An axe edge guard or axe sheath is intended protect an axe blade and keep it sharp during storage or transport. At the same time, a properly sheathed axe is safer than a naked blade.
Commercial Axe Guards
The typical axe guard consists of a leather sheath or pouch, sewn and riveted, that is slipped over the blade and anchored by a strap of leather or webbing that buckles behind the head.
Guards may also be equipped with a snap for hanging on a workman's belt or a pair of slots for threading through a utility belt, though this is only of value for smaller axes such as the boys' axe, scout axe, or hatchet.
These guards are durable and relatively inexpensive (in the $12 to $15 USD range). Unfortunately, they are not always available, or may be lost. Or the axe owner may just prefer to make something from recycled materials rather than buy a purpose-made item.
Home Made Axe Guards
Think "green" – recycle something into an axe guard. This is a chance to be creative. A local Scout troop leader once challenged each patrol to come up with an original axe guard for their axes (the group of five to eight Scouts in each patrol had a 3/4 axe and a 1/2 axe). Here are the results.
- Rubber hose – a 6" (15 cm) length of old rubber garden hose was split down one side and slipped over the blade. The hose was held in place with an "elastic band" cut from a section of motorcycle tire tube (are those still available?) slipped over the heel of the head. This was a successful design except that the motorcycle tube eventually stretched out, and had to be replaced (using the design of another patrol, #2 below)
- Bike handlebar grip – In a remarkably similar approach, a second group used a bicycle handgrip in place of garden hose. One set of handlebar grips served to do both axes. They cut their rubber holder from a truck inner tube. This one also worked well, The first rubber retainer did not have the stopper holes (put in with a leather punch) and split, but the second version lasted for years.
- Wood Block – The patrol that came up with this one used first a 1" dowel (which split when the axe was dropped into a storage box) and later a piece of 1x2. Each piece of wood was about 1" (2.5 cm) longer than the axe blade. One of the boys' fathers used a table saw to put a saw kerf into the wood. The blade was then slipped into the kerf. A piece of parachute cord stapled to the wood was used to tie the guard to the axe (good knot practice!)
Axe Guards for Many Purposes
All of these axe guards were useful and served their many purposes in the Scout troop:
- A creative challenge for the Scouts
- Raise awareness of axe safety
- Encourage an attitude of caring for tools
- Safe storage and transport of patrol axes
- Reduce equipment costs for the troop
The home-made axe edge guards – all made from recycled or inexpensive materials – proved every bit as effective as commercial sheaths at a fraction of the cost.
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