Thrane wedges

jblyttle

jblyttle

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Sep 3, 2014
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So I placed an order for some Thrane wedges, as I was sick of making my own. If I can order quality wedges for a good price, why not? Anyway, they seem to have flat rate shipping so if I order a dozen wedges the shipping is $15. If I order 6 dozen the shipping is $15. I may have ordered a couple years worth, but the cost per wedge goes down. These ended up averaging 85 cents each shipped. I got 48 poplar, 12 black walnut and 12 locust. I'm happy with the what I got for the price. The only downside is that it took a month to get them. I wasn't in a super hurry but I could have been. Maybe it was the size of my order. No biggie but be aware. Also, they are not uniform in size and many are huge. The second picture has a standard axe wedge in the middle for scale. Some of them are like shingles, and not all thin enough at the tip to enter the kerf without putting onto the belt sander first. I will need to cut and reshape some of these which is a bummer, but the price makes up for it.

 
Looks good. I bought a dozen elm wedges back in January. It took about 2 weeks to get mine. Like you I got a couple extra large ones. I like that. Overall I was happy with what I got and I wont have to cut my own for a while.
 
Cool, I never thought about buying them like that.
Is there a consensus on what woods make a good wedge and why?
I have lots of scrap poplar, oak, and some walnut around. My intuition says that something with enough open grain to take oil and to mesh with the haft is important, rather than something tight and slick like maple.
 
daizee said:
Is there a consensus on what woods make a good wedge and why?
I have lots of scrap poplar, oak, and some walnut around. My intuition says that something with enough open grain to take oil and to mesh with the haft is important, rather than something tight and slick like maple.
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Not entirely. Most handle makers ship them with poplar wedges. These are on the soft side for a 'hardwood'. Some people claim that poplar's ability to compress helps it fit the eye and make a better wedge. There might be something to that. But there's more to poplar than just it's ability to compress. It also has a coarse grain (at least my local poplar, black cottonwood, does) which may help it to grab the eye and stay in the kerf.

I have some concern that a softer wood may continue to compress over time and come loose. I like using a harder hardwood that still has the coarse grain. Elm and London plane are what I have most experience with. They have both worked well for me. Black locust is also coarse grained, very hard and super rot resistant. I've got some drying and plan to try it our for wedges. I think it'll perform well. Black walnut makes an attractive wedge but the wood seems a little smooth and waxy to me. I don't think it would bite the kerf as well as some other woods. But I honestly haven't tried it.

With a softer wood like poplar I think there's some benefit in letting the wedge sit in the kerf overnight and giving it an extra tap in the morning before trimming it. Most wedges will benefit from this.
 
I only use diffuse porous wood for wedges. I don't know that it is correct or whatever. I do know it works for me with out issues.
 
Whiskey_Jim said:
Oversized it's a good thing
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Well, while I appreciate being able to split them up, part of my reason for ordering was to save myself the hassle of cutting my own and having to shape them on the sander. With many of these, I'll still have to shape them before they can be used.
 
Square_peg said:
Not entirely. Most handle makers ship them with poplar wedges. These are on the soft side for a 'hardwood'. Some people claim that poplar's ability to compress helps it fit the eye and make a better wedge. There might be something to that. But there's more to poplar than just it's ability to compress. It also has a coarse grain (at least my local poplar, black cottonwood, does) which may help it to grab the eye and stay in the kerf.
Click to expand...

I've done some homework on so-called 'poplar' wedges because the poplars I'm familiar with (Balsam, Aspen, Cottonwood) in eastern Canada are soft and brittle and aren't revered for much of anything except making packing crates, baseboards, moldings and trim. True poplars, genus Populus, are members of the willow family whereas Tulip Tree, genus Liriodendron, which is the one commercially referred to as "Yellow Poplar", is actually a member of the magnolia family. Where the moniker 'Yellow Poplar' comes from entirely escapes me. These are large (trunk diameters of 40 inches are supposed to be very common) straight and fast growing trees. Unlike true poplars the wood pores of tulip tree are small and tight which ought to contribute to minimal shrinkage, splitting and cracking. Tulip trees don't grow as far north as Ottawa so I've never had the opportunity to knock one down nor appraise the qualities of the wood.
Properties of wood and why they were chosen for specific end uses is quietly slipping into the mists of time and lost memory. But this much can be surmised: Yellow Poplar (also known as Whitewood, Tulip Tree, Tulip Poplar etc) is available in bountiful knot-free quantities (ie inexpensive to harvest and with least waste) is softer than hickory (no accidental factory-bulged axe heads) and has visibly appealing (businesses strive to offer tidy-looking products) void-filling and compressibility characteristics.
 
I don't have an opinion to add, but thought this might be interesting in this thread:

32405565914_7d1983d79b_c.jpg



Bob
 
I have an early Collins legitimus that came with the best handle I've ever seen. They used maple for the wedge and it was quite thin. The hang was still tight a hundred years after it was produced and I only removed the handle to use as a model for making my own handles. Not saying there is a "right" answer, but I have to think they knew what they were doing.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
rjdankert said:
I don't have an opinion to add, but thought this might be interesting in this thread:

32405565914_7d1983d79b_c.jpg



Bob
Click to expand...

Interesting that the date of this Plumb ad is midway through 1956, the same year they implemented the Permabond hang process. I don't imagine Plumb offered re-haft kits for very long once their epoxied axes, without wedges, were out there.
 
Every time I come back to this thread I just think why

All that money spent on wedges for the same thing I buy fit ¢20 a pop. I even but wedge kits at lowes because for $1.50 you get a wood wedge and two metal step wedges.
It doesn't add up for me.
 
jb hangs a LOT of axes. I'll be honest, I always have this feeling of "hey, I'm almost done" when the handle is fit but then I realize .... I still gotta make the damn wedge. And I hang nowhere near as many. He got wood choices, probably the grain orientation he prefers and all in one shot. I don't find any useful commercially available wedges near me which may also be the case for him. Dunno.
 
I'm simply sick of making them, and the only other options are paying $2 each at the hardware store or ordering some from House. I've had House wedges with mold and worm holes so I'm not ordering those. So that left this source which came recommended. I think they were a good value.
 
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