I have come across two woods that lend themselves to be used for
>hatchet handles. They are Osage Orange and Honey Locust. Both have
>"long" grain and are springy. Indians used Osage Orange to make their >hunting bows.
we have a LOT of Osage ORange grows around where I live... if you have never worked hard wood before, do not be surprised with this.. We used to use the trees as fence posts in cattle chutes... you DRILL the nail holes...assuming the wood is dry... the heart wood does not, for all practical purposes, rot. and I have seen advantages to using metal cutting tools on it- a lathe comes to mind.. I once walked into a very old blacksmith shop, and the blacksmith had a lamp in his metal lathe, busily drilling a 1 inch hole down the center- this was a metal lathe, 16" chuck and
8 foot bed... and he was fussing all the way... I asked what was wrong, and he commented the derned fool TURNED the piece for a lamp, and did not while it was green, drill the center hole for the electrical cord... once it dried, he did not have the necessary tools to do so, it would 'smoke a bit' pretty easy.--Shiva--