CENTURY LIVING HISTORY IN AUSTRALIA.

Saturday, 5 June 2010

Tomahawk Helve and A New Ball Headed Club.


My good Friend Grimbo has found that some of the timbers he uses take longer than others to absorb the lindseed oil. I usually leave my helves soaking for a month in a mixture of lindseed oil and turps, but sometimes I need to use the helve before the month has passed.
Friday I put a new tomahawk helve into soak, and today, saturday I took it out again. At the same time when I went down to the wood shed to get wood, I spotted the makings of a ball headed club which I had hacked out of a dead tree some years ago, and had forgotten all about it. Grimbo's enquirie about burls for ball headed clubs came back to me, so there and then I made the ball headed club.
I cut out the rough shape with my broad hatchet first, then finished it with a horse hoof rasp. When I went up to get the tomahawk helve I lowered the ball headed club into the lindseed oil whilst I rubbed the helve with a cloth.


This is the ball headed club before oiling.


The finished job along with the new tomahawk helve which I made from a broken felling axe helve (waste not want not!).

I am not likely to ever use this ball headed club, not even as a rabbit stick, but I did enjoy making it.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

nice one m8,mines still being born lol..