Thread: saw handles....

oregon is inclined to be a bit splintery, use another timber

Don't use Oregon, look around for something close grained, durable.

Oak, Walnut, Sheoak, Jarrah, Beech, Pear, Apple. any of those would be good choices.

Oregon, (American's call it Douglas Fir) tends to have very soft summer growth and hard autumn growth, leads to nice contrasting grain, however it makes it hard to shape and tends to split easily.

Premium American hand saws generally used Apple.

English tended to use Rosewood, Oak, etc.

European more often used Birch.

Exotics like Box, Ebony would be excellent but can you say "maximum overkill!"

Walnut is my favourite for saw handles it has good interlocking grain, and holds detail well, nice to work and if you can get some figure, looks good.

Anything but Oregon! and no Radiata Pine either!

Regards Ray

Have a look at Derek Cohen's handle in Jarrah.

I reckon blue gum makes quite a good handle too (I laminate two thicknesses of blue gum from Studley's boards together - if the handle is bigger than 70mm wide (which it often is), I lay the laminations like bricks, ie with the boards overlapping each other.

Here's a picture of a plane tote that I made using studley's spotted gum. It has worked fine too:

Oregon is too soft and will get dinged pretty badly in a shed environment.
I recommend a fruit wood like Apple
Sheoak also makes a nice handle.

Oregon is not really up to the task. What the others have said. I have used jarrah and it is good and strong. I would say it is a lot stronger than the beech handles on US and Uk handels. My effort is quite crude comared to Derek's Or BobL's but works.

Which ever way you go, put a thin veneer slice into the centre, about the thicknes of the blade. This can be easily shaped to match the blade end before glue up, and avoids having to slot a solid blank or rebate a two piece laminated blank to acomodate the blade.

Lumber Bunker discussed a while ago making a saw handle in this thread:

http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com...ad.php?t=65040



..followed shortly after by putting in an order for one of Mike W's works of art...

....and I followed the example...


Hafgan

Thanks all for the advice....

I was pretty sure that oregon wouldn't be up to it but thought I would just ask if anyone had done it....
jmk89, have you done a lamination?? how did it go????

thanks for the advice everyone.