Iron wood to a hawk handle

Lindey

Lindey

Joined
Apr 13, 2005
Messages
842
Hey there,
Did a search, came up with nothing so I thought I'd start a new thread. Broke my hawk handle this weekend so took a trip out into the bush and cut myself some ironwood. I turned it down on the lathe to a workable diameter and it is currently in the process of drying it. Any tips on how to treat it if necessary? I'm also open to hawk handle tips in general. Thanks in advance.

-Chris
 
Expect it to twist and crack alot i have tried many times to dry some and it always turned out bad but it is certianly tough wood. As far as what to treat it with i never treated a piece because it cracked and twisted so bad.
 
Never done ironwood, it doesn't grow here. but try what we do with dense hadwoods. get a round big enough to make at least 4 of what you want and split into quarters lengthwise, stick those somewhere warm and dry, like on trellis mesh in the rafters of the garage roof where the hot air will riase on warm days and leave them there for 2 years as a minimum. then use. Quartering rounds helps reduce the stresses,
 
I have heared vacuum drying will prevent warpage in wood.I saw a special on tv once about logs being scavenged from lakes.They used a vacuum kiln to dry the wood with no distortion.
 
The Ironwood you are talking about is not the same as Desert Ironwood that we use for knife handles. It grows only in the Sonoran Desert In Arizona, Mexico and maybe some in So. Cal.
 
Nope, definately not Steve. I got it out of Enterprise off my GF's parents farm. Just long hard and straight. Thanks for the info so far folks.

-Chris
 
you know, some serious wood turners submerge their green wood in Polyethylene Glycol and leave it for months, years, whatever it takes. I am not up to spec in my research. That lets the wood dry out and not check and split.
 
Sealing the ends with wax, glue, or varnish may help slow the moisture drying out of the end grain witch will help with the cracking and checking.
This is pretty standard for the way I dry wood for bows.
 
Interesting stuff so far, i was thinking that since it is such a small diametre the twisting wont be an issue. But I'm wondering if I could oil it then cord wrap it as planned. I figure I'm gonna go ahead and shape a handle, at least I'll have my hawk useable. I got lots of stuff at hand so i'll see what happens. ANy thoughts on dring a formed handle in the oven to see what happens?

-Lindey
 
Does the trunk have a muscular look to it? (Called 'flutes') If you swing an axe at it, does it laugh at your mere mortal efforts? If it's Carpinus caroliniana it's probably already cracked on you if you didn't do anything but leave it sitting. That stuff cracks... like something that cracks a lot.

Oh, I just noticed where you asked about the oven drying of formed handle. I did that with my very first handle scales, out of ironwood (Carpinus caroliniana) when my brother got them wet... they turned up like pringles.
 
Hey there,
I believe its proper name is Hophornbeam. I'd gladly post pics but I have yet to acquire a digital camera. It's coming though, I haven't even had a cell phone for a full year yet so I'm slowly forming a relationship with technology. I've started the shaping process on my first handle so far so we'll see what happens. It'd go much quicker if it was just round instead of a tear drop diameter. Take it easy.

-Lindey
 
I was going to call it hophornbeam, but there is a similarly named tree that is not such a hard wood, and common names are confusing/innacurate at times. :p
 
Yeah, I don't know much about the fancy tree names, but I did a little research for information sake. It took me a little bit but I almost got my first handle done, just need to taper it a bit more and sand it. Not sure with what or if i'm going to stain it. I will wrap it though.

-Lindey
 
Since you are needing a handle now I would suggest going and picking up or ordering a dry block of the wood of your choice to make a handle from.If you do use the green wood I will suggest that you leave plenty of oversize and some length out the top of the head as the wood will shrink and yu will have to be able to tighten the head up on the handle.

You can just use the green wood as is and when it shrinks down to much just change it out for a new branch,that is a traditional way of packing a using hawk to the high country and saving weight in the pack,just slap a branch in when needed and throw it away when you pack up.Not real pretty but usable.

Bruce
 
Thanks Bruce. I'm pretty much gonna do that. I got my first handle done and we'll see how it holds up. I'm going to pick up some boiled linseed oil or maybe some pentacryl and give that a go at least for the next one. The plus is I've got plenty of the wood so a warped handle isn't the end of the world, just more experience in the forming and shaping of another. At least I'll have it functional for the bush this weekend.

-Lindey
 
Since this is a hawk handle thread.

I am in the possession of a bundle of four dowel rods. Not just any dowel rods, though. Bill Moran had these turned from some of that famous Frederick, MD maple tree that he used for many of his handles. He said that tree produced some of the best curly maple he ever saw. These have been dry since the late 1970's. Straight as an arrow. They are six feet long by 1.5" diameter. Bill was going to make a batch of knife handles, hawks, and hatchets from them. I would like to share some of this wood with the hawk forgers on this forum. This wood will produce awesome handles. I'll cut eight , 18" pieces . I'll start a hawk thread and give more details on how to get one.
Stacy
 
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