Handles

[ESpy]

I'm going to have to remove some ash in the near future, and I'd quite like to make use of it. I've got two ideas right at the moment - hammer (and axe, I guess) handles and spear hafts.

Am I better off working with a piece that starts out more or less the right diameter, or is it better to use a long log, quarter it & air dry it (and bite my nails whilst waiting for it to air dry), then work the quarters down to the size I need?

Any & all tips gratefully received - I hit some problems on drying some wood recently where every log split. Didn't expose the pith...

 

[alick]

I've limited experience in drying timber but a little more in buying, maching and using it. Excuse if you know this already, but there are many people who don't.

Interesting that commercial businesses chainsaw the trees down to planks, stick them (i.e. restack the log with spacers between the planks to let air circulate) and set them to dry. Logs are easier to cut green than seasoned. Sawn timber dries much faster than a whole log.

In my own experience of thick planks (three and four inches), bought ready seasoned - these are much more likely to have shakes (splits) and stresses left in the wood than thin planks. When you saw or plane them down, they invariably warp - often so dramatically that you waste a huge proportion of the timber before you get a stable plank. So it's better to cut to near the finished size before drying than dry big pieces of timber and cut down afterward.

When converting timber, understanding grain is crucial to predicting how timber will warp - seen end on, the lines of the annual growth rings are the key. A plank will warp to try and straighten out the growth rings as it dries.

A log that is simply cut into parallel slices will give the most wide planks, but except for the few nearest the middle, they'll all want to warp to some degree. Where the growth ring can be seen as a long arc from the end, that plank will "cup" in the opposite direction once it's free to move.

Quarter sawing a tree gives narrower planks that are far less prone to cupping. These sites give the diagrams etc explaining the difference between the two basic ways to saw the log.

http://www.stuarts.net/Stuwritup/quarter/quartersawn.htm
http://www.hardwood.org/display_article.asp?ID=357
http://www.geoffswoodwork.co.uk/conversion.htm

Timber dries faster through the end grain than through the surface. To stop the ends of a plank drying out much faster than the middle - which makes the ends of the board split - seal the end grain with wax.

The very heart of a log is notriously weak and prone to splits. If I wanted a strong piece of wood for an axe handle, I think the best wood comes from a quarter sawn plank of a bigger log. I wouldn't squeeze it out of a whole small sapling.

Good luck

 

[MartiniDave]

Wow! Some really good stuff there Alick, thanks.

Dave

 

[ESpy]

Cheers Alick; that was what I thought was the right way to do it. I've had some lousy results by not splitting logs before drying them, so I'm now lopping them in 2 or 4 depending on size. Paraffin wax for the ends.

I've been reading up on making froes, which sound like what I want for longer logs...

Just found this: http://www.motherearthnews.com/index.php?page=arc&id=1953 which covers most of what I want. I think.

http://handbooks.btcv.org.uk/handbooks/content/section/3762
http://home.teleport.com/~tcl/f2.htm

 

[alick]

Nice article Peter, I've never used a froe, but the great thing about splitting this way is that you go with the grain so your split timber should be as strong as it can be. Quieter than a chainsaw too :-D

Oh, and just to contradict myself - I did once take a young oak (4£xc diameter at the base of the trunk) out of my garden and dried it in the round (6 foot lengths) over several years in a cool garage.

When I looked at it the other week, I sawed some coaster sized slices off the end and the wood was absolutely perfect without a split or weakness anywhere. That's either the exception that proves the rule or a combination of very dense wood, small size and slow drying in near ideal conditions. Splitting lengthways with an axe and wedge was a total disaster however - it just wouldn't split cleanly. All good fun !

 

[Roving Rich]

Cool, thanks for the links got that clear in my mind now.
I too am looking at making an axe handle from ash. I have selected a few pieces of 6" round that iam hoping to put through a band saw.
One of the above has a nice curve in it suitable for the end of a handle. I think this will be great, but everything i have read will says use straight grain and cut this curve.
Cheers
Rich

 

[ESpy]

The problem is, every time I find something I want to make, I find a need to make more tools so that I can do it...

Witness: one hammer handle.
Tools I feel I need to make to do it: froe, drawknife, shavehorse, maybe some wedges... :roll: :-D

This is why my knifemaking takes so long - I keep building more and more tools to support it (forge, vacuum stabilising setup, electroetcher, rolling mill, smithing tools)!

 

[Nod]

You could try making a Longbow if that's something you're into.

Ash was used as a secondary wood in the absence of suitable Yew etc in the old days used for bows.

Here's a link to a site with details on how to make one too.

http://www.compulink.co.uk/~courtney01/combrogi/longbow.htm[/url]