I purchased a small cast ax head last year at the Association of Ohio Longrifle Collectors show in Newark, (when is that this year?).
I've tried twice to make a curly maple handle for it. Both times the head ends up being loose and wobbly.
I was thinning down the top of the handle and inserting it into the head to see where I needed to remove more wood. I kept doing that untill I had the head seated on the handle with about 1/2" sticking about the head. Then I took the head off, cut down the handle with a hack saw, put the head back on and inserted a wedge. It was tight at first. then lossened.
are there any secrets or obvious tricks that I'm missing?
It's tough trying to learn how to do some of this stuff on your own.