...so this happened two days ago...

[anadmai]

How's the boo boo?

[bloke]

How's the boo boo?

Thanks for asking..
Also, I can nearly bend my index finger back into a box shape and with only some tightness and really not any pain anymore.
(I've been working on stretching the outer muscles to do this again, while it's been healing.)

[anadmai]

Do becareful, 007.

[bloke]

Do becareful, 007.

If I need a 3 lb short handle sledge, I have another one that's only about ten years old which has a very solidly affixed handle.
The one whereby the head flew off I believe is something that we had at my house when I was a little boy, and no telling how old it is. I'll get it tightened back up and rotated back into use.

[bloke]

Day 13:
I can now "box" the finger again:

[1 Ton Tommy]

You're doing well. I can't do that to my middle finger or it sticks that way.

[ghmerrill]

I'll get it tightened back up and rotated back into use.

I just did a similar repair on a garden tool of my wife's -- one of those with a kind of adze on one end and three sharp steel "fingers" on the other, sometimes called a hand tiller, cultivator, or hoe. Heavy steel head for chopping and (sort of) harrowing. She's been beating it up and I've been resharpening it for at least 10 years.

Originally the head was just a "slide-on/friction" sort of affair. I wanted to make it more permanent, but didn't want to take the time to make a wooden wedge for it, and couldn't find any shims lying around. None of the big box stores or hardware stores around here carry the wedges any longer. I just needed one, but you can't get just one, and I got 12 assorted ones from Amazon for "only" $12.95. I'll probably use some of the others over the next few years.

So I cut a slot in the top, squeezed in some epoxy, and pounded one of the steel wedges in it -- done. It would have cost only a little more to buy a new one, but I felt good about the effort and probably stimulating a slightly different part of the Chinese economy by buying the wedges.

[bloke]

I was going to just pound a wooden wedge in there after cutting a slot, but maybe one of those metal wedges with those sort of teeth things built into them would be better. That said, to be effective it would need to be about an inch wide or wider, rather than 3/4 of an inch wide like a typical one used on a typical hammer.

[ghmerrill]

it would need to be about an inch wide or wider, rather than 3/4 of an inch wide like a typical one used on a typical hammer.

You might want something like this: 10 PCs Triangle Wedges for Blacksmith Hammer Repair. (https://www.amazon.com/Gadpiparty-Trian ... 43&sr=8-11).

[bloke]

Well I don't need 10 and I don't need to be paying shipping (I've never been an Amazon Club member or whatever they call them).

The problem with the wedges is that they are only as wide as standard hammer handles at the top.

I'm still thinking I'm going to make a full 1 inch wide WOODEN wedge (after slitting this OEM handle to allow for it). And tapping it in place. I might put some epoxy or TiteBond in there with it)

These old hickory handles from a half century ago are much better wood, and this one has only shrunk, it's not suffering from any deterioration otherwise.

[tofu]

These old hickory handles from a half century ago are much better wood, and this one has only shrunk, it's not suffering from any deterioration otherwise.

My full length sledgehammer from 1906 which my grandfather bought when he built his house -has the same issue - it shrunk. Your little event has made me realize I need to fix that issue sooner than later before it to decides to fly. That head has done an amazing amount of work, but you can see the beating it has taken through the years. OTOH the double sided maple handle axe he bought with it to fell the trees on the lot still looks great. My dad also used both when he built his own house. It’s such an easy swing - great balance and feel in the hand. The stuff from a bygone age that was built to take a beating & last.

[ghmerrill]

I'm still thinking I'm going to make a full 1 inch wide WOODEN wedge (after slitting this OEM handle to allow for it). And tapping it in place. I might put some epoxy or TiteBond in there with it)

That's what I would have done except my garage-shop is in such a cluttered mess right now that both the band saws and the table saw have stuff heaped on them, and there was so much clutter on the bench that I didn't want to do it by hand. So I paid the vig for a little bag of steel wedges, feeling I'd probably use them in the future. We have Amazon Prime, and so shipping and returns never cost us anything (aside from the cost for Prime ).

These old hickory handles from a half century ago are much better wood, ...

Yeah, I've noticed that too. Hickory is amazing stuff. A few years ago I made a (two-piece screw-together) walking stick out of a hickory sapling I'd cured for a few years. It's kind of like having a light-weight steel stick. But for us, the hickory is mostly firewood. My wife just loves it for the wood stove -- and gets to split it with a newer splitter we got several years ago when the ancient one we bought abused and 2nd-hand from a rental store after we moved here finally croaked.

[bloke]

20 days