Shaft to pickaxe 90cm

The handle is round throughout its length. It is 90cm long and 35mm at its thickest point. It is much thicker than the handles for the blade hoes. We recommend keeping the handle as it is - it should not be cut shorter like on the blade hoes.

Many old Swedish pickaxes have oval holes that require even wider handles than these!

Weight: 1kg

Assembling

Let the handle dry indoors near a radiator for a couple of weeks first—it should be as dry as possible before being hammered in to ensure it stays in place.

1. Attach the pickax to the handle. In the video, we apply grease to the handle, but this is not necessary.
2. Use a sturdy anvil or similar as support. 
3. Hammer the handle firmly into the hoe using the back of an axe or a sledgehammer. The better the support, the more you can drive the handle in.
4. If, after hammering, more than 1 cm of the handle sticks out, saw it down to a maximum of 0.5 cm.
5. Finally, hammer in the wedge. Done!

When we assemble them ourselves, only about 1 in 10 handles need to be trimmed—the rest can be hammered in fully.