Handle Wood Growth Rate

Couldn't you find something a little more up to date Steve?

Hoping someone will do that summary, I cant read it.
 
Ernest DuBois said:
But I ask this question first. What measure or means do you use to determine the relative strength or weakness of porous early wood versus late, dense wood?

E.DB.
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Just from handles that I've broken or not broken. Nothing more than that.
 
I just can't get that text in readable form. No matter though, I guess it is going on about the basic nature of wood in general, that early wood is softer and less strong than the late wood among other characteristics. The strength, or weakness of the early wood was never in question though, that truely is a simple matter and can be tested any number of simple ways, in cutting across the grain with a hand saw it's obvious, driving a pointed nail versus a blunt nail into certain sections of the wood, drilling with a hand power drill, these will all indicate the nature and make-up of the wood.
The fact is it's there isn't it, so how to deal with it. It's no good wishing it were otherwise. The selection of a good species is a beginning but variations within species are just as important, one ash handle is not the same as the one next to it there in the rack necessarily. Or the stem that came out of the middle of the forest is not going to be like the one grown on the edge of the forest.

A simplistic answer may well be, get a strong handle with a minimum of early wood growth. But a good handle is not only a strong handle. For the past four weeks of so I have been chopping hours and hours on a daily basis and never once was concerned about the handle of my axe breaking or being strong enough. Prior to that it was some weeks on another task where the strength of the handle was a question. What was more of a concern in the first instance was the effect of the constant and repetitive movement, the percussion and the energy used, on my body, joints, muscles, skin - many blisters, now callouses on top of callouses - limbs. The true concern was having a handle that gave a good grip, was somewhat flexible and not transmitting all the shock of chopping back to my vital parts, skin, shoulders, elbows, wrists.

So to go on about strength is fine, if it's also accepted that there is more to a decent handle that being able to withstand the occasional over swing when splitting or chopping.

E.DB.
 
I recently came across a chunk of air dried ash. It was big enough to attempt shaping my first full size double bit haft. Here is how it turned out.




Here are the growth rings.




What kind of story do these growth rings tell? Think this haft will stand up to a 3lb 6oz double bit?
 
Lately and in connection to this very discussion the variations in the ring section coloring has got me speculating. The darker rings are the late wood growth, but in some ash we have seen the early wood/late wood transition is a matter of gradation instead of a stark demarkation like this picture. Could it be that, and this is maybe a stab at it, where the ring sections are distinct the tree has come out of a forest and has been somewhat protected in the late growing periods of the season which enabled more sustained growth at a slower rate and a greater build-up of late wood? In one example I put up there, there is hardly a color distinction, only a clear section of pore growth at the beginning of each new growth ring and from there on a sort of gradual darkening indicating a tighter structure as growth rate slows nearing the cooler season. I'm pretty sure this tree was growing in an exposed place, in a yard, along a street or at the edge of the woods for example. All that said, location is only one factor among others like soil composition.
Also, regarding growth rate alone, this will normally vary across an entire end grain section of a tree stem indicating variations in growing conditions from year to year so it's possible to get sections of very tight ring spacing next to rings more widely spaced or thicker.

So in that picture it would follow that the growth of that section was not to slow and not to fast and consistent. That it came from a protected place, where good growth could occur in the late growing season, that it was growing straight and on flat ground. At the same time, it could be that you chose the optimal section from the piece as a whole and the rest was less nice. I would say it's a strong and stiff handle and that if you had wanted to optimize the resilience in use you would have oriented the rings 90 degrees to what you have to take advantage of the shock absorption of the rings lying flat or perpendicular to the greatest force. And I guess that the weight per unit is about half that of the ash from that first picture I put up. Also that you have a nick in the blade of your block plane.

E.DB.
 
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Ernest DuBois said:
Also that you have a nick in the blade of your block plane.

E.DB.
Click to expand...

My block planes never actually touched this piece. While at the shop cutting the kerf on the bandsaw I cheated and hit the end grain with the belt sander and hadn't bothered to get rid of all the evidence before snapping the picture.


Thanks for your assessment E.DB. This piece of wood was selected by a Windsor chair maker. He had 5 or 6 pieces slabbed and stacked for drying in the loft of his shop. I picked the one that I thought would be best for this haft.
 
It was a guess since you have such a nice set-up there for shaping.

So it was taken from a plank or riven section?

E.DB.
 
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