Hardwood Handles for Hatchets

For a decorative axe or hatchet, by all means, use whatever material blows yer skirt up. For a tool that will see actual use, I feel the materials chosen by those who came before (TWCB) must be superior to the other domestic choices or else TWCB would have used other woods besides hickory or ash. TWCB were quite knowledgeable as to the properties of the natural materials around them - how the materials absorb shock, resist unwanted splitting, stand up to rough use and weather - in other words, TWCB prolly tried the other choices and came back to, what we now know as, traditional materials for a number of reasons. Trust TWCB - they knew what they were doing.

_____ American Association of Woodturners Cascade Woodturners Assoc., Portland, Oregon Northwest Woodturners, Tigard, Oregon _____

Hickory is well known for shock resistance - that's why it's widely used in tool handles.

Leo

Owen- Thanks for insight. Makes total sense to me. Also I would think that the TWCB were pretty much locked in to what was available in their area. I know that red oak is used a lot in making of asian staffs and bo's...... They take a lot of abuse too. Seems to me red oak would make a pretty good hatchet handle as well as hard maple, which are found on many hand working tools. But as you said the hands down winners would have to be hickory or ash. Do you have any USA sources available that I could contact for hickory or ash 2" squares for handles??????????

Thanks for your help

Long-grained woods for striking and prying tools. Makes good sense, and trial and accidental success found the most suitable wood in the locale. One wood often found in tool handles up here north of the hickory belt is hop-hornbeam (Ostrya virginiana), even for tools which have long handles. It's closest to hard maple in characteristics, and where found large enough to be logged, often finds its way into the hard maple stack. For something like a hatchet, where the length and section of the handle precludes flex, and prying tools, it's a superior choice, because it won't give you splinters. There are a lot of red oaks out there, most of them brittle and splinter-prone. Go hop hornbeam or hard maple with confidence.

I've been breaking wood with an 8 lb maul handled with hop-hornbeam for over twenty years, and can recommend it without reservation. Oh yes, put a handle defender up under the head of the maul and even a splintery hickory handle will last longer, and always make the second stroke (if required) on the near side of the piece.

I went here

and put in hickory. Got 189listings for people who sell it online. You might want to give it a shot.Ron Robinson East Texas

I notice that a lot of the pro baseball types now prefer bats made from maple ie: Maxbats, Viper bats, and many more. This would lead one to think maple should do a yeoman job as a hatchet handle.

James Barley

They're not so much softer (except cherry) but are more brittle and will, in fact, splinter much more easily than hickory. I suspect that American elm, given how hard it is to split the stuff with a wedge and sledge, would make great tool handles, too. I can't imagine one of them breaking. Maple might make a good handle for some tools, because it's a pretty tough wood also, but it would definitely be more prone to splitting if overstruck as with a sledge/maul/axe handle.

-- Chuck *#:^) chaz3913(AT)yahoo(DOT)com Anti-spam sig: please remove "NO SPAM" from e-mail address to reply. <

September 11, 2001 - Never Forget

Hey, thanks to you all..... Has given me some things to think about.

-regards

Yup, they do okay when hitting something relatively soft, like a baseball. It's when you hit something hard, like overswinging with a sledge or maul and hitting a wedge, or the top of a piece of wood that you're splitting that you can tell the difference. For a hatchet it ought to do fine, though, since you don't exert that much force with one.

I thought the maple bats weren't allowed? Seemed like I had read that somewhere...

-- Chuck *#:^) chaz3913(AT)yahoo(DOT)com Anti-spam sig: please remove "NO SPAM" from e-mail address to reply. <

September 11, 2001 - Never Forget

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.

Give them a try. You might like them.

The Other Bruce

Way back in junior high school, my first experience with turning BTW, was to scrape out a baseball bat. I chose some oak, Red, I believe, scavanged from an old barn beam. When finished and put to the test, the impact of bat meets ball sent shocking, and I might add, painful, reverberations up my arms to the deepest recesses of my shoulders. That one swing retired the bat forever. Having little mentoring from a male figure knowledgable in baseball or bat making, I don't know if I made the bat too stout and thus inflexible or if the material was totally wrong. Just a dredged up memory for conversation's sake.

_____ American Association of Woodturners Cascade Woodturners Assoc., Portland, Oregon Northwest Woodturners, Tigard, Oregon _____

Only on the east side of the pond...

John Wadsworth

I thought "bats" were made of willow....

2nd the suggestion for Osage Orange...it has very high marks in toughness and resiliance.....and add to the list Live Oak, if you can get it....it is used for ships prows and has extremely interlocked grain...

I've used KIawe (Hwaiian Mequite) for alot of tool handles, even made a softball bat for a friend from the stuff. It's the hardest stuff available locally, and it's free, great stuff. Also great for barbeques. 8-)

Spy in Hawaii

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--

Gotta agree with the qualities mentioned about Osage Orange, what we called hedge trees back in Kansas. There are fence posts that my grandpa made from them in the '20s still in the ground and still in great shape. We had to move one back in the mid '80s when putting in a bigger gate to a pasture and there was nary a bit of rot on the part of the post below ground.

This is rapidly going OT, but I have to agree with the Osage comments. It's wickedly tough stuff and takes the edge right off my chisels. At the cost of good turning wood, I've got an Osage lined up to build a new workbench. I figure if I build it from green wood the top should be very durable once it seasons.

Also looking to build some violin parts with it..

you KNOW, it SPLITS like mad while drying?

--Shiva--