Not a knife, but badass! Hatchet. Advice needed.

[coachcampana]

So, just for fun, I bought a couple old saw mill circular saw blades. I'm going to use them to make big choppers and maybe a few hatchets.

So, the handle on this right now is 1 3/4 of an inch wide. I does feel odd in my hand, but I know that's also because I don't have the wood or micarta handle material on it yet, I haven't decided. Or maybe a combo of micarta/wood and a paracord wrap? Not sure.
My question is this. How wide should the handle be? My fiskars hatchet has a handle that is a similar measurement , but its rounded. It definitely feels good in my hand. I don't want to go to my metal band saw and chop off a 1/8 to 1/4 inch and wish I hadn't. So, any opinions on this would be appreciated.

"It chops, and oh yes, it will kill....." No, I'm not creepy, just poking fun at the Forged in Fire TV show. I just want to make a cool hatchet to take on kayak camping trips. I plan on baking a cerakote or some such do it at home type of coating on this.

Thanks for reading.

 

[harshitgpt89]

I think you have carved a demon out from a metal piece.

 

[malignity]

I've had a 36" buzz saw blade I was going to make knives from.

Now I've got a 36" buzz saw blade I'm going to make knives and a hatchet from. Hah.

Awesome design man. Good question there. With a chopper of that magnitude, I'm thinking almost any wood will break given the full tang construction. I have a big quarter inch thick spine 10 1/2" bladed chopper I made. I was going to put a wooden handle on it, but I think it'd break. I ended up going with paracord.

What about doing a leather wrap of some sort?

 

[coachcampana]

I ended up trimming the handle down another quarter inch, its much better in the hand now. I ordered some custom micarta to be made by an eBay seller in 10 inch lengths. So that will be my material. I'll probably finish the heat treat this weekend and pin/epoxy the scales on.

 

[malignity]

Maybe others can chime in here better than I, but I'd probably use steel for the pins as opposed to anything else. I can't even begin to count how many machete handles I've broken by swinging them too hard. Wood, plastic, doesn't matter. I've never had a micarta handle, and these are just store bought ones, so I can't say for sure this will happen to you. Was just a thought I had.. on my big choppers, I'm really leery about using wood at all. I'm finishing one right now with Osage Orange, and I'm hoping and praying it'll hold up given that it's a pretty dang strong wood. Only time will tell.

 

[coachcampana]

Almost finished.

 

[coachcampana]