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Thread: Wood for hatchet handle
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29th May 2014, 09:54 PM #1
Wood for hatchet handle
I've been re-handling some of my tools lately, and after breaking my hatchet today, I figured it would be a fun project to make a new handle for it. I'm not sure what sort of wood to use - I have a few scraps around that I'd like to select from, but not sure what criteria to go on.
Here's what I have...
Camphor Laurel - this might not be strong enough?
Merbau
Old mixed aussie hardwood, left over from residential renovation - it's workable, but maybe too rigid for an axe handle?
Eucalypt branch that fell in my garden a couple of years back, and I kept a 120mm branch just in case
Silky Oak
Being a small hatchet that doesn't get a super amount of use, perhaps the wood is not so critical, but I did break it today, so I do need it to be strong enough.
Any thoughts on which of these woods might be suitable?Good things come to those who wait, and sail right past those who don't reach out and grab them.
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29th May 2014, 10:59 PM #2GOLD MEMBER
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None of them. Spend a few bucks and buy a Hickory handle, you wont be sorry. If you go to the Timber forum, and ask if anyone can get you a piece of Pecan tree from around Lismore and you can make your own.
Rgds,
Crocy.
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29th May 2014, 11:28 PM #3GOLD MEMBER
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Try spotted gum, used to be called Eucalyptus maculata (may still be). Very long fibres so is strong and springy, useful for axe handles and dance foors. Watch out for the gum veins though as they can be a weakness.
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30th May 2014, 10:05 AM #4GOLD MEMBER
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Get yourself one of theses http://www.estwing.com/ao_campers_axe.php and you'll never ever have to worry about broken handles again. I have one.
Experienced in removing the tree from the furniture
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30th May 2014, 10:14 AM #5Senior Member
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Merbau
This will make an excellent handle ;tough to work but will be worth it.
Cheers
Tony
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30th May 2014, 08:50 PM #6
Xanthorrhoeas has nailed it.
Spotted Gum - Corymbia Maculata (formerly Eucalyptus Maculata). There are some who maintain it is better than Hickory, although traditionally Hickory is preferred. In Queensland your local hardwood supplier will probably be able too supply from their pile as it often their "unknown" or "mixed" hardwood along with Ironbark, which incidentally is useless for this purpose
Spotted Gum has huge impact resistance, is hard, strong and very, very suitable. Lemon Scented Gum is closely related and has similar properties.
Regards
PaulBushmiller;
"Power tends to corrupt. Absolute power corrupts, absolutely!"
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30th May 2014, 10:38 PM #7
For a hatchet you could really use any of them. The longer haft of an axe would need more consideration but unless you take a run up and smash a block of concrete all the bits you mentioned would be fit for a hatchet.
...I'll just make the other bits smaller.
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31st May 2014, 04:22 AM #8GOLD MEMBER
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Possibly this is self-evident.
The mechanical properties of woods are quite different in the radial and tangential directions.
For tool handles where there will be some strike force, the growth rings need to be parallel to the left & right sides of the handle, on edge as seen from above or below.
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31st May 2014, 08:57 AM #9
Matt
That may well be true, but almost without exception tool handles made in Australia will be Spotted Gum, although this is in a commercial sense. It wouldn't be worth a manufacturer's while to pick and choose between the timbers.
Just on the smaller size tools I understand your comments, but have you never broken a claw hammer for example and that is probably a tool exposed to less force than a hatchet? So if everything else is equal I would still recommend SG.
Btw, how's the house coming along?
Regards
PaulBushmiller;
"Power tends to corrupt. Absolute power corrupts, absolutely!"
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31st May 2014, 09:02 AM #10
RV
Good point.
The timber should be backsawn, which is the stronger direction. Where the handle is square or more likely round there is no difference in the sawing as it is both backsawn and quartersawn. The handle should be orientated so the growth rings are vertical.
Regards
PaulBushmiller;
"Power tends to corrupt. Absolute power corrupts, absolutely!"
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31st May 2014, 10:10 AM #11
Quite a range of opinions!
Paul, have I misread you, or are you really saying a hatchet handle cops more abuse than a hammer handle? I don't know how you use a hatchet, but in general, the handle should experience very little impact. The bloke who taught me to swing axes (my dad) was adamant that your hands had to be loose when the head actualy hits the target - this saves both the handle and your hands. Most broken handles on axes & hatchets I've known stem from the mis-hits that chew up the handle just behind the head, combined with using the axe as a lever (damhik! ) – any wood succumbs to that sort of abuse! Only very occasionally have I seen axe-handles fracture higher up the haft, & that was usually due to poor grain orientation to start with. Now when it comes to hammer handles, & I'm thinking claw hammers, it's a different story, If you are going to use them to pull nails, you really do want a strong wood in the Hickory or SG class, or their life is apt to be short.
I tend to agree with Matt that most of the woods mentioned could serve well-enough, if not brilliantly, as hatchet handle material. Camphor Laurel, for example, is an amazingly tough wood for its density. Some offcuts from a large stump I cleaned up at the in-laws & chucked on the woodpile, gave me a big surprise. They were the most difficult bits to split I’ve ever come across! I used to boast I could split any firewood block, one way or another, but I was defeated by of these. It also hangs on 'til the last fibre when you try breaking a stick of it it by bending.
I've use quite a bit of Celtis for mallet & ball-pein hammer handles & they are standing up well so far. The damned rubbish has to be good for something! I tried it simply because it seemed tough, and the grain structure is so reminiscent of Elm, which is a known toughie.
Red Ash (Alphitonia sp.) should be a goodie. Not a commercial species, but there’s lots of it around where I live, it's one of the pioneer species that moves in to vacant ground. I haven’t tried it for tool handles, but I’ve used it for other jobs (turns nicely). Its one of the woods favoured by long-bow makers, so should be tough.
There’s also a tree I’ve read about, but not got my hands on, yet, called variously: Native Elm, Grey Handlewood, Axe handle Wood, & Rough-leaved Hickory (Aphananthe philipinesis) – it sounds like a winner from what I've read about it. One entry says it was all used up making handles to cut down the rest of the rainforest around these parts.
Among the better Aussie woods for axe, bill-hook, hoe & suchlike handles that I've struck so far are some of the Acacias - there's even one called "Hickory wattle". They take a nice, smooth finish that's a lot kinder to my hands than SG. However, I’ve found some Acacias are brittle & don't do the job very well at all, so choose carefully!
My biggest objection to using Spotted Gum for handles is its predilection for making large, nasty (& painful!) splinters. I’m reminded of that as I type, because I got a good deep one in the palm of my hand a couple of days ago when feeding some SG to the planer, & it's still hurting - there's still a bit I can't find in there, somewhere!
Cheers,IW
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31st May 2014, 11:33 AM #12
Hey Paul,
I don't disagree with you at all, I was just trying to spare surfdabbler a trip around the mulberry bush when he had stuff to hand.
I haven't broken a hammer yet and I've been trying! We got the roof on last week and now things can bubble along whatever the weather, but the cabin is still a ways off.
Ian, if you'd like some bits of Alphitonia, we had to push one or two along with the usual Corymbia and Euc spp. 'mixed hardwoods'. Nothing really large but enough a shed full of handles. Same goes Surfdabbler if you'd like a lump of tree for your hatchet handle.
Matt...I'll just make the other bits smaller.
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31st May 2014, 01:37 PM #13GOLD MEMBER
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I bought my elbow adze blade from Kestrel Tools, they have 35+ years of experience as bladesmiths working with many of the most acclaimed wood carvers in the Pacific NorthWest.
I do little more than to quote their suggestions.
The elbow joint must withstand possibly thousands of strikes, day in and day out. Get going with your heart rate and you can cut all day.
Consequently, the grain orientation in the elbow is of utmost importance.
I susupect that any split (not sawn crap) hard woods would be excellent stock.
Don't buy sawn wood of any kind for this. They don't cut with the tool maker in mind.
Bust out a piece from a log and do it right, from the beginning.
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31st May 2014, 03:52 PM #14
Robson, I'm afraid spotted gum, which as Paul has pointed out is the favoured handle wood on this side of the swimming pool, is so insanely interlocked that splitting out useful bits is pretty well futile. DAMHIK
Another tree of interest, not that there's any to find, is Coogera (Arytera divaricata), also known as Gap Axe because it was so tough it ruined axes....I'll just make the other bits smaller.
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31st May 2014, 07:24 PM #15
Surfdabbler
I'll bet you're glad you started this one.
I have a confession to make and it is that I come at this issue from a point of extreme prejudice as well as being pedantic.
When I was sawmilling for a living I occasionally supplied tool handle material to Hely Brothers who back in 2000 were the largest supplier of tool handles in Australia. They only accepted Spotted Gum. In fact they closed down because they could no longer source material economically to Newcastle.
The only other handle maker I had anything to do with also wanted Spotted Gum. I also have only ever seen Australian made handles in the hardware stores in Spotted Gum. As you can see, I have a bias here.
So why was it chosen? Well it performs admirably. Bootle's "Wood in Australia" has tables for Density, Modulus of rupture, Modulus of elasticity, crushing strength, impact value (Izod test) and Hardness (Janka test). SG is outstanding in all these areas. Other timbers come close in some areas but let the side down in other respects.
Above all, it was relatively easy to source and in many areas still is.
However, and I have stated this elsewhere on the Forum before, it is not the only timber that is suitable, but many of the others are less readily available.
I suppose I consider an axe or a hatchet as a striking tool compared to, say, a paring chisel or a srewdriver. A hatchet certainly doesn't have the same level of abuse as a sledge hammer. The level of shock imparted to the arm may well lessen if it is held loosely, but I think the shock on the tool is the same.
When I think about you can use any timber you like for a handle, but it is disappointing when it fails down the track.
Apologies. The handle pedant is signing off now .
Regards
PaulBushmiller;
"Power tends to corrupt. Absolute power corrupts, absolutely!"
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