From the title of this post, you should suspect that I'm going to focus on wood handles, and I will save composite handles for another post. There is some overlap between the two, like how in a wood handle a continuous straight grain makes the handle stronger than a discontinuous grain, and similarly in a composite handle, straight continuous fibers (usually fiberglass) will be stronger than discontinuous (short/chopped) fibers. An axe handle should be split from a stave (a narrow piece of “raw” wood) instead of cut out of a board. The grain of the wood should be continuous from end to end, or the shock from use will cause the handle to break apart (think baseball bat). Long, straight-grained woods such as hickory or ash are traditionally chosen for axe handles because they are strong and produce long, straight staves, and they have good mechanical material properties, like many other hardwoods. An axe handle should be from a log that is straight, without twists, branches, or bur...