Hung With Watered Wood

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Ernest DuBois

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Mar 2, 2013
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Some new wood is coming now on-line for axe handles but with this difference, this wood (Ash) has been set in water as part of its seasoning. Watering has certainly made a difference carving the handle. Never before, and I do handeling fairly often, new axes, replacements, trying something new out, that sort of thing... did I have one which carved so well. It has even not required picking up a spokeshave, only drawknife and carving knife, and of course no scraping, sanding, that sort of thing..., a pleasure to work.

Here was the billet with the sludge dried on there like that.
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And the handle ready for trying out and probably some further refining
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Neat trick,Ernest,it makes a lot of sense to keep the wood wet...
That head looks American in that side-view at least,and so,do you find the European ash sufficient to handle these narrow-eye type axes?
 
Kevin Houtzager said:
Am I assuming correctly that it is in a way wet wood? And if so, how does humidity effect the straightness and the hang of it?
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No Kevin, the wood is at equilibrium, still ever so slightly under the relative humidity out of doors at the moment because I have just taken the billet down from its dry storage. A couple of years back now I watered the wood for some months, then it was standing out back in the trees for a year and finally I had it inside* since I don't know when, last year sometime. Such a time-frame is shorter than I would wait in case of only air drying but this is the point of watering, it speeds up evaporation. Well another point is supposedly stabilizing the wood to reduce movement as the humidity fluctuates. And yet another is to make the wood more resistant to bug infestations. This is all wonderful if it happens and turns out to be the case, all I can say with some confidence is that the watering has markedly improved how the wood carves.

In the hay loft, I never bring handle wood anywhere near where there is heating.

jake pogg said:
Neat trick,Ernest,it makes a lot of sense to keep the wood wet...
That head looks American in that side-view at least,and so,do you find the European ash sufficient to handle these narrow-eye type axes?
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Yes, I have to thank the USA military for their surpluses, made in the USA by Warrens or Warner or something like that. I picked it up in Germany and it's a fine axe. Hickory in these axes is only a little bit stronger than the ash. The difference is not enough to make it worth going to the extra trouble to get my hands on Hickory of unknown origins and processing when I can have Ash of a known quantity.
 
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Ah,so.
Thanks,Ernest.
Yes,it's a fine art,to be able to play with manipulating the free vs retained moisture in the wood.
 
Ernest, that is indeed interesting. You have changed the character of the wood no doubt. I am not sure if all the changes will be positive or if there are some negatives to that method that would even be noticeable in an axe handle. Saxton Pope the author, and bowyer mentions water curing as a way to dry wood faster to make a bow sooner. His method differed from yours and he also believed the the wood lost some cast. But that is comparing apples and oranges.
I would like to know how it all works out.
 
This is neat. I read your blog and wondered what was to come of your water and wood endeavors :thumbsup:
 
garry3 said:
Ernest, that is indeed interesting. You have changed the character of the wood no doubt. I am not sure if all the changes will be positive or if there are some negatives to that method that would even be noticeable in an axe handle. Saxton Pope the author, and bowyer mentions water curing as a way to dry wood faster to make a bow sooner. His method differed from yours and he also believed the the wood lost some cast. But that is comparing apples and oranges.
I would like to know how it all works out.
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You could be right garry3 and I don't doubt the experience of this bow maker friend of yours. The important thing is to recognize, as you put it, that the process changes the character of the wood. Then it's a matter of whether or not the changes are compatible with the intention. I wonder if what you are going on about has something to do with resilience of the wood - to deform and then regain its form repeatedly and over a decent length of time? It certainly would seem to be applicable to an axe handle. My rational is only grounded in the intuitive knowledge built up over the long haul in the traditions of wood harvesting, processing and using. For a long time, lets say in the modern era the custom of watering has been put aside, only retained by a few stubborn individualists and independent thinkers outside the centers, incompatible with a lot of ideas of business and profit maximizing, you know, but it is now being taken up again I notice more and more.
 
Ernest, I can't vouch for Pope's experience having no first hand knowledge of the process myself. And since I have never been in a hurry to work a stave I have naturally avoided it as I had heard of nothing to be gained by it. However as you report it may well have its advantages and applications.

Here is Pope's method just for comparison,

"If you must make a bow right away, place the stave in running water for a month, then dry in a shady place for a month, and it is ready for use. It will not be so good as if seasoned three to seven years, but it will shoot; in fact, it will shoot the same day you cut it from the tree, only it will follow the string and not stand straight as it should. Of course, it will not have the cast of air-seasoned wood."

I do question if his staves were fully dry and had reached equilibrium? A month of drying is not much. His staves where roughly 3"x 3".

He had some strange idea's on the sap being up and how to deal with it also that he doesn't elaborate on. What time of the year did you harvest your ash?
 
Ernest DuBois said:
Sorry garry3, I couldn't say a thing about when this ash got taken down, I just take it whenever I can get my grubby hands some.
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What's embarrassing (for many people) around Ottawa is there are suddenly so many 1000s of dead elms and ashes (thank you DED and EAB) on City property that gov't contractors have been instructed to drop the trees, chip up and haul away the branches and leave the trunks behind. Municipal bureaucrats have discovered there is a quiet and faithful contingent of opportunists and scavengers armed with pickup trucks and chainsaws that will see to it the wood all or mostly disappears within a few weeks, at no cost to the taxpayer. I marvel at the trunks of some of these (3-4 feet across and knot free for 20-30 feet) but organizing portable sawmills and having the means to handle big logs is something no one has so far contemplated.
 
I don't know if I like the idea of encouraging roaming wood scavengers but only because I once have lost a half a winter's wood supply to these types. Better, as a John C. Public, to stay on good terms with these municipal bureaucrats,(I know I would if I had it to do over again;)) and just ask them for the wood. But, I tell you one thing I do wish and that is for Canada to stop chipping perfectly good trees up into fuel for our Dutch electricity generators.
 
Ernest DuBois said:
I don't know if I like the idea of encouraging roaming wood scavengers but only because I once have lost a half a winter's wood supply to these types. Better, as a John C. Public, to stay on good terms with these municipal bureaucrats,(I know I would if I had it to do over again;)) and just ask them for the wood. But, I tell you one thing I do wish and that is for Canada to stop chipping perfectly good trees up into fuel for our Dutch electricity generators.
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If there was an incentive in place not to 'waste' this wood (chopping a magnificent old tree up into firewood, to me, downright qualifies as 'sheer waste') I'd be right onto supporting it. Ottawa is not doing anything with the mountains of leftover trunks, bark and sawdust either and likely as not will be sceptical of any overtures from outside agencies that 'voluntarily' offer to take care of it.
Gov'ts are wonderful for their ability to 'spend money' but are notoriously ill-prepared when it comes to 'saving money'.
 
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