Gransfors handle?

M

mikejungle

Joined
Dec 2, 2009
Messages
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Just wondering if anyone could tell me what's going on in this axe handle. It looks like each ring has a combo of both sapwood and heartwood, which doesn't sound like a thing? I've seen handles with both, but usually there's a clear part where the sapwood meets the heartwood. Red to white, not back and forth.

The grain orientation looks pretty damn good; does the spacing tell anyone how old the tree is or from which part? Thanks for the help!

I'm a little disappointed that it's not a pure white, but maybe I'm being silly?

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6NsSCLNQDmnOTRhbndIdW9Pc3M/view?usp=docslist_api

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6NsSCLNQDmnLVRoN3VxdVVQeU0/view?usp=docslist_api
 
You are looking at early wood and late wood. The early is lade down in the spring, the late in the fall. GB has been using hickory that looks nothing like is available here in the USA for a long time. Can't see a thing wrong with the handle. The growth ring size would indicate a smaller diameter tree or second growth which in most cases is what you want.
 
Looks like almost perfect handle by the book! The contrast garry3 explained may be exaggerated by the oil used to finish I would guess.

I wonder where it was grown. Some probably gets exported from us, but I think i read read some central/eastern European countries were growing hickory, and, incidentally, someplace was able to grow black locust commercially, ie disease free, which would be an awesome lumber product.
 
garry3 said:
You are looking at early wood and late wood. The early is lade down in the spring, the late in the fall. GB has been using hickory that looks nothing like is available here in the USA for a long time. Can't see a thing wrong with the handle. The growth ring size would indicate a smaller diameter tree or second growth which in most cases is what you want.
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what garry said.
all good
kinda stange looking tho. but nothing wrong with it that i can see.
buzz
 
"Silly" it is. No knots, nice growth lines and the grain orientation is good. Anything else bad you want to hear about this?
 
Yeah yeah, I figured I was being a bit of a princess. I think it's because I had read that the best hickory handles were almost pure white in that one axe book.

Same with the head. It was really annoying me that it wasn't a smooth continuous line from the belly of the handle to the toe of the bit, so I smoothed the transition with a bastard file. I appreciate some imperfections, but this one irked me.

I may have ocd.

Thanks a lot for the info guys. It makes sense to see a color difference from early to late wood, but I hadn't seen it much elsewhere. Is it because the early is higher in moisture when the tree is felled? Maybe?

I thought gransfors sourced all its hickory from the US, no?

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Oh, also, I read in a different thread that thicker ring width indicates a strong wood, and mine seem to be in the range specified. Something like 1.5 - 5 mm or something.
 
It's dependent on density, but less rings often means more dense, as does latewood. Although I think when going against the grain the wood is tougher with more rings. And young growth may be more dense even if there are more rings.

Someone probably knows better than me on this though.
 
It's possible the coloring is that way due to the soil the tree grew in. The white wood is the spring wood and the darker is the summer wood in this case. Perhaps some mineral gets taken up by the tree in the location where the tree grew. I don't think anywhere else has any hickory other than the US available in commercial quantities. Hickory does grow over a wide range of several eastern states, and soils vary to some extent.
 
halfaxe said:
It's possible the coloring is that way due to the soil the tree grew in. The white wood is the spring wood and the darker is the summer wood in this case. Perhaps some mineral gets taken up by the tree in the location where the tree grew. I don't think anywhere else has any hickory other than the US available in commercial quantities. Hickory does grow over a wide range of several eastern states, and soils vary to some extent.
Click to expand...

I think you are onto something here with the minerals and soil. When GB's came out with there so called hand forged axes the hickory handles that came with them looked just like what we have available here in the USA then they changed and the majority of them came with all heart wood handles that looked nothing like are American hickory.

I don't think it would be to far out of line to call an American hickory grown in Europe "American Hickory".

P1010021_zpstjcabovt.jpg
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These where purchased a year apart. Clearly there is a change. I think sap wood is the best but I can not complain about the quality of the hickory GB is using, it all seems to have wide growth rings and good early to late wood ratio. Maybe these trees are being irrigated? Very consistent quality hickory they are using. The all sap wood handle pictured above has much tighter growth rings than what I am seeing now.
 
mikejungle said:
. . .
I thought gransfors sourced all its hickory from the US, no?
. . .
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That is an interesting question. I had the impression that was true. Besides the country of origin I'd like to know the variety of Hickory, if it's second-growth, and number of rings per inch. I looked at the Gransfors Bruk site, but I couldn't find anything other than "Hickory" described. I searched a few retailers for info on GB handles. The descriptions I found were:
- no mention of the wood species
- Hickory
- American Hickory



mikejungle said:
. . .

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Oh, also, I read in a different thread that thicker ring width indicates a strong wood, and mine seem to be in the range specified. Something like 1.5 - 5 mm or something.
Click to expand...

You might find some helpful information here.

Bob
 
Bröderna Smedbergs AB, a.k.a Smedbergs Hickory, is making the handles for Gränsfors, they source their hickory from the US
 
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