Thread: Australian Tool Handle Timber?

Originally Posted by awalla10

Hi all,
I'm new here and am not sure if similar topics have been discussed elsewhere but I was wondering if there is a readily available Australian equivalent or substitute one might choose instead of American Hickory when it comes to handling certain tools such as axes and sledge hammers and the like?

Spotted gum is a winner here, if you live in WA and can get it Tuart is also very good.

Scrub lignum (I think it's Vitex lignum-vitae but am not sure) is favoured around here for handles for most things. Northern silver ash (Flindersia bourjotiana) is also pretty good, and my own axes all carry handles of this. Cairns hickory ( Flindersia Iffliana ) also makes good handles however it's a bit heavy for axes, great for sledges though.

Most commercially made handles in Australia are spotted gum. The main thing needed in a handle is a very straight grain, no knots, and after that look at strenght, flexibility and weight.

Awalla

Welcome to the forums.

As others have said spotted gum is the preferred commercial timber. Lemon scented gum can be substituted for spotted gum and is often sold as spotted gum. Spotted Gum has been used because it is strong, impact resistant (Izod test), hard (Janka hardness) and most importantly available at a good price. I'm sticking my neck out here in saying that I don't think any other timber is used commercially in Australia.

However, there are other timbers that are suitable, better even, but they are hard to access or expensive or both.

The company I used to supply spotted gum to for their handles used SG for everything, including axes, except their racing axes and for those they used Hickory, which I presume they imported.

Incidentally their racing axes had a ribbed surface on the handle about 8mm apart. They achieved this by running the lathe at a reduced speed while maintaining the usual feed speed. it gave superior grip in in a seriously sweaty hand .

Regards
Paul