The Battle Ax

A friend asked me to make a toy battle ax for her son.  I think I will stick with the toy cars and kid furniture.  Toy weapons are different and I will explain a little later. 

As with most projects I wanted to try something new.  This was going to be the handle.  I was going to try to do a para cord wrap.  The ax is pretty straight forward.  It is an oak handle that is about 1 ½” square.  The blade is two pieces of beech and measures 20” across.  I made a template of blade and cut them out.  The edge is sanded down with a ¼” flat so it is not sharp.  I took a wide board and put a dado in it the width of the narrow part of the blade and ½ the thickness.  By ripping the board in half and gluing it together I had the mortise to put the blade in.  I narrowed the handle with a spiral bit and the router.  Just a plug for Triton, I really like their router set up with the work center.  It will be sad when my son collects his winnings. 

Once I had all the parts profiled the way I wanted, I dry fitted it together.  There was one area that was a little tight.  I was removing the blade of the ax and it came out of the mortise and the corner hit my finger next to the nail.  It removed the flesh that was next to the nail.  This is worst woodworking injury that I have sustained so far.  It kind of put a damper on the rest of the day.  My wife asked if I need to go to urgent care.  My response was that there was nothing to sew back together.  It actually has been healing quickly.  It is just sensitive.

The handle was fun to do.  I think it came out ok.  I could not get the top knots to look good, but the handle I liked.  My kids saw it and wanted to hold it and I let them.  It was too heavy for my youngest.  My oldest (9 years old) swung it and I said that is enough and I will take it now.  It seriously scared me.  The ax has some heft to it.  I would liken it to a bat with a dull blade attached.  The blade will break bones before it breaks.  I did round off the corners that caused my injury but it still scared me.  When making toy weapons, I think I just make blunt weapons.

My kids now want one, and they will not get one.