It's a fun way to stay busy.
Who needs an axe head to make a handle am I right? ..... :\ The more I think about my "black" Locust - that is probably some freak genetically modified Honey Locust - the more I couldn't help but start hacking on it. I had this one piece that I felt was the least likely useful and decided the best way to see how it would work as a handle, was to make a handle. I have this bad habit of starting with way too much material and spending way too much time on material that is going to end up on the ground. I gotta get better at that. But this took WAY too long, by anyone's standards. And I could have made two handles. But that's beside the point.
Along the way I confirmed that I do not like the SFA handle - I never have but I got a blister today that really drove it home for me. The handle has a tear drop cross section (it's like the eye) and the front is too pointed. My Wards on the other hand, good to go. I have to admit that I prefer the curved handle for carving. I find that my wrist hurts after using a straight handle. I used the SFA because I needed to hack off all the bug damaged wood and wanted more heft for that. My mind began to wander to thoughts of a froe and the stupid amount of time I was spending on this. On the bright side, I decapitated MANY borers, and took demented pleasure in it.
I think the pics tell the story (I took many more this time), but as you can see, the goal was to find a straight line through this piece. With such wide growth rings, I'm just not confident there will be enough good wood in the finished product and I was concerned that it would be impossible to get even 2 continuous rings end to end.
24inch_locusthandle1 by
city_ofthe_south, on Flickr
24inch_locusthandle2 by
city_ofthe_south, on Flickr
Bugs mostly removed.
24inch_locusthandle3 by
city_ofthe_south, on Flickr
24inch_locusthandle4 by
city_ofthe_south, on Flickr
Gotta wicked bend but for a 24 inch handle (give or take) most of the bend is going to be in the swell.
24inch_locusthandle5 by
city_ofthe_south, on Flickr
24inch_locusthandle6 by
city_ofthe_south, on Flickr
I brought in the draw knife for some thinning and fine tuning but without a shave horse .... sigh, all the things I need. This is all I got done today so the rest will have to wait. This piece is still ginormous and I think you can count the number of growth rings on one hand.