Oak, Ash or Hickory?

JayGoliath

JayGoliath

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http://www.woodweb.com/knowledge_base/Good_Wood_for_Handles.html

Good Wood for Handles
Oak, hickory, and elm (if you can find some) work well. October 25, 2006

Question
Has anyone made their own wheelbarrow handles? I would like to know what type of wood to use.

Forum Responses
(Sawing and Drying Forum)
From Gene Wengert, technical advisor, Sawing and Drying Forum:
White oak and hickory are commonly used North American hardwoods.

From contributor A:
Don't forget White Ash. I see it often for this purpose.

From Gene Wengert, technical advisor, Sawing and Drying Forum:
The strength of white oak (MOR) is 15,200 psi; hickory, 20,00 psi; and white ash, 15,000 psi.

From contributor B:
Based on those numbers, it looks as though hickory is significantly weaker than the others.

From contributor C:
I think Gene meant 20,000 psi(MOR)for Hickory. It has an interlocking grain which makes it difficult to split. Elm has interlocking grain too if I remember correctly and used to be used for handles during my grandfather's day.

From contributor D:
As a farm boy (born 1935) whose dad also had a sawmill I would offer this bit of information. Wagon tongues, and sickle mower tongues were constantly breaking, and the smart old time farmer never bought a factory replacement tongue. Instead he headed for the woods looking for a Winged Elm/Cork Elm sapling of the correct size and length. Other vernacular names are Piss Elm, Water Elm, Red Elm, Witch Elm, Wahoo Elm.

This wood, when dry, will bend but never break. I have one of dad’s old cant hooks with an elm handle, and even after 60 plus years this handle is as strong as it ever was. All of this leads up to what would make a good wheel barrow handle. If I needed handles for a wheel barrow, I'd find some old farmer and ask him where a stand of piss elm trees could be found.

From contributor E:
Just curious - does the handle made from a sapling have more resistance to breaking than say a handle hewn out of a log? When I was a kid, my old man often made replacement handles out of saplings just large enough to do the job. Most common were like walk behind cultivators that he would wheel and deal with, old hoes, sledge hammers and just about any tool iron that needed a wooded handle. I always thought he was just being thrifty (I was a young dumb kid and I thought he was too cheap to buy new). Funny that you mentioned the pitman on a sickle bar mower, it seems that every one that I remember was a stick of white oak plank just milled and drilled enough at the ends to fit the connections.

From Gene Wengert, technical advisor, Sawing and Drying Forum:
Saplings will be a bit weaker (but if you make them a little larger, that is off set) but they are more bendable, which can be important to reduce shock to the hands.
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The toughest-to-split species we used to encounter in these parts was elm; 30 years ago, there were still some of the old ones left standing -- but dying rapidly by then. Many had very tight and twisted grain; most mauls (or wedges) would just bounce back before penetrating- Peter Vido

http://axeconnected.blogspot.com/
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http://bushcraftusa.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-30471.html

http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=26910

http://workshopcompanion.com/KnowHow/Design/Nature_of_Wood/3_Wood_Strength/3_Wood_Strength.htm

http://www.livescience.com/2699-science-breaking-baseball-bats.html
 
LOL! I can not THANK YOU enough for taking the time and posting this! I've been doing some research on my own concerning these handle materials. In fact I came accross that BushcraftUK thread.

Here in my country and with my traditional FMA background (from the "old guard" and manongs), the species livistona rotundifolia which is a type of palm ("bahi" in the dialect) is what we use for hammer polls. Most likely you have them over there as well in Malaysia.

I think it's related to the "strength vs. toughness" in blades. Sure you want tough wood, but too hard without any give or flex it will shatter. There has to be impact resistance along with the grain density strength, it needs to have "springy resilience" so to speak.
 
On the flip side however, too much springy resistance might make the tool too distracting to use because the full force isn't efficiently transferred on the object to be chopped -


[youtube]y78U55kBv5Y#t[/youtube]


For the diameter of that tree trunk sure, but for anything larger? I really can't say.
 
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An elm handle is not unusual on a broadaxe, but then broadaxes are not subject to much force, so whatever wood used within reason will suffice.
Beyond some pretty sketchy hearsay I am not aware of elm wood having a track record as axe handle material, while it is mostly present wherever ash is growing.
Who knows though, that may have more to do with pervasive market forces served by a homogenized and restricted choice range.
I suspect otherwise though because like the comment above this one suggests, a good handle has many aspects along side sheer strength requirements.

E.DB.
 
^ Heh! Scary ain't I ;)!

A lot of traditional FMA weapons, including the "dulo dulo" can be made out of the palm/bahi wood.
 
Yes. Elm at the high end - these being European standards - weighing 680 kg/m3. Ash, at the low end begins at 600 then up through 830 kg/m3.

E.DB
 
Ernest DuBois said:
Yes. Elm at the high end - these being European standards - weighing 680 kg/m3. Ash, at the low end begins at 600 then up through 830 kg/m3.

E.DB
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Ernest,
Mind explaining those standards? I'm thinking since the tools originated from Europe it would have spawn wider acceptance of choice in elm?
 
So, its about the weight of these two woods in relation to each other, the figures showing that elm is always likely to be lower in weight than ash. Weight is a reflection of the relative mass of each wood as the material of every wood is the same, the differences lie in the variations of structure from one species to the other, and growing conditions within species. Elm ranges in weight from 460 to 680 kilograms per cubic meter. Ash has a weight range of between 600 and 830 kilograms per cubic meter. The weights taking account of moisture content and I think that the standard is around 18% which is reliable because this is about the equilibrium point of air dried wood in this climate.
Like I wrote before, elm is sometimes used on broadaxes here in Europe from what I have seen and that cannot be a problem. That is not to say it is a good choice for any axe, in particular chopping or splitting axes meant for cutting across the grain of the wood. Neeman axes makes a point of the fact that they hang all their axes, not to mention other tools as well, using elm wood. It's this indiscriminate use I question.

E.DB.
 
Hickory doesn't grow in Europe. You gotta use what's at hand. Elm and Ash are good substitutes.
 
A similar discussion cropped up when a fellow posted a nice handcrafted carpenters axe here a few month back, with an elm handle, iirc.
Anyone have any experience with maple? Barry Bonds used maple baseball bats.
Looks like birch is an option too.

Birch is tougher than ash, and more flexible than maple. This hard hitting imported wood does not flake like ash and out-performs maple. A lighter wood, birch allows athletes to swing larger barreled bats through the hitting zone. After two seasons of extensive game play testing in the Cape Cod Baseball Summer League and the Alaskan League, a player is quoted as saying, "Maple is a thing of the past." Birch bats have become a viable choice. However, many of our customers own bats of all three types of wood so they can see which wood they prefer, and select the right bats for their practice and gameday needs.
http://www.hittingworld.com/Maple_vs_Ash_Wood_Bats_p/art50.htm
 
There are two assumptions implicit in the SP entry up there, one I see in a positive light, the other not so much. In a world of globalized commodities, what is locally available isn't a limitation, in general. SP assumes that we are making use of what is naturally at hand for our handle material. I could go even further and assume myself the meaning is that we go out and harvest the raw material ourselves using what resourcefulness we have, and this is I think the best approach from all perspectives.
I don't agree though, all things being equal, that it's self evident that hickory would always be the first choice in handling material.

As for the outright claim, even though elm and ash are equally available, only one of the two is used- with the one noted exception mentioned - which begs the question, why. I think that it is primarily because of the relative light weight of elm and that it less resistant to the shock of sudden impact - the question of strength being a separate one.

Birch and maple being diffuse porous woods are less resilient than say hickory and ash, ring porous woods, which for various reasons gives them a sort of cushion effect. Birch is probably the most common handle wood for axes in northern Scandinavia but that's only because other hardwoods are scarce or don't grow that far north. I speculate that the use of birch wood there is related to the use of a socket mounting on many scandinavian axes instead of a more simple eye. That's only me though, I've never come across this idea anywhere, but is is striking when you look at axes out of Scandinavia next to ones from down lower.

E.DB.
 
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Osage orange is a good wood at 49.22 lbs per cubic foot. I like the way the wood looks as it ages from a light yellow to amber brown. It is definitely a hard, heavy , dense wood. I have a walking staff that I've let cure for 2 years and I'm hoping it gets a little lighter since I've removed the bark and shaved it to shape. I'll probably walk it dry this somer and then put a clear finish on it in the fall. Osage has a tendency to split while drying. I stored this one on the rafters in my unheated garage. Another tip for drying Osage is to wrap it in plastic wrap to avoid splitting. I've seen some axes and tomahawks with Osage Orange as a handle. They looked great. Red Elm and Osage Orange are also great woods for traditional bows.
 
Ernest DuBois said:
In a world of globalized commodities, what is locally available isn't a limitation, in general.
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That any wood can now be imported to Europe is so glaringly obvious that I didn't think it required stating. I was talking about traditional handle making over history. The custom would have been to use what was available locally.
 
In Korea it's basically all Ash. They often use them pretty much round, often with the bark still on. Never seen one split or break really.
 
That's interesting to see. How do you mean with the bark on? Are they using branches like the adzes in Japan or just a section of the outer stem?

So, North America, Europe, Far east, ash, or hickory in the case of US, seems to be the wood of tradition. Now we have to get word from the Middle East and Central Asia to cover the Northern hemisphere. Isn't there someone who has been in Afghanistan and paying attention?

E. DB.
 
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