1940s–1960s

1944 Sager Chemical Axe – Custom Osage Adirondack Double Bit

$300

This one started with a problem and turned into one of the more interesting builds I’ve put together. The head is a 1944 Sager Chemical Axe. It’s a double-bit pattern, but the eye is unusual. Slightly larger than a Cruiser eye and smaller than a standard full-size double bit. That made finding the right handle a challenge. About two years ago, I purchased an Osage Orange 19C handle from Whiskey River Trading Co. and recently pulled it back out. When I looked at it again, I realized the final sanding had left the top of the tongue more oval than you would normally expect from a single-bit handle. Instead of seeing that as a flaw, I immediately thought about this Sager. The dimensions were almost perfect for turning the 19C into an Adirondack style handle. During the fitting process, I got the head about 95% of the way there. The only issue was a small area on the back of the shoulder where I needed just a little more material. Rather than abandoning the handle, I took a piece of Osage Orange from a wedge and laminated additional wood directly onto the 19C. Once the lamination cured, I shaped and blended it into the handle until the fit was exactly where I wanted it. It worked perfectly. The 1944 Sager head was cleaned up, sharpened to a razor edge, blued, and then the exposed bit was polished to give it a sharp contrast between the darkened steel and bright cutting edges. The axe was hung using a Padauk wedge, which gives a beautiful contrast against the Osage Orange. I reshaped and rounded the palm swell, then sanded the entire handle through 400 grit. For the finish, I treated the Osage Orange with iron acetate to react with and darken the natural tannins in the wood. After that, I finished it with Wise Owl Black Hemp Seed Wax, which deepened the color even further and gave the handle an aged, almost smoky appearance while still allowing the Osage grain to show through. The finished axe is unlike anything you could buy off a shelf. 1944 Sager Chemical Axe. Modified Whiskey River Osage Orange 19C. Custom laminated shoulder repair. Adirondack-style conversion. Padauk wedge. Blued and polished head. Razor-sharp edge. Hand-shaped and finished through 400 grit. Price: $300 At $300, you aren’t just paying for an old axe head and a piece of Osage Orange. You’re paying for the imagination to see what the pieces could become, the innovation required to make them work together, and more than a decade of experience developing the skills to pull it off. This axe exists because the pieces weren’t quite supposed to fit together, and I figured out how to make them fit anyway.