curley maple axe handle question

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hollowdweller

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Sep 22, 2003
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Here's a question for you axe handle experts:

You see a lot of hawks and even some axes with Curley Maple handles.

Now most commercial axes are hickory or ash? I believe, and I can see the logic behind say an osage handle, but maple is not exactly the hardest hardwood around. Has anybody actually used a curley maple handle for heavy chopping? How has it held up? I have always wanted one for the beauty, but the potential softness of the wood has always scared me off.
 
i would be interested in hearing opinions about this topic as well, like the
look of maple but want the toughness of hickory
 
I have a beautiful Lee Reeves axe with the maple handle and would also be interested in how they do as I haven't used mine.
 
We use curly maple for "presentation" hawks, etc. It's not a "bad" wood but I wouldn't want to count on it in the field. We use straight-grain hickory for hard-use and I've seen the handles last for years. You can get bad hickory handles out there - ones that aren't straight-grained, haven't been dried properly, warped, etc. Ash is ok and a while back our handle guy was having a very hard time getting good hickory so we got ash. For the most part we didn't get complaints but there seemed to be more breakage than usual.

For looks you can't beat a well-chosen piece of curly maple or some of the other show woods like cocobolo, ebony, even walnut but I've got some beautiful hickory handles set aside that have grain I would've paid extra for. I put these on hawks that are collector grade or have the mirror-polished perimeters, etc.
 
A few years back I put a maple handle on one of my own hawks, to see how well it would hold up. I went through three in one season. Now I will only use it for a presentation piece, or by customer request, and I will tell him/her that the handle will not hold up as well as ash or hickory.

Northstar, I am surprised that ash didn't work out for you, as it seems to hold up as well or better than hickory in my experience.
 
The ash wasn't terrible but I also don't think it was the highest quality. I know a lot of hammer and commercially made tool handles are made from ash but they're also heftier, shorter pieces of wood. Our Rogers' Rangers handle is 19-inches long. Plus all our handles are hand-turned. We had more breakage than usual. With the hickory I only hear of a busted handle or two a year.
 
Thanks for the info you all. I think an axe with a curley maple handle is awesome pretty, but judging from your feedback sounds like I'll stick to the curley maple for knife scales
 
I know I'm a little late, but I saw this thread and was wondering myself. I did a little research on curly maple and found this:

"Hard maple has a fine, uniform texture, turns well on a lathe, is resistant to abrasion and has no characteristic odor or taste. It is heavy, strong, stiff, hard, and resistant to shock, and it has large shrinkage. Sugar maple is generally straight grained but the grain also occurs as "birds-eye," "curly," and "fiddleback" grain. The wood of soft maples resembles that of hard maples but is not as heavy, hard and strong... " Emphasis mine.

My tomahawk has a rock (curly) maple haft, as have many that Mark Williams, the smith that made my 'hawk, has made in the past. He stated that if it's rock (curly) maple that is used, and not a soft (curly) maple, then the 'hawk should perform just fine. He's never had an issue when using rock maple for hawk handles or walking sticks.

I'm guessing that alot of curly maple handles that are used might be soft maple. I'm not saying that it's done on purpose, but that the type of wood the maker was using might have been sold just as "curly" maple w/o actualy stating if it was rock or soft.

Just my two cents. *shrug*
 
Maple is good for furniture and great for heating the house but when it comes to constant vibration nothing beats the strength of hickory.
 
FSCJedi said:
I know I'm a little late, but I saw this thread and was wondering myself. I did a little research on curly maple and found this:

My tomahawk has a rock (curly) maple haft, as have many that Mark Williams, the smith that made my 'hawk, has made in the past. He stated that if it's rock (curly) maple that is used, and not a soft (curly) maple, then the 'hawk should perform just fine. He's never had an issue when using rock maple for hawk handles or walking sticks.

I'm guessing that alot of curly maple handles that are used might be soft maple. I'm not saying that it's done on purpose, but that the type of wood the maker was using might have been sold just as "curly" maple w/o actualy stating if it was rock or soft.

Just my two cents. *shrug*
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I'm no expert but I believe that curly maple is always sugar maple, not soft maple.

I may be over generalizing here also, but I also think that the reason that a lot of curley maple is used without incident on hawks and hatchets has to do with the fact that most people don't really use them extensively, they are shelf queens.
 
I agree with hollowdweller. Also, no maple is as impact/shock resistant as hickory. I have never seen production hammer handles made of maple.
Maple handles are supplied by custom hawk/axe makers explicitly for the purpose of beauty. They sure look beautiful.:thumbup:
 
I like Ash for its workabiblity . Its shapes into a handle easily . I find it very uniform . Its inexpensive even if you don,t harvest your own .

Hickory is stronger and more durable . I find a drawknife will dig in suddenly if I am not careful .

Osage orange is supposed to make a nice handle . Maple is just O:K: .
 
If you make a mistake with a hickory handle you can always smoke your evening meal with it .

Hmm , hickory smoked goat ?

Hey Hollowdweller . I wonder what a hickory pipe would smoke like ?
 
Kevin the grey said:
If you make a mistake with a hickory handle you can always smoke your evening meal with it .

Hmm , hickory smoked goat ?

Hey Hollowdweller . I wonder what a hickory pipe would smoke like ?
Click to expand...

Never smoked any goat meat. Used smoked sesame oil to make goat jerky before and it was pretty good though.

Never smoked a hickory pipe. I have an osage pipe, but it has a pipestone bowl on it.:thumbup:
 
hollowdweller said:
I'm no expert but I believe that curly maple is always sugar maple, not soft maple.
Click to expand...

Curly figure can be found in all maples, and is often more dramatic in softer maples (Bigleaf, Silver, Red). Hard maples (Sugar, Black) have figure but isn't as uniform. Birdseye figure is found almost exclusively in the hard maples though. Take a look at the electric guitars with curly maple tops or the backs and sides of maple acoustic guitars. Most are made from Bigleaf maple from the Pacific Northwest and can have very dramatic and uniform figure.

As for using curly maples in a working tool, I'd probably steer clear because the long fibers are severed, making it somewhat weaker than a straight grain, continuous-fiber piece of wood.

If you look at the picture I found below you will see that when the wood is split, it looks like a washboard (bottom right of the wood). Those are the long fibers of the wood growing in a wavy pattern due to compression, stress or genetic factors. When you cut the curly wood, the long fibers are cut short. You see the differences in depth because you see the ends of the fibers as well as the sides, which reflect light differently. Hope this helps.

12397_image_8.150.jpg
 
PB Wilson said:
Curly figure can be found in all maples, and is often more dramatic in softer maples (Bigleaf, Silver, Red). Hard maples (Sugar, Black) have figure but isn't as uniform. Birdseye figure is found almost exclusively in the hard maples though. Take a look at the electric guitars with curly maple tops or the backs and sides of maple acoustic guitars. Most are made from Bigleaf maple from the Pacific Northwest and can have very dramatic and uniform figure.

As for using curly maples in a working tool, I'd probably steer clear because the long fibers are severed, making it somewhat weaker than a straight grain, continuous-fiber piece of wood.

If you look at the picture I found below you will see that when the wood is split, it looks like a washboard (bottom right of the wood). Those are the long fibers of the wood growing in a wavy pattern due to compression, stress or genetic factors. When you cut the curly wood, the long fibers are cut short. You see the differences in depth because you see the ends of the fibers as well as the sides, which reflect light differently. Hope this helps.

12397_image_8.150.jpg
Click to expand...


Cool! Thanks for the info!!!:thumbup:
 
Personally I am blessed every time I go in the woods or hold a nice piece of wood in my hands . From Zebra or Canary wood to a nice piece of pine I am truly blessed .

It is not that there is no wood without a thousand uses . It is that we have not discovered them yet .
 
hollowdweller said:
Cool! Thanks for the info!!!:thumbup:
Click to expand...

It's my pleasure. I have been a wood collector (Note that I didn't say "woodworker." I produce far too few things from the wood stash I have to be called a woodworker.;) ) for years and love all kinds of lumber, figured or otherwise. I even know some of the latin names of different tree species. It makes my wife's eyes roll when we walk through the woods and I'm naming types of trees, she knowing that as much as I like them in nature, I'd love to have them sawn, stickered and dried, ready to be made into some amazing piece of furniture or musical instrument.

A beautiful curly maple 'hawk is a thing of beauty and properly made, will outlive you or me, but for a strict worker tool, I'd go with hickory. It's stood the test of time very well.
 
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