What is the Best Wood for Making Wooden Axe Handles?

Choosing the wrong wood for your axe handle isn't just inconvenient, it's dangerous. A weak handle can snap during use, leading to serious injury. Let's ensure you pick the right material.

Hickory is widely considered the best wood for axe handles due to its exceptional combination of strength, toughness (impact resistance), and shock absorption. Ash is a very strong second choice, valued for similar properties.

An axe handle must withstand incredible forces – the shock of impact, the stress of prying, and the wear of regular use. The wood choice is paramount for both safety and performance. As someone who has worked extensively with wood properties and manufacturing at JDW for over a decade, I understand what makes a wood suitable for such a demanding task. Let's explore the best options and why they stand out.

What Kind of Wood is Best for an Axe Handle?

Overwhelmed by wood options and unsure which can handle the stress of an axe? Using woods like oak or maple might seem strong, but they lack the specific properties needed, risking failure.

The best woods are Hickory and Ash. They possess the critical combination of high strength, exceptional toughness (resistance to fracture from impact), and good shock absorption needed for safety and performance.

Diving Deeper into Ideal Axe Handle Woods

When selecting wood for an axe handle, we're looking for more than just hardness. An axe handle needs to absorb the tremendous shock generated when striking wood without breaking and without transmitting excessive vibration to the user.

Essential Properties for Axe Handles

• Toughness (Impact Resistance): This is arguably the most critical property. It's the wood's ability to withstand sudden, sharp impacts without fracturing or splitting. An axe handle experiences extreme shock.
• Strength (Bending Strength): The handle must resist the bending forces applied during swinging and occasionally when used for light prying (though using an axe for heavy prying is generally discouraged).
• Flexibility/Resilience (Shock Absorption): The wood needs a degree of flexibility to absorb impact energy rather than transferring it all directly to the user's hands and arms or shattering. It needs to bend slightly and return to shape.
• Durability: Resistance to wear, splintering, and general degradation over time.
• Grain Structure: Straight grain running parallel to the handle length is essential for maximizing strength and preventing breakage along weak grain lines.

Why Hickory and Ash Dominate

These two hardwoods consistently emerge as the top choices because they uniquely balance these demanding properties:

• Hickory: Native to North America, Hickory is the benchmark against which other handle woods are often measured. Its long, dense, interlocking fibers provide exceptional toughness and resilience. It can absorb significant shock and resist fracturing better than almost any other readily available wood.
• Ash (Specifically White Ash): Also very strong and tough, Ash is another traditional choice, particularly common in Europe. While generally considered slightly less tough than prime Hickory, high-quality Ash is still an excellent material for axe handles, offering good shock absorption and durability. It's often slightly lighter than Hickory.

Why Other Woods Aren't Ideal

• Oak: Strong and hard, but generally too stiff and brittle for axe handles. It lacks the necessary toughness and shock absorption, making it more prone to fracturing under impact and transmitting more vibration.
• Maple: Similar to Oak – very hard and strong, but not tough enough and too stiff for comfortable, safe use on an impact tool like an axe.
• Softwoods (Pine, Fir, etc.): Completely unsuitable due to lack of strength and durability. They would break almost immediately under the stress of chopping.

Wood Property Focus for Axes

For the demanding application of an axe handle, where safety and performance under high impact are paramount, Hickory and Ash provide the best combination of necessary properties found in wood.

What Wood Did Vikings Use for Axe Handles?

Curious about the historical choices for these iconic tools? Knowing what materials were proven effective by warriors and woodsmen of the past provides insight into wood properties.

Vikings primarily used Ash for their axe handles. Ash was abundant in Scandinavia, strong, tough, and relatively lightweight, making it an excellent and practical choice for their tools and weapons.

Diving Deeper into Viking Axe Handle Materials

The Vikings were renowned for their woodworking skills and their effective tools and weapons, including their iconic axes. The choice of handle material was crucial for the reliability of these essential items.

Ash: The Dominant Choice

Archaeological evidence and historical analysis strongly indicate that Ash (specifically European Ash, Fraxinus excelsior) was the most common wood used by Vikings for axe handles, spear shafts, and other tools requiring resilience.

• Availability: Ash trees were widespread and abundant throughout Scandinavia and Northern Europe during the Viking Age (roughly 8th to 11th centuries). Using a readily available local resource makes practical sense.
• Properties: As discussed earlier, Ash possesses an excellent combination of strength, toughness (impact resistance), and flexibility (shock absorption). While perhaps slightly less tough than prime North American Hickory (which wasn't available to them), European Ash was certainly one of the best-suited woods available in their region for handling impact.
• Weight: Ash is strong yet relatively lightweight compared to some other hardwoods like Oak, making the axe easier to wield quickly and for longer periods.
• Workability: Ash is known for being relatively easy to work with hand tools, which was essential during the Viking era. It splits straight and shapes well.

Other Potential Woods (Less Common)

While Ash was dominant, it's possible other woods were occasionally used based on local availability or specific needs, though evidence is less prevalent:

• Oak: Strong and available, but as noted, generally less suitable for impact handles due to its stiffness and lower toughness compared to Ash. It might have been used if Ash was scarce, but likely wasn't preferred for high-impact axe handles.
• Birch: Another common tree in the region. Birch is reasonably hard but lacks the toughness and strength of Ash for a durable axe handle. It might have been used for smaller tools or temporary handles.
• Elm: Known for its interlocking grain making it resistant to splitting, but perhaps less ideal in other strength properties compared to Ash.

Why Not Hickory?

North American Hickory species were not available to the Vikings in Europe. Their choices were limited to the timber available in their local environment.

The Vikings' reliance on Ash demonstrates its effectiveness as a handle material, proven through centuries of practical use for demanding tasks. Its balance of strength, toughness, and availability made it the optimal choice from the resources they had.

Viking Handle Wood Summary

History confirms that Ash was the go-to wood for Viking axe handles, selected for its excellent functional properties from the available timber.

Is Ash or Hickory Stronger?

Trying to decide between Ash and Hickory based purely on strength? While both are very strong woods, there are subtle differences in their mechanical properties that might influence selection.

Both are very strong hardwoods. Hickory generally tests slightly higher in bending strength (MOR) and stiffness (MOE) than Ash, making it technically "stronger" in those specific measures.

Diving Deeper into Ash vs. Hickory Strength Metrics

When comparing the "strength" of woods, engineers and wood scientists look at specific mechanical properties measured through standardized tests. The most relevant ones for handles include:

Key Mechanical Properties

• Modulus of Rupture (MOR): This measures the ultimate bending strength – the maximum stress a wood can withstand before breaking when bent. A higher MOR means it takes more force to snap the wood in a bending scenario.
• Modulus of Elasticity (MOE): This measures stiffness or resistance to bending under load. A higher MOE means the wood deflects less under a given force. Very high stiffness isn't always desirable in a handle, as it can mean less shock absorption.
• Work to Maximum Load (Impact Bending): This measures toughness or impact resistance – the energy required to break the wood under a sudden blow. This is often considered the most critical property for striking tool handles.
• Density (Specific Gravity): Weight per unit volume. Denser woods are often (but not always) stronger and harder.

Comparing the Numbers (Typical Values)

Exact values vary depending on the specific species within the Hickory or Ash groups and growth conditions, but typical average values show:

• Density: Hickory (e.g., Shagbark Hickory) is generally denser than White Ash (Specific gravity around 0.60-0.66 for Ash vs. 0.70-0.75+ for Hickory).
• MOR (Bending Strength): Hickory typically has a higher MOR than Ash. For example, Shagbark Hickory might average around 15,000-20,000 psi, while White Ash might average 12,000-15,000 psi.
• MOE (Stiffness): Hickory is also generally stiffer than Ash. Shagbark Hickory MOE might be around 2.0-2.2 million psi, while White Ash is around 1.7-1.9 million psi.
• Impact Bending (Toughness): This is where Hickory significantly excels. While Ash is very tough, Hickory consistently ranks among the toughest woods available, requiring more energy to fracture under impact.

What Does This Mean for Handles?

• Strength/Stiffness: Hickory is technically stronger in bending and stiffer. This contributes to its ability to handle high forces.
• Toughness: Hickory's superior toughness makes it more resistant to breaking from sudden impacts (like hitting a knot or an overstrike), which is critical for axe safety.
• Shock Absorption: While stiffness (MOE) might suggest Ash is slightly less stiff and therefore potentially better at absorbing shock through flex, Hickory's overall resilience and vibration damping properties are generally considered excellent, and subjectively preferred by many for impact tools. Both are far better than stiffer woods like Oak or Maple.

Strength Metrics Summary: Hickory vs. Ash

While both are exceptionally strong hardwoods suitable for handles, Hickory generally holds a slight edge in bending strength and a more significant advantage in toughness (impact resistance), making it the preferred choice where maximum durability against shock is required, as in axe handles. However, high-quality Ash remains a very strong and capable option.

What is the Hardest Wood to Cut with an Axe?

Curious about which woods pose the biggest challenge to an axe blade? Knowing this highlights the incredible forces involved and why handle material properties like toughness are so vital.

Extremely dense, hard, and often interlocked-grain tropical hardwoods like Lignum Vitae, Ebony, or certain Eucalypts (like Ironbark) are among the hardest woods to cut effectively with an axe.

Diving Deeper into Woods That Resist Cutting

While an axe is designed to split wood along the grain, cutting across the grain or dealing with extremely dense or difficult woods presents a significant challenge, testing both the axe blade and the handle.

Factors Making Wood Hard to Cut

• Density: Higher density woods simply have more mass per unit volume, requiring more force to penetrate or split.
• Hardness (Janka Hardness): This measures resistance to denting and wear. Very hard woods resist the axe blade's penetration.
• Grain Structure:
• Interlocked Grain: Wood fibers growing in alternating spiral directions make splitting extremely difficult, as the axe can't follow a straight path. Many tropical hardwoods exhibit this.
• Irregular Grain: Swirly or unpredictable grain around knots or burls also resists clean splitting.
• Silica Content: Some woods (especially tropical ones) contain high levels of silica, which rapidly dulls cutting edges, making chopping laborious.
• Toughness (Ironically): While toughness is desired in a handle, extreme toughness in the wood being cut means it absorbs the axe's energy without fracturing easily.

Examples of Exceptionally Hard-to-Cut Woods

These woods are known for being challenging for axes and other cutting tools:

• Lignum Vitae: One of the hardest and densest woods in the world, famous for its self-lubricating properties and use in bearings. Extremely difficult to work.
• Ebony: Very dense, hard, and often brittle, but its density resists cutting. Known for dulling tools quickly.
• Ironwoods (Various Species): Many unrelated species are called "Ironwood" due to their extreme hardness and density (e.g., American Hornbeam, Desert Ironwood, some Acacias).
• Australian Eucalypts (e.g., Ironbark, Jarrah): Many Australian hardwoods are renowned for their density and hardness, often with interlocked grain, making them very tough to split or cut.
• Tropical Hardwoods (e.g., Ipe, Cumaru): Often very dense, hard, and may contain silica.

Relevance to Axe Handles

Understanding what makes wood hard to cut highlights the forces involved in using an axe.

• Impact Force: Cutting these woods requires generating significant impact force.
• Handle Stress: This force transmits immense shock and stress back into the handle. This underscores why axe handles must be made from woods like Hickory or Ash that possess exceptional toughness and shock absorption to withstand these forces without breaking, even when encountering difficult wood. Using a handle made of Oak or Maple when trying to cut Lignum Vitae would likely result in rapid handle failure.

Hardness Comparison (Janka Hardness - Higher is Harder)

The extreme properties of woods like Lignum Vitae or Ironbark serve as a benchmark, emphasizing why the specific combination of toughness and resilience found in Hickory and Ash is so vital for the handles of tools designed to cut other woods.

Conclusion

Hickory is the top choice for axe handles due to superior toughness, with Ash a close second. Vikings used Ash. Hickory is slightly stronger, but grain quality is paramount for both.

About Me (Darin Zhang)

I'm Darin Zhang, founder of JDW. With over 10 years in wood product manufacturing, I started on the factory floor and eventually built my own company. My brand's slogan is "Professional Wooden Product Manufacturer For Your Custom Wooden Product," and you can find us at https://woodenbrushhandle.com/. Understanding wood properties for performance applications is central to our work.

My journey in this industry brought me financial independence and allowed me to help many clients grow their businesses. Now, through JDW, I aim to share knowledge about wood products and manufacturing. Our mission is to make this expertise accessible to everyone, from beginners to professionals. I'm grateful for what the industry has given me, and I want to give back by helping others succeed in the field.

Understanding the Designer's Perspective (Jacky)

To better understand the challenges faced by those specifying and buying handles, let's consider someone like Jacky.

Jacky is a 35-year-old Wood Product Designer in Canada with a decade of experience. Working for a mid-sized furniture manufacturer, he focuses on high-quality furniture and custom wood components. His role involves ensuring that designs meet both aesthetic and functional requirements while being optimized for efficient production and craftsmanship.

For Jacky, understanding the specific performance differences between woods like Hickory and Ash (toughness vs. strength vs. stiffness) is crucial, even in furniture design. This knowledge helps him select the right material not just for looks but for function – perhaps choosing Ash for a component needing some resilience or Maple where hardness is key. Knowing about historical uses (Vikings using Ash) or extreme properties (Lignum Vitae) adds to his overall material science understanding, enabling better collaboration with manufacturers like JDW to create durable, functional, and beautiful products.