Wood Or Wood Not. What Is The Best Axe Material?

Axe handles, or hafts, traditionally are made of wood, but metal and fibreglass alternatives offer some advantages too. This Bury the Hatchet feature looks at the relative benefits of wooden and non-wooden handles.

In Favour of Wooden Handles

Axe handles have been made from wood since about 6000 BCE, and wood (usually hickory or ash due to their strong, but flexible properties) is still the most common material used today. When most people think of an axe, they think of a wooden axe

Throwing axes creates additional stress on an axe of course. Wooden axes are more likely to break if thrown, rather than if used simply to chop wood, particularly if thrown by non-experts. Good axe throwing instruction and technique will help reduce breakages. Many expert throwers will use the same wooden axe regularly for years. Strapping the handle with hockey or pvc tape, or coating it with boiled linseed oil, will also help.

Wood is a sustainable crop and wooden handles can be replaced relatively easily if they do break, enabling the continual reuse of the metal axehead. It is harder to replace a fixed head axe, but it is commonly done. A slip fit axe, ie where the axe head is not permanently fixed to the handle, is extremely simple to replace.

Of course, metal and fibreglass axes can also splinter and break. If a metal or fibreglass fixed head axe breaks, then the axe is usually thrown away.

It is also more than just aesthetics. A wooden handle does enable an axe to slip out of your hand easily while throwing. Metal axes usually have some sort of rubber grip. Similarly, fibreglass axes, made for chopping wood, have a comfort grip so that the axe won’t fly out of your hand.

A wooden axe can also be shaped to make it perfectly balanced to suit a particular throwing style. There are many finely crafted wooden handled throwing axes on the market. In fact, the majority of made-for-throwing axes have wooden handles. With basic carpentry skills, you can even adapt them further for a particular style of throwing.

If you intend to throw axes in competition, then organisations like the GAC and IATF rule that axe handles must have a wooden core. Even if you are not competing, anecdotal evidence suggests that social throwers like the look and feel of wooden handles over other alternatives. There is no greater affinity with the lumberjack spirit than throwing a traditional wooden axe.

In Favour of Non-wooden Handles

For everyday use, metal and fibreglass make a sensible alternative to wood for axe handles. Metal and fibreglass handles can break and splinter, but they will put up with a great deal more mistreatment than wood. They are therefore a good option for axe throwing, which necessarily increases the risk of mistreatment, particularly when used by beginners.

The cost of metal and fibreglass axes is about he same for comparable wooden axes, but as they are more robust they last longer than wood. They are therefore more cost effective in the long term.

Although it is common to have a rubber grip, metal axes can be just metal. There are a number of metal axes on the market specifically made for throwing. The problems of a rubber grip (eg harder to release, rubber getting damaged from throwing) can be overcome by taping them up with hockey tape or similar. The supposed advantage of wooden handles being easier to release is negated by the fact that many wooden handles are taped identically any way (to help reduce the wood breaking).

Day-to-day fibreglass axes tend to have grips that are purposely intended not to fly out of your hand. An advantage for chopping but not for throwing. They also tend to be poorly balanced for throwing (with more weight in the handle). However, there are fibreglass axes that have been specifically designed for throwing. For example, both the big indoor hatchet throwing organisation, IATF and WATL, sell fibreglass throwers aimed at beginners.¹ It is also possible to get replacement fibreglass handles for slip fit axes (such as the Cold Steel Hawks).² The fibreglass can even be sanded and shaped to some extent to make it fit for purpose.

Although some axe throwing competition organisers will only allow wooden handles. there are plenty that do not care about what the handle is made of as long as the axe meets their specifications. These include: WATL, EuroThrowers, Blade Aces and UKAT. It may not be the usual practice, but you could compete with a non-wooden axe, if you wanted to compete.

Although throwers will often accept that metal and fibreglass axes can be longer lasting, they will often simply prefer wood because of a nostalgic view that wood is the traditional material. While that is obviously true, axe throwing as a sport is a relatively modern activity and therefore using a more modern material would seem a reasonable move. Other sports have developed more high tech materials to push the boundaries of their sport. There is no reason to think that specialist axe throwing axe makers will not do the same (albeit that the current focus is on getting the most out of wooden axes).

It may be that the use of metal and fibreglass handled axes will be of even more use to throwers that are new to the sport. Axe throwing as a social activity has grown rapidly over the last twenty years or so, which means a large number of beginner throwers and inevitably a large number of mishaps. Rather than have a pile of broken wooden handles, metal or fibreglass handles could provide a more robust alternative and far less waste.

1. See: IATF HOUSE ‘Fiberglass Hatchet’ and WATL Kill Shot™ Throwing Axe ↩︎
2. See Fiberglass Axe Handles ↩︎

Pete George Consultant

Pete is an enthusiastic axe thrower and writer. He is currently touring the world researching axe throwing. He also provides consultancy for new axe throwing businesses via AxeThrowingConsultancy.com

See Full Bio

Axe Throwing Coaching Axe Throwing Business Consultancy Axe Throwing Business Management