Shortly after staining the grip, and looking at reference pictures, I decided that the handle wasn’t brutish enough. A scrap piece of 2 by 4 was perfect. I drew out the new design onto the 2 by 4 except the design was longer, wider, flatter and featured a different hand grip which would be more suited to the bearers’ hand. I cut it out using the band saw and used the same sanding techniques as I used for the axe handle. I also used the same method to stain the handle a dark brown.