tool handles from yew?

[forrestdweller]

sorry if this has already been asked before but my search drew a blank....

a few days ago i pruned one of our yew trees and harvested some branches for carving- the largest is about 2 1/2 inches in diameter. i thought about making a spoon for a special person, but i reckon my time, effort and material can be put to better use... .
a while ago i found a nata sticking in a tree stump while walking- the handle was rotten but the blade and ring are still in very good shape and the blade is a handforged one- i plan to use one piece for rehandling it.

three days ago i got two hatchet heads from a garbage pile; i cleaned up the smaller one yesterday [ strangely it has four lines on BOTH sides instead of four on one and three on the other side...]- so now i need to make a handle for that one, too.... . two or three of the yew branches look like they*re big enough [ it will be a small belt hatchet with a 14 inches or less handle- not a full-sized axe]
would a yew branch of this size be useful for a hatchet?
one master bushcrafter used yew for his axe more than 5000 years ago, but otherwise i have*nt heard of yew being used for tool handles....


the only other wood i have laying around which i could use is a piece of three inch+ maple-but it would need seasoning, too....

 

[Toddy]

I too know of yew being used for tool handles in the past. I also know folks like Robin Wood had handles snap.

The replica bronze axe that we used for demonstrations has a yew shaft. It was made from an 'elbow' of the tree with the head affixed onto the trunk side and the offcoming branch as the handle. It was (and is) very secure despite a lot of ungentle use and hard work. (Oetzi's was done this way too)

I was told at the time that the yew was very strong under compression yet it's springiness allowed it to absorb the energy of the blow.

cheers,
Toddy

 

[forrestdweller]

i came accross texts according to which oetzis axe was done the other way around-->= the handle carved out of the trunk and the head fixed to the branch. but this sounds like a lot of extra work to me: does anyone know if this is correct and if yes- why?

my nata handle will be only about 20cm long and the hatchet handle not much longer, so i hope it will not snap on me

 

[Stew]

I rehandled a billhook in Yew for a gentleman a while back. Looks lovely and I've not heard of any issues from it.

 

[Toddy]

i came accross texts according to which oetzis axe was done the other way around-->= the handle carved out of the trunk and the head fixed to the branch. but this sounds like a lot of extra work to me: does anyone know if this is correct and if yes- why?

my nata handle will be only about 20cm long and the hatchet handle not much longer, so i hope it will not snap on me

I think Robin Wood wrote about that too, can't remember where. I might be mistaken about the way the one we used was handled it's years ago now and I don't know in which resource box Historic Scotland ended up placing it. I'll ask Ian if he minds more clearly than I do.

M

 

[Jaeger]

Aye Up,

Can someone comment on this please - I was told many moons ago that Yew wood can be toxic and that only the very inner wood of the tree was safe to use.
Is this correct? Is there some way of treating/handling it so that it loses the toxicity?

I've just read that Yew wood is immensely strong and useful for a number of (BC) type applications yet the Woodland trust site confirms my previously held concerns

 

[forrestdweller]

i*m just curious about oetzis axe,but i*m not planning to make a copy in the near future [@ least not with a copper blade] so it*s not urgent...

i guess nobody on this forum has been to new guinea and seen the stone axes there??- i remember seeing pictures [and documentarys] of the locals using stone axes with L-shaped handles, too...

 

[forrestdweller]

Aye Up,

Can someone comment on this please - I was told many moons ago that Yew wood can be toxic and that only the very inner wood of the tree was safe to use.
Is this correct? Is there some way of treating/handling it so that it loses the toxicity?

I've just read that Yew wood is immensely strong and useful for a number of (BC) type applications yet the Woodland trust site confirms my previously held concerns

the timber is- like the rest of the plant except the red part of the fruits- indeed poisonous. in fact: the latin name *taxus* for the yew is connected to the word *toxic*.... . so i would not use it for food-related items. but for longbows [and tool handles it seems] it can be used; as long as you avoid inhaling the dust when sanding it...

 

[Jaeger]

Forrestdweller -

Hmmmmm - I get the inhaled dust angle -

Acid test - would I give one of my offspring a tool with a handle made from yew?

How do we know that the toxins are gone from it/are not reactivated through sweat/atmospheric moisture etc?

Stew -

You say that you haven't heard of any issues from the bloke that you re-handled the billhook for..........but have you heard from him at all??!!

 

[rancid badger]

I most definitely wouldn't use yew for anything food related or that might be chewed by children or animals.

My brother built a kingsize bed from yew harvested from his property about 15 years back and he's still with us.

cheers

Steve

 

[Jaeger]

Rancid badger (great name!)

I wouldn't share a bed that long with a woman never mind my brother!

Sorry couldn't resist that.

I was going to state that your brother might never have come into direct contact with the wood/bed after construction but that might raise responses not suitable for a family web site!

Good point re biscuit steal-ers and dogs and 'chewing' but I'm still interested to know how such a toxic wood can be 'handled' without ill effects to the user i.e. a full days work with a sythe/sickle/billhook etc. I'm sure that I read somewhere that the heartwood of a yew used to be used to make walking sticks with too so there is another prolonged contact example.

In wonder if there has ever been a correlation made with the woods use and illness? I know that it has been used as a base for pharmaceuticals.

Intriguing.

 

[rancid badger]

Rancid badger (great name!)

I wouldn't share a bed that long with a woman never mind my brother!

Sorry couldn't resist that.

I was going to state that your brother might never have come into direct contact with the wood/bed after construction but that might raise responses not suitable for a family web site!

Good point re biscuit steal-ers and dogs and 'chewing' but I'm still interested to know how such a toxic wood can be 'handled' without ill effects to the user i.e. a full days work with a sythe/sickle/billhook etc. I'm sure that I read somewhere that the heartwood of a yew used to be used to make walking sticks with too so there is another prolonged contact example.

In wonder if there has ever been a correlation made with the woods use and illness? I know that it has been used as a base for pharmaceuticals.

Intriguing.

Well I say he's still with us, he most definitely is but I sometimes wonder if building that bed didn't have other effects, this is him (in the hi vis jacket)
[video=youtube;Gzyh49cVo68]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gzyh49cVo68[/video]

He built the bed from green timber and I'm sure he wore a mask for the cutting and sanding etc and he's since made any number of things with yew, including knife handles, beads,pendants and boxes etc with no ill effects.

He used to have a half dozen goats at one time, who if allowed out of their paddock, would make a bee-line for the stand of yews and nibble any foliage they could reach before being driven off! They've all gradually passed away over the years, though apparently none the worse for the occasional dose of yew leaves "stolen on the run".

I agree it's an interesting subject indeed.

Steve

 

[crosslandkelly]

i*m just curious about oetzis axe,but i*m not planning to make a copy in the near future [@ least not with a copper blade] so it*s not urgent...

i guess nobody on this forum has been to new guinea and seen the stone axes there??- i remember seeing pictures [and documentarys] of the locals using stone axes with L-shaped handles, too...

http://www.iceman.it/en/axe

 

[Robson Valley]

I think the design concept that you're looking for might be an elbow adze. The handle is the branch, the blade seat is trimmed out of the main stem.
Another very functional design is a D-adze. There's a trick to whipping the blade tight in the seat.

http://kestreltool.com/index.html

 

[Macaroon]

I have knives, spoons, walking staffs and lots of other stuff made of Yew; all of them are or have been in regular contact with my skin and sometimes my mouth over the past number of years and I'm 65 now and still very much here. Just seal it properly, how you do so is a matter of choice...........Polymerising oils, varnish etc., there are many ways to do it; the main thing is to do whichever method you choose properly and learn to recognise when the article in question needs to be re-done.

How did all those bowmen of Merry England get by, or more to the point the folk who cut the Yew and made the various articles from it?

 

[Jaeger]

Aye Up rancid badger,

I've seen that vid before in a recent post with comments of the speed your bruv was chopping the kindling.............but how spooky that the co star of the vid was that improv wood burner as that's exactly what I have been making in between posting! (sse image)

Macaroon,

I don't doubt that the wood has been in use for centuries, I'm just curious as to how an apparently very toxic material doesn't appear to be overtly detrimental to human health and wonder if it becomes benign as a result of some chemical change during drying out.
Does the toxicity ever return and if so under what circumstances etc.
Is it for example used in industry - if so I'll bet that there is a raft of H&S measures........

Or ....... could it be that its toxicity has been overblown (by the church and pharmaceutical companies!) to keep people out of graveyards and to stop them making their own medicines

Whoops - risking waking up the conspiracy theorists!

 

[Toddy]

I have a quaich made from yew, and it's never been sealed, but it's been very well used indeed for whisky

M

 

[Macaroon]

According to material I read, a long time ago now, when the timber is seasoned and de-barked there is very little toxicity to be concerned about just by contact with solid pieces; green and wet is a different matter and I take precautions when working with green stuff. The main danger for anyone working with the timber, seaoned or not, is breathing in the dust or prolonged skin contact and ingestion. Normal good workshop practice should take care of all that, though.

When you look at good cabinetry, marquetry and inlay on furniture, including pieces for the dining room, a lot of it is Yew and a more beautiful native timber it's hard to think of.

 

[forrestdweller]

o.k. .... i just finished step nr. 1of making a nata handle: cutting the slot for the tang, debarking [ a bottle bottom makes a good scraper for this], and cutting to rough length-- now it is wrapped in newspaper for the next step... . i got a bit of a funny taste in my mouth and felt a desire to spit several times[ happens usually when i have to work with bad-smelling /funky stuff] but otherwise i*m fine so far

robson valley: i*m aware of L-shaped adzes - new zealand was/is one place where they were in use amongst maori- BUT hafting an axe in an L-shaped handle was once common, too.. not just with oetzi- i once came accross an article in a book about the shape developement of bronze axe heads, starting with blades similiar to oetzi*s and ending up like pic 2 in the wikipediaarticle about the history of axes [sorry that i cannot include the link, but my some buttons on my keyboard are dead...]