Kanabo finished, now with pix!

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Hawgsnawt

Joined
Aug 16, 2015
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Ran across a product from Minwax called a wood hardener.... it seems to be a poly resin watered down in a solvent that soaks into the wood and epoxies it solid from the inside...

the question I have is, I am trying to make a handle, but the only wood I can find in the size I need is maple.... maple is a hardwood, but not as hard as oak or hickory....

If I treat the maple with the wood hardener will it just strengthen the maple to the level of an oak or hickory, or will it remove all the flex from it and actually make it more prone to breakage?

anyone have any experience with this stuff?


Thanks!
 
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Hawgsnawt said:
Ran across a product from Minwax called a wood hardener.... it seems to be a poly resin watered down in a solvent that soaks into the wood and epoxies it solid from the inside...

the question I have is, I am trying to make a handle, but the only wood I can find in the size I need is maple.... maple is a hardwood, but not as hard as oak or hickory....

If I treat the maple with the wood hardener will it just strengthen the maple to the level of an oak or hickory, or will it remove all the flex from it and actually make it more prone to breakage?

anyone have any experience with this stuff?


Thanks!
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I would assume you are talking about Sugar Maple. No need to try and make it better than it already is.

I believe those kind of products are for restoring partially rotted wood. I do not think you will gain anything at all from using it.
 
Sounds similar to Git Rot we use in boat repairs. I wouldn't use it on an axe handle. It will increase the compressive strength but won't increase the modulus of rupture and will reduce the modulus of elasticity.
 
Must be some kind of stabilizer like the knife folks use on scales also my experience with maple is that it's very hard to begin with and not very porous like oak, ash or hickory.
 
Maple (typically furniture and baseball bat grade stuff uses what's called 'Hard' maple, 'Rock' or up this way 'Sugar' Maple) will be plenty hard enough for your purpose. Stay away from Box Elder, Silver Maple, and other weed-type soft wood maples. Soaking it in some sort of hardener is just going to defeat the whole idea of using wood (ability to flex and absorb vibration) unless you're looking for rigidity and stability such as you would for knife scales or other decoration. Where your hardener goodie might actually be suitable is in treating solely the axe eye and wedge once the handle is installed so as to minimize contraction and/or expansion due to humidity.
 
Let me explain what I'm REALLY up to.... anyone familiar with a Kanabo?



I'm taking a 6 foot maple 3x3 and cutting it down into a 5 foot 2x2....45ing the 4 corners to end up with an octagon shape stick.... on the top 3 feet I'm drilling 1/2 inch holes and adding carriage bolts every 1 inch per side and using an offset pattern so they stagger....then I'll round the handle and do a paracord wrap....

This video explains the process pretty well..... its neat and worth the 10 minutes to watch....imho

( try as I might, I can't seem to make videos embed on this forum )

skip to 1:05 to start past the intro...

https://youtu.be/JlczDZ7HopY

picture of carriage bolt version from video...



my concern is beings as its going to be an impact weapon... and it's drilled so....densely .....I was hoping the hardener would help strengthen the wood and keep it from breaking in half first time I hit something with it....was also thinking that it would strengthen the drilled hole walls to keep the studs from pulling free as well....or laying sideways under lateral impact force and splitting out the side walls of the holes....

anywho....
 
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Even without the carriage bolts a 5 foot maple 'coat & hat rack pole' is gonna make a serious dent in someone's head. Why fuss around; get yourself a conventional baseball bat (Sam Bat near Ottawa makes regulation maple bats) and dispense with the decorations and then no one will bat an eye if you're walking down the street with it or someone sees it behind the front door or under the seat of your truck. The intimidating club you're proposing to make is only going to attract unwanted attention and likely to get you into trouble or worse, since most thugs carry handguns that reach beyond 5 feet and cops aren't very understanding of spiked pieces of lumber either.
 
They talk like making weapons could get a guy into some trouble. Be better off to shoot an intruder in your home than hit him with a spiked club. Whatever the rules are I guess.

If its fun, its probably immoral or illegal.
 
Naw, Its just a for funsies project... I own ( literally ) over a dozen AKs, half dozen pistols, half dozen swords...most from Zombie Tools, I'm up to 6 Viking axes...most from Cold Steel but a couple that I'd consider real useful axes.

I'm not gonna tote it any farther than my backyard, and not gonna hit anything with it other than maybe a few over ripe melons or pumpkins...

I just enjoy dinking around with stuff like this... I'm currently also making as honest a Viking shield as I can from Basswood planks, forged metal rivets, rawhide strap etc etc... and working on a set of Brigandine armor using leather welding aprons as the backing and stringing the plates onto them in an overlapping pattern.....I've outgrown chainmail, I have 2 full suits I made from 14ga galvanized wire....suit weighs over 60lbs.... not real practical but it would stop anything short of a bullet.....

Its Small Town Texas guys.... legal to own flame throwers, seriously, I had one for years..... a studded stick is the very bottom of the food chain here....my 9 year old could carry it down main street at mid day and never earn a second glance.

/shrug.....everyone needs a hobby, right?
 
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Hawgsnawt said:
Naw, Its just a for funsies project... I own ( literally ) over a dozen AKs, half dozen pistols, half dozen swords...most from Zombie Tools, I'm up to 6 Viking axes...most from Cold Steel but a couple that I'd consider real useful axes.

I'm not gonna tote it any farther than my backyard, and not gonna hit anything with it other than maybe a few over ripe melons or pumpkins...

I just enjoy dinking around with stuff like this... I'm currently also making as honest a Viking shield as I can from Basswood planks, forged metal rivets, rawhide strap etc etc...

Its Small Town Texas guys.... legal to own flame throwers, seriously, I had one for years..... a studded stick is the very bottom of the food chain here....my 9 year old could carry it down main street at mid day and never earn a second glance.

/shrug.....everyone needs a hobby, right?
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Glad to see you've got a sense of humour. If the hardener isn't expensive and doesn't seriously discolour the wood I'd say 'go for it'. If anything it will prevent watermelon or pumpkin juice from dyeing/discolouring the stick.
 
Hawgsnawt said:
Naw, Its just a for funsies project... I own ( literally ) over a dozen AKs, half dozen pistols, half dozen swords...most from Zombie Tools, I'm up to 6 Viking axes...most from Cold Steel but a couple that I'd consider real useful axes.

I'm not gonna tote it any farther than my backyard, and not gonna hit anything with it other than maybe a few over ripe melons or pumpkins...

I just enjoy dinking around with stuff like this... I'm currently also making as honest a Viking shield as I can from Basswood planks, forged metal rivets, rawhide strap etc etc...

Its Small Town Texas guys.... legal to own flame throwers, seriously, I had one for years..... a studded stick is the very bottom of the food chain here....my 9 year old could carry it down main street at mid day and never earn a second glance.

/shrug.....everyone needs a hobby, right?
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Absolutely. Just never chain them around a major city and you will be fine.

That shield sounds like a fun project. I like working with materials like that. Raw hide can do some amazing stuff. You using cow rawhide? I would like to see how it would hold up against an authentic style English war bow.

I wish the rest of the states would pass some gun laws like Texas has for protecting your property and your life. Just saying....
 
Aye, found a good source for rawhide...expensive shipping on small orders, but I offset that by ordering 96x1 inch veg tanned leather straps to wrap the handles on the axes at the same time.... rawhide straps come 40 inches long, I'm figuring a 36 inch shield so I need roughly 115 inches of rawhide.... the strips are 3 inches wide so I'll use tin snips and cut them down to 2x1.5 inch x 40 each so 2 of the 40 inchx3 strips should cover the shield rim and allow me enough edge wrap and roll over to tack in with carpet tacks ( cut nails )

The hard part was finding the forged rivets for the joins and handle... I tracked down a guy that sells a full shield package for about 40 bucks that has the small nails to attach the planks to the reinforcement ribs on back, the shield boss rivets, and the rivets for the handle as well as forged mounts for a back strap which were fairly common on actual Viking shields though almost never depicted in modern recreations....

found a recipe for traditional Viking glue to attach the linen to the front face....its a combination of boiled milk and vinegar + lengthy cooking process and etc etc..... it'll keep me from using wood glue like everyone else does... I do want to be as close to traditional as I can muster....

I'm an old semi retired truck driver.....I drive a school bus now days just to stay busy, which means I get out all summer long just like the kids do... you'd be amazed what you can accomplish with 3 months of summertime with nothing to do but crap like this LOL..... I'm a bit of an old school renfest junkie too so.... I guess it just comes natural

I've made some neat stuff over the years...not a darned bit of it useful for anything other than keeping me entertained.... meh, its a one way trip....one thing I've learned along the way is to enjoy it on the way thru, you won't get a second chance.....
 
Sounds like you have your priorities in line.
I know I have purchased whole raw hides from Tandy but it has always been goat and I have worked with deer and elk raw hide also. I guess some people will get the big Dog chews and soak them until they are softened enough to untie. Not sure how that would work out on cost.

I seem to have heard of milk glue some place but can not remember were. Lots of different glues that go way back in years. The surprising part of it is they are every bit as good as the glue you can buy today and in many cases better. Hide glue is the most popular and is still in use today. Gelatin from the kitchen pantry is pretty close to it also.

Keep us informed on your projects and how it works out for you. We can all learn something.
 
Minwax wood hardener is not what you're looking for. I would say that your priorities to ensure strength should first be wood species, followed by selection of an ideal piece of wood. You are not going to make a piece of wood considerably stronger for your purposes without negating the benefits by making it heavy and/or spending a lot of coin. It would be prudent to start with the most ideal wood and just pay less for the strength increase up front.
 
If you are concerned with the bolts pulling free I would apply a coating of a quality glue/epoxy to the holes before installing the bolts.
 
fishiker said:
If you are concerned with the bolts pulling free I would apply a coating of a quality glue/epoxy to the holes before installing the bolts.
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That actually had not crossed my mind... thanks! lol sometimes the simple solutions are the best.....

I plan on drilling the holes about 1/16th too small so the threads get good bite....it should be a non issue really, but I worry about the weird stuff

Wood is shaped and sanded waiting on weather to cooperate for stain and seal...bolts showed up today as did the paracord for the handle wrap....

with any luck I'll be able to post finished pictures over the weekend sometime....
 
And...... finished....

I started off with a maple 3x3 and cut it down to a true 2x2 5 feet long.... 45ed the corners on the table saw to make an octagon.....hand sanded the 8 faces down then built a home made lathe out of a hand drill and a couple 2x4s to round out the handle....didn't have any lathe chisels so it was turned down with 60 grit, then 100 grit, then finish sanded with 400 grit.

After that I marked the hole locations and hand drilled them, stained the wood, then sealed it with tinted clear coat, did the paracord wrap and spent all day screwing in the carriage bolts....all 200 of em...

It weighs 8 pounds but swings faster than you'd think, balance is pretty good due to the 24 inch handle adding counter weight..... all in all, I'm pleased with the end result...a few little things I'd change if I were to do it again, but all in all, fun project, and looks good hanging on the wall. =o)





 
Not the sort of thing I've ever had any hankering for but you sure did a bang-up job of creating it. Matter of fact it's downright pretty!
 
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