Luan wedge?

Fmont

Fmont

Joined
Apr 20, 2017
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I'm hanging a double bit for the first time in a few years. Nice TT Flint Edge, beautiful.

I forgot the dang wedges are about the size of a paperback book, which means I gotta go split another one. I have some Luan I've been thinking about, just as something different. I'm not sure if it's reliable in said application. Just having worked with it I'm not sure the compression strength is up to par. On paper it looks good, but if anyone has any real world experience or feedback I'd love to hear it.

ETA: aka Philippine mahogany, etc. depending on where you live.
 
It sounds a little soft personally. I've used oak, maple, pine, fir, poplar, ipe, walnut, and mystery wedges and the one thing I've learned is they need to be hard enough to spread the wood in the eye but soft enough they don't get "spat out" by the handle.
 
Wedges also need to be soft enough that they don't spread the ax eye. I did this one time when I was young and made a hickory wedge instead of doing what I was told to do. My favorite is Black Walnut, or now Koa, both have the right degree of soft/hard, and I like the contrast with the white wood hickory haft.
 
Contrast was the only issue. I usually use birch, or walnut. I only have walnut veneer apparently, which is how I wound up looking at that luan in the first place. I'm just going to use walnut haha
 
I think Philippine mahogany would be perfectly fine. Luan in these parts is a plywood product (most often of PM)
but the solid wood ought to work well.

Ray
 
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