Lignum Vitae for axe handle/haft?

JayGoliath

JayGoliath

Joined
Mar 27, 2010
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Hi all,

I've seen hickory,curly maple, oak or Japanese white oak made into haft or axe handle but what about hard wood?

The concern i seen here is the weight and balance.

Could Lignum Vitae be a good choice for toughness but prone to lateral stress depending on how you process the grains of wood?

I'm looking into putting LV as scales to one incoming full tang hawks.

Thank you for your suggestions and inputs. :D

J
 
The one problem with Lignum Vitae is that a piece large enough to turn into an axe handle would be really expensive and really hard to work! I think that combination of factors is what accounts for the notable lack of its use in such a manner. Also it reputedly sinks in water so yeah it'll probably throw the balance off something awful. :p

The stuff is so hard I bet you could carve an axe head out of it, mount it on a hickory haft, and actually fell trees with it. :p
 
Some of the harder denser woods don't take direct impact very well and wouldn't be that suitable for axe handles. They're ok if you guarantee to hit what you're chopping with the head, but a miss is likely to see the head spinning off with half a handle attached. Kamagong is favoured by the Moro for serious stick fighting, but the stick needs to conditioned before being pressed into hard service. Almost like work hardening the wood. Ash is also favoured for axe handles and spear hafts because of it's shock resistance.
Having re-read your post, though, it doesn't matter which wood you use, as the full tang and metal shaft will be taking the impact. Go with what looks best. LV makes great knife scales.
 
In the 19th century Lignum was used for bearings in paddle wheelers because it was more durable than the steel of the day. Can you actually get a piece big enough from an axe handle. I have a bunch of pear shaped tools that were used for flaring pipe ends for boiler making. Wonderful wood.
Just to add, I used to collect sail making and boat building tools many of which were Lignum, one piece was a heavy caulking hammer with a 14 inch long head ( 6 or so on each side of the handle). The head was lignum the handle Ash with the head drilled with holes with sawn slots right through the head joining the holes. This was for flex I assume and to prevent impact breakage the striking heads were wrapped in iron. I honestly don`t think Lignum would handle the shock and it`s heavy heavy wood. Would love to have a piece big enough. Scales would work great though.
Regards

Robin
 
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Pipeman said:
In the 19th century Lignum was used for bearings in paddle wheelers because it was more durable than the steel of the day. Can you actually get a piece big enough from an axe handle. I have a bunch of pear shaped tools that were used for flaring pipe ends for boiler making. Wonderful wood.

Regards

Robin
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More than that! The propeller bearings in the first nuclear sub were made of it! They were preferred over steel due to its self lubricating properties. It works fine on impact, too, from what I understand. It's a traditional material for high-end woodworking mallets.
 
FortyTwoBlades said:
More than that! The propeller bearings in the first nuclear sub were made of it! They were preferred over steel due to its self lubricating properties. It works fine on impact, too, from what I understand. It's a traditional material for high-end woodworking mallets.
Click to expand...

With the weight it was also used in the olde British police as Billy club. I'm guessing at that length (~12-14" ?) it could still be a good sized full tang hawk
It's certainly a good gen-2-gen passdown for such bloody tough combo.
 
Yeah as scales it should be just fine. I wouldn't try it as a full blown haft for a typical axe though! Super spendy and the balance would be all whacked out unless you had a really heavy head on it...and then the overall weight would be monstrous! :D

I've seen bokken made of it from time to time, and have heard tell that they splinter other bokken like toothpicks--and unintentionally at that. :p
 
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