Oak, Ash or Hickory?

I agree with most of your post G-Pig but I will take exception to this one comment.

G-pig said:
Since I'm already biased towards not over cutting and generally exploiting any species of tree in general, the downward trend in quality of hickory stock just adds to the head shaking that I would be doing even if there were no such problems.
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I find plenty of high quality hickory available. Second growth material is best for handles and there's plenty of it. I think the problem lies in that the handle makers do not take care to make the best they could from what's available. I also think that they sacrifice quality by trying to get too many handles out of a given piece of stock.

Among the current big three handle makers in America each has their flaws. House Handle does the best job of shaping their handles but they still end up with many handles that are warped or have crappy grains. O.P. Link makes straight handles but they also often have crappy grains and do a sloppy job of cutting the kerfs. They'd be better off if they didn't even bother cutting a kerf. I mean, if you can re-handle an axe then you can probably cut a straight kerf. Tennessee Hickory has the best wood. Their stuff is always straight and even the handles with less than great grain alignment at least don't have run out. But their handles are all fat like a freakin' baseball bat. You have to remove at least 25% of the wood before you get a good handle. The only currently produced axe handles that qualify as excellent are those on Council's Velvi-cut line. Good shape. Good wood.

I guess that's why I value a good vintage handle. It's just so hard to get a great handle unless you do a lot of the work yourself. And a very well made handle from a lesser wood than hickory still beats a poorly made handle of the finest hickory.
 
Checking begins almost at once, (here within an hour of trimming the end grain), and on a sunny day when the wind is blowing can be extreme. Important to always compensate by cutting extra length.

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A cross section, ( probably of pine but the picture is only for an example), showing where a birch axe handle would be taken from in the stem as they were done at one time in Sweden.

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E.DB.
 
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If I remember correctly, Swedes used to wound birch trees of a certain age to encourage them to grow like that. They would then harvest the trees for axe handles at a later date.
 
Square_peg said:
I agree with most of your post G-Pig but I will take exception to this one comment.



I find plenty of high quality hickory available. Second growth material is best for handles and there's plenty of it. I think the problem lies in that the handle makers do not take care to make the best they could from what's available. I also think that they sacrifice quality by trying to get too many handles out of a given piece of stock.

Among the current big three handle makers in America each has their flaws. House Handle does the best job of shaping their handles but they still end up with many handles that are warped or have crappy grains. O.P. Link makes straight handles but they also often have crappy grains and do a sloppy job of cutting the kerfs. They'd be better off if they didn't even bother cutting a kerf. I mean, if you can re-handle an axe then you can probably cut a straight kerf. Tennessee Hickory has the best wood. Their stuff is always straight and even the handles with less than great grain alignment at least don't have run out. But their handles are all fat like a freakin' baseball bat. You have to remove at least 25% of the wood before you get a good handle. The only currently produced axe handles that qualify as excellent are those on Council's Velvi-cut line. Good shape. Good wood.

I guess that's why I value a good vintage handle. It's just so hard to get a great handle unless you do a lot of the work yourself. And a very well made handle from a lesser wood than hickory still beats a poorly made handle of the finest hickory.
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Maybe its safer to say that since, according to todays "experts", a good handle is made of Hickory (period), poorer quality hickory is seeping into the supply. Either way, there are more bad handles now than ever, and bad in many different facets.

For all of my needs, It's not only more convivial and responsible, but its easier for me to make my own handles. A handle can (and almost always needs to) be thinned. However, I cant change the shape of a handle with a heavy grip end curve and no offset at the throw. I cant take 2-4" off the end to bring it to an ideal length, without ruining the flow of the handle, cutting off the swell, etc.
 
My local stores only carry 36" handles. It's nice to be able to pick thru a bunch and find a nice one. But to get anything shorter you have to order online and let someone else choose for you. I will sometimes find nice vintage handles in the 33" to 34-1/2" range. I don't find those online. For bucking 33" suits me just fine. 36" is nice for felling or splitting but causes me to choke up for bucking or to work from a less than advantageous posture.
 
I have what was originally a 36" that ended up being 34" after fitting. Leaving a lot of shoulder to work with does allow more flexibility.
 
Experts, this is a good one. Not that it absolves the mindless consumer of responsibility. But you seemed to have worked it out, Eric, one way or another seen through the mist. What's not working for you? Or is it the threat to the species existence that has you on the war path, or bad business ethics?

E.DB.
 
Ernest DuBois said:
Experts, this is a good one. Not that it absolves the mindless consumer of responsibility. But you seemed to have worked it out, Eric, one way or another seen through the mist. What's not working for you? Or is it the threat to the species existence that has you on the war path, or bad business ethics?

E.DB.
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No, neither. Business ethics is somewhat of an oxymoron in my mind, and extinction of hickory is not quite on my radar yet (large scale alteration of ecosystems is different, and is already beyond the point of correction anyway). All I'm advocating is a more sane, tight, approach to simple tools, with stack-able functions in context with a sane, closed(er) loop, regenerative way of living. There was plenty of superfluous speculation in my original write up-- I thought it would be good tinder to catch the spark.

I've "worked out" next to nothing. No revelations here. Birch is weaker than Hickory. I have no issue with Hickory as a handle material-- none. I only believe in making use of what you can. Once it's not longer possible to borrow time saving measures from the future, I think it might just come in handy...
 
So, bad business ethics was a redundancy? Hum, I think so.
You have worked out that Hickory is stronger than Birch. Maybe that explains why the Swedes are so smitten, still I find it a shame that while I can readily get my hands on a nice genuinely Swedish made axe...I stop now for one thing because this web site does not function at all so well just now, maybe later.

E.DB.
 
G-pig said:
Once it's not longer possible to borrow time saving measures from the future, I think it might just come in handy...
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That is one of the best thoughts I've seen expressed on the internet.
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It's nice to know that another person realizes what's going on.
 
I would like to add some historic and ethnographic angle to the topic.

As you may know, hickory is not native to Europe (at least since the ice age), and the introduced hickories do not thrive there.
The traditional axe and hammer handles were made of ash, oak, European hornbeam in Western Europe, birch in the Nordic countries and Russia, and beech or oak in Central- and South-Eastern Europe. Birch is still widely used in Russia for that purpose.

In Hungary, Romania or Bulgaria even nowadays the most common handle material sold for striking tools is beech (Fagus sylvatica). You can also find black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia), which, like hickory, is also of North-American origin, but unlike hickory, has adapted very well to its new European home. In fact, black locust (called ‘acacia’ in most European countries) is a very fine handle wood.

At first glance, beech seems to be a poor choice for handles, but having used axes, hammers and adzes handled with beechwood quite a bit myself I can attest that it does the job well.
Beech is one of the most common broadleaf trees in Europe, in some places it is the predominant hardwood species, so no wonder people tried it out for all kind of purposes, and it is still used for the purposes where it gave satisfaction. If ash was scarce, and oak was used for other purposes (building, cooperage), beech naturally filled the niche for handle wood.
Is hickory a tougher wood? Definitely. But beech wood is tough enough to do the job, and besides it finishes and wears to a very smooth surface.

My point is, that there are many places even in Europe, where both traditions and business considerations make hickory an expensive and/or exotic choice for handles.

On the other hand, today hickory is used mainly as flooring or furniture (e.g. cabinet) material rather, than a source for tool handles, and the European market is increasingly buying hickory for those purposes. In the same time Europe is exporting its own locally grown beech for exactly the same uses.

That just shows that sustainability and ethical considerations are very minor factors in business decisions.
 
littleknife said:
At first glance, beech seems to be a poor choice for handles, but having used axes, hammers and adzes handled with beechwood quite a bit myself I can attest that it does the job well.
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There is a piece of beech in the shop that I have been eyeing for some time now and thought it would make a good haft. Thanks for the info
littleknife.
 
CedarEater said:
There is a piece of beech in the shop that I have been eyeing for some time now and thought it would make a good haft. Thanks for the info
littleknife.
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You are welcome, CedarEater.
The beechwood in question was European beech though, not the North-American one (Fagus grandifolia). I have read that they are similar in their mechanical properties.
Beechwood moves a lot with changes in humidity, so I would try to seal the wood somehow. I have had hammer handles of beech loosening and cracking in the eye after they dried out too much.
I have seen the same thing in US hardware stores on brand new hatchets and axes with handles made of hickory too, so this is not a problem limited to beechwood only. However, I don’t know if the methods used to seal hickory are optimal for beechwood too.
 
Beech attracts the worm like no other wood I know. Still it is widely used in almost all tools, I think because of its deadly lack of character.

E.DB.

Just adding this on the same posting:
Beech wood handle on a little axe used practically every day to cut ice out of the rain barrel. Some bug damage but still good enough.
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Ernest DuBois said:
Beech attracts the worm like no other wood I know. Still it is widely used in almost all tools, I think because of its deadly lack of character.
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IMHO the reason beechwood is so widely used for tool handles (striking and non-striking alike) is that it is abundant (easy to get replacement), has sufficient strength propetries, could be easily shaped with both hand and machine tools, it is great for turning (important aspect for tool handles), finishes & wears smooth without the need of further re-finishing while in use (no fuzz, raised grain, splinters), but most importantly, it’s cheap.

For the timbers of modern Europe & the woodworking needs of most Europeans, beech was, and still is more than sufficient, while in many places it was also the best available handle wood.

Beech indeed is very susceptible to attack by common furniture beetle and longhorn beetle, but it is easy to replace.

The reasons why beechwood was and still is so widely used in Europe for tool handles are therefore practical and economical rather than being an ideal choice.
 
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Ash, hickory, robinia, oak, elm: Examples of ring porous woods with qualities including strength, resilience, shock resistance with robinia and oak having particular durability characteristics.
Beech, maple, birch, rowan: A few examples of diffuse porous woods characterized by lack of resilience, low to moderate strength, brittleness. All three are non-durable woods meaning subject to decay under less that ideal conditions.

E.DB.
 
Ernest DuBois said:
Ash, hickory, robinia, oak, elm: Examples of ring porous woods with qualities including strength, resilience, shock resistance with robinia and oak having particular durability characteristics.
Beech, maple, birch, rowan: A few examples of diffuse porous woods characterized by lack of resilience, low to moderate strength, brittleness. All three are non-durable woods meaning subject to decay under less that ideal conditions.

E.DB.
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Wood ‘strength’ in the past was defined as the potential of the given wood to be used for structural elements in buildings, ships, big constructions/machinery. For the last century, a set of different mechanical parameters are defined rather, which helps optimize use for specific tasks.
For example (Eurasian) birch species are typically very strong in tension but weak in compression: birch was used as a core wood in the composite bows the Mongols of Genghis Khan employed with great success to create one of the biggest land empires in history.
Beech was a preferred lance wood of the Cossacks and also of the Spanish cavalry in the 19th century, but is a notoriously poor choice for permanent buildings (and is just fine for scaffolding).
Birch, beech and maple were all used with success as axe handle wood. Native Americans used maple (sugar maple) for war clubs.
None of these woods are good for creating building structures.

Beech is quite prone to decay in contact with soil, but immersed in water, it is remarkably durable: it was used for waterwheels, as well as for submerged planks on ships, if oak was not available, and was found to be as durable as oak for that purpose (neither one resists marine borers).
While white oaks are quite durable regarding decay, red oaks in general are not.

Also, there is quite a range in strength properties depending on species: some ash (North American white ash), oak (North American red oak), maple (sugar maple) and birch (yellow birch and also Russian species) score high in many strength properties, other species of the same respective groups are relatively weak.

Even within the same species, there could be a wide variation between the individual trees, depending on specific local varieties, climate, soil etc., as seen with the hickories in North-America: the Southern trees have wider growth rings and are considered to be stronger than the Northern ones.

In short, given the choice, a good piece of hickory is likely to give superior axe handle compared to ash, oak, maple , birch or beech.
However, if hickory is not available, the other, historically attested axe handle woods are still useable.
To be successful, one should make the best use of the resources at hand. :)
It does not hurt though to gain advantage by expanding the available choices either.:D
 
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