Thread: Making Saw Handles

I wouldn't say tassie oak cheap.
I looked yesterday for 65mm by 12mm by 2.4m and bunnies wanted 26 dollars and some cents. Thats 5 bucks a foot for 1/2 inch by 2 1/2 inch.
I got 30mm by 180mm rosewood 1.5 metres long at a timber merchant for 10 bucks for all of it.

Originally Posted by _fly_

I wouldn't say tassie oak cheap.
I looked yesterday for 65mm by 12mm by 2.4m and bunnies wanted 26 dollars and some cents. Thats 5 bucks a foot for 1/2 inch by 2 1/2 inch.
I got 30mm by 180mm rosewood 1.5 metres long at a timber merchant for 10 bucks for all of it.

Could I ask which merchant?

I got it from mathews in rooks road.
It was 11 bucks and with mens shed discount of 10% got it for 10 bucks.

The old handles are fine, I think the large openings have more to do with wearing gloves on the job than a four finger grip. Where I live it gets cold in the winter. Just point your finger and saw.

The larger than needed, kidney shaped hole on many saws, allows you to insert your thumb, from your other hand, for a two hand hold. This is by design.
Those old saws with WS medallions were almost always made by a major manufacturer such as Disston or Peace, so to me they are no less valuable than the branded ones. I would rather have the original handle.

Toby

I think MrBig might be talking about 60s-80s type handles that really are big in the grip ... my four fingers feel loose in some of them. Chippy was mentioning them not long ago, saying that pointing your finger you barely reach the other side.

Some photos always help MrBig

Cheers,
Paul

thanks for the reply's everyone. I'll try and get some photo's up when I can to show you what I mean.

so for some picks, first is a shot of the 5,hand saws i'm looking to bring back to working condition. there is a diston and s&p on the left, and unknown in the middle and 2 warrented superiors on the right.

the next few pics show the handles over the top of the diston for comparison.

Mr. Big - I wouldn't go for Tassie Oak as my first choice for handle wood. Not because it's bland, some pieces can have quite nice figure, but because it's inclined to be splintery and coarse-grained. If you can sort through a pile and find a nice tight-grained, non-splintery piece it may be alright. Tight-grained woods are the go for any handles. Saw handles are nicer to hold if around 24-25mm thick, so if you are buying dressed wood, you will probably have to buy a thicker piece than you need & waste some - 19m is way too thin, IMO.

The traditional wood for the old Disstons was Apple, which is not so easy to come by, unless you have a fried who is ripping out an old orchard. Northern hemisphere Beech was also favoured, and our Myrtle Beech can be much nicer than its northern (distant) cousin. Other woods that are good are the Walnuts (both Qld W'nut and 'genuine' Walnut). Blackwood can be excellent, & Red gum can be good (examples of handles in both woods have been posted here) & Jarrah has also been used by some. She-oak is excellent, though a bit tougher to work with. It's one of my preferred woods for small saws, but I haven't used She-oak for a ful-sized saw handle. Being a very dense wood, it might make it a bit top-heavy, but it is fine on small saws, & Roseweood has been used on occasion, so I reckon it would be ok. It's one of those woods that takes a beautiful silky surface that is a pleaasure to hold in your hand....

Since your aim is to improve what you've got, & given the amount of work that goes into shaping a 'proper' saw handle, the cost of the wood is a minor consideration, I reckon. A bit of advice I'll offer is to either find a handle that you really like (if you haven't already!), & faithfully copy that, or muck about with some scrap bits to get the shape & size exactly right for you before you hack into an expensive or precious bit of wood. It's quite surprising how a difference of a few mm in width or thickness of the grip will make a huge difference to how it feels in your hand while sawing...

Some sample woods to give you an idea of the range of possibilities:

Cheers,

Cheers,

On the table, I would replace the handles on the middle one, and the one on the far right. The rest are keepers, after a little cleaning.

This will explain the two handed hold I was talking about.

Patent US150678 - IMPROVEMENT IN HANDSAW-HANDLES - Google Patents

Toby

Sorry, I can't advise you on Australian woods, I know nothing about them. But most oaks are hard to work, and open grained, and tend to expand and contract more than I like. It may split between the screws over time. Something closed grained, smooth to the touch, and dimensionally stable is what you're looking for.

And if you're going to use them, fitting you're hand is important. So replace them if you must. Doesn't matter what I would do, just give them a good look over before you condemn them.

Whatever you do, show us some pics when your done!

Toby

Originally Posted by TobyC

.... But most oaks are hard to work, and open grained, and tend to expand and contract more than I like. It may split between the screws over time. Something closed grained, smooth to the touch, and dimensionally stable is what you're looking for.

Toby, Northern Hemisphere oaks (Quercus spp.), are very different animals from our She-oaaks (Casaurina & Allocasaurina spp.). They do share some characteristics, such as the large medullary rays and high tannin content. However, it's quite easy to get a silky surface on she-oak that would be near impossible to get on any Quercus I've encountered, and she-oaks tend to be very stable & tough woods once dry.

However, you have reminded me of one thing I meant to mention. The only problem I've had is through using a piece of She-oak that wasn't as dry as I thought. It remained stable, but the acid tannins did a number on the metal under the wood! To avoid any repeats of that, I always slather the metal with paste wax before assembling a saw, & have had no repeats. I think it's a good precaution to wax the metal going inside the handle whatever wood you are using....

Cheers,

Thanks Ian,
Actually I had forgotten that about oak, it is very corrosive. I would worry about the blade and the fasteners. And the corrosion will leach into the wood leaving black streaks. Maybe you could dunk the handle in wood conditioner along with waxing the blade and the screws. I wax everything anyway!

I've only seen she-oak in photos, but it looks very nice, sort of like our live oak which is very hard and heavy (it's so dense it will sink in water).

Toby

Originally Posted by chrisb691

Could I ask which merchant?

Or where you live.