Dipropylene Glycol for Hanging Axes

[Chips O'Tool]

Over the last few days, I hung my first axe. What a pain. The Internet is full of bad information.

I learned something that might be useful to other people. You can use a chemical called dipropylene glycol to give your axe a good grip on its handle. This is the active ingredient in products like Swel-Lock, which make wooden items swell up. When you drive your wedge in, you wet it and the kerf in the axe handle with 80% water and 20% dipropylene glycol. Everything swells up, and it stays swollen.

Another tip: dipropylene glycol is available cheap on Ebay. You can get 8 ounces for about 6 bucks.

I didn't use it on the axe I hung today. I used plain old Titebond III. But I have a bottle on the way, and I'm going to use it on another axe handle.