Opinion on non-traditional wood for axe handle

blasto9000

blasto9000

Joined
Jan 31, 2014
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Hi guys,

Right now I have a few handles from House and have been very satisfied with them. I really like their 20-inch "House" and "Fallers" handles.

Anyway, I have a few axe heads incoming. Instead of going the usual House route I've been thinking about carving one or more handles from scratch. (If for nothing else then to make a mess in the workshop, which I haven't done in a while.)

My local Rockler carries a good selection of hardwood lumber. Any comments on selecting one of these woods to make into axe handles? How would they perform compared to more traditional wood (hickory, ash)?

I realize that's a subjective question, which is why I'm looking for "comments."

Cedar (weird one I know; just throwing it out there anyway)
Walnut (straight grain)
Maple (curly or straight grain)
Cherry (curly or straight grain)
Oak (white, red)
...they even have laminated bamboo in dimensional lumber sizes...

My axes are general-purpose users. They see a lot of light duty around the shop. Seriously, for 10 minutes of chopping, I've probably spent an hour sharpening and another 15 minutes just caressing them. ;-) I wouldn't be above sacrificing some strength and longevity for the look of a curly maple or cherry handle either.

FYI, when I on the road I'll only take one axe (usually a double bit) for limbing, bucking, and splitting dead hardwood.

For my daily commute I keep a single-bit in the trunk as a "just in case" tool.
 
There are a lot of folks on this forum who will be able to answer this better than me; however, I would avoid cedar (not very strong, or elastic, and probably too light) and give preference to white oak over red, and sugar maple over any other maple. I know people on the forum have used cherry and I think walnut too.

Curious to see what those more knowledgeable say.
 
I'll agree that cedar is not good handle material. It's too soft. I have made hatchet handles from mahogany, oak, and one from mahogany and oak that have thus far worked fine.
 
Forget about any and all softwoods except maybe Douglas Fir (if you really want to experiment). Cherry is soft and likely too flexible. Walnut is not very strong. Hard Maple (which mostly means Sugar Maple) is successfully being used for making baseball bats these days so ought to be OK. White Oak and American Elm are durable, hard and resilient and a grand handle idea but you'll have a really hard time finding a straight-grained and proper thickness blank that has no checks or splits. White Ash is cheap strong and durable but comes apart (shears/splits) way too easy. Likely the reason Hickory is so universally popular is consistent good properties, relative abundance and decent high yields of knot-free straight grained material which all serve to keep the price and availability attractive.
 
I want to see one made of the bamboo. That would be cool!

Have a link to the lumber size?
 
Wow, thank you all for the replies! You have provided me plenty of food for thought... as if my brain wasn't "full" already.

Comments about finding a homogeneous, straight-grained blank are duly noted. I think I'm most interested in experimenting with oak, but I'd be happy to just start making chips on just about anything... and BTW... until today, I didn't know cedar was a softwood. After reading the replies I had to look it up. Ha.

Additional questions you guys have brought to mind:

1. Do the "fancy" and/or "curly" varities of wood differ appreciably in strength, rigidity, and carvability compared to straight-grained versions?

2. Are there any non-standard dangers to having an oak handle? For example, if it breaks due to a hard over-strike, is it more likely to send shrapnel than other woods?

FWIW, most of my experience in "carving" is in the precision machining arena. For metals, even though there are detailed spec sheets regarding strength, elasticity, etc etc etc., I still love to experiment with non-standard materials. Mechanical performance on paper and mechanical performance in the field are barely related. (Things like galvanic compatibility and corrosive environments notwithstanding -- for that, I have to rely on the specs.) Machining an axe head from solid bar stock has been on my bucket list for a few years now.

For woodworking, my main tools are a carpenter's hatchet, bandsaw, spokeshave, and cabinet scraper. Though I suppose I could use my milling machine and lathe on wood if I had to.

SamuraiDave said:
I want to see one made of the bamboo. That would be cool!

Have a link to the lumber size?
Click to expand...

Here's the link to Rockler's online lumber selection, but what they carry in the stores differs quite a bit. They have a lot of odd sizes and species (at least at my store, the one in Pasadena) that aren't listed.
http://www.rockler.com/wood/domestic-lumber

I suspect the bamboo is the same thing as bamboo flooring. I installed about 1,500 sq. ft. of bamboo flooring some years ago. It smells really nice, easy to work with, but dents easily.
 
It will be harder to carve curly wood with hand tools like a spokeshave. The blade will want to follow the grain which is serpentine through the wood. It will make a beautiful handle though. I'm not sure but maybe even stronger than a straight grain handle. I've seen both oak and maple handles on old axes I've found over the years since hickory isn't found here.
 
Here's my thoughts on what you need o consider when picking material. 1) how hard it is. Cedar is vey strong for it's weight but you can crease it with your fingernail. If the wood is too soft it will crush inside the eye under wear and become loose. 2) basic ductile strength; here meaning will it break across grain under the force of a blow. 3) How easy does it split? Here's where a wood with gnarly grain might excel. The longer and thinner you make your handle the better the wood you choose will have to perform. A hatchet or hawk handle doesn't experience the same stress as a 36" axe handle.

As mentioned above I've used mahogany and red oak, though not necessarily because they're the best but because they were free in the form of old pallets.
 
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Laminated Bamboo is supposed to be quite strong but I suspect it will be difficult to 'work' and then there is also the question of how well the laminating adhesive and pieces and layers will hold up in the outdoors. I've never seen any type of laminated wood handles used for striking tools. Red Oak is likely going to be the cheapest and easiest for you to get hold of with regards to straight grain/good grain orientation and no knots; nothing inherently wrong with that material except that it's brittle (relatively speaking), very porous and readily decays when damp. Decorative wood with lots of figure (bird's eye/curly maple etc) is often at the expense of strength; if ever you buy an expensive AAA-figured piece of Walnut for a gunstock you'll notice that the fabricator will caution you against heavy recoil and/or field use and will try to talk you into AA-grade which is not quite as pretty but will hold up much better. Furniture-grade (straight grain and therefore plain-looking) is what is used to stock ordinary rifles and shotguns. If your axe doesn't really get heavy use and isn't left outdoors and doesn't have a heavy or splitting head and the handle is going to be in and around 24 inches then maybe you do want to try out one of the lesser desirable (from a strength/durability standpoint) woods. One nice thing about walnut and cherry is they're easy to work and your baby will really stand out when done.
 
Here's a hatchet handle I made from red oak and mahogany, laminated with solid brass pins.



 
GaryPogueCustomKnife said:
Thats one pretty handle, how well does it stand up to hard use?
Click to expand...

I laminated a block where I deliberately offset the grain of each piece to reduce the chance of a split and carved down from that. The "pins" are brass bolts and the holes they are set (screwed actually) in were slightly smaller than the bolt so the threads engaged the wood. The handle was built to be as tough as I could make from the scrap wood I had to use. This one has a full size 3 1/2 axe head hung (minus some material I removed to give it a beard) and I use it for kindling and making cordwood smaller for my stove and the head has stayed tight and the handle shows no cracks or signs of separation.

A true test of the durability of this layout would be to make a full size axe handle to try out. I plan on doing this in the next year or so depending upon when I can find another mahogany pallet.

edit: here's the pretty one I made as a gift, maple pins in this one:





 
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I've always wondered why there are not more laminated handles in the arena of Tools.
One would think that a nice figured handle on a quality Hammer, or Axe, would be something folks would cherish.

Who here doesn't have an old hammer that has sentimental value to them?

Shoot, I have a old fiberglass and rubber handled Stanley brand Hammer that brings back lots of memories from when I used to build houses in Juarez Mexico on mission trips.
The rubber coated portion of the Fiberglass handle is almost rubbed smooth from the pebble texture it once had, and the finish is gouged and scratched with the "Stanley" etch barely recognizable.

Lots of sentimentality in tools.
 
At the end of the day I know that a lamination is more vulnerable to temp and moisture variations than a solid piece. My hatchet there lives indoors and will probably last me as long as I'll ever need it but if I left it out on the woodpile or took it on the trail it might have issues. If the glue or epoxy you used starts to fail, from age, UV, etc. and then one layer wants to warp left while the next wants to go right it's gonna come apart. At least with solid wood the whole piece warps together and you still have a handle.
 
I am thinking there is a reason why hickory has been used for many years, not much reason to change a winning combination. I do have an axe with an "unbreakable" handle that is a fiberglass core "plastic" coated I have intentionally missed with the head to see just how unbreakable it really is. It's still in one piece. I won't even guess how many hickory sledgehammer handles were broken at my shop being used for their intended purpose. I took all the broken handles and cut the splintered portion off for walking sticks for whoever wanted one.
 
Many European tool makers use hardwoods other than Hickory, and Yellow Birch and Red Beech are common substitutes. There is no reason at all why professionals and hobbyists can't make good use out of whatever is available locally. I used to wonder why you couldn't get tool&furniture quality Beech wood in n. America (which should be plenty strong and plenty hard) until my local lumber mill owner told me the darned stuff doesn't 'kiln-dry' and that even 'air-dry' Beech is notorious for radial checking and splitting. So; mills in n. America don't bother to process any! He had a big smile on his face when he said; "easy to decide in a bush lot what's to become lumber and what's destined for firewood just by looking at the bark". The same fellow didn't have the time of day for Ironwood (Hop Hornbeam) either but did cheerfully admit it was easily "the" very best cordwood.
 
See, I shouldn't have wandered into this thread. Now I want to make another mahogany laminate and a purpleheart as well.
 
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