Toasted Hickory

It's attractive and probably fine for a hatchet but I am not a fan of fire hardening wood. It weakens it too much. It was a trick used by handle makers to make their lowest grade hickory handles look snazzy and hopefully sell.

On another website I see guys charring the hell out of perfectly good hickory. They just don't realize the damage they're doing.

https://arstechnica.com/science/201...ardened-spears-arent-as-badass-as-we-thought/
 
Square_peg said:
It's attractive and probably fine for a hatchet but I am not a fan of fire hardening wood. It weakens it too much. It was a trick used by handle makers to make their lowest grade hickory handles look snazzy and hopefully sell.

On another website I see guys charring the hell out of perfectly good hickory. They just don't realize the damage they're doing.
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I'd never given this any thought (nor was ever tempted to buy) but you're right that it would disguise heartwood colours, blemishes and small knots.
 
I don't mind the look of VERY lightly toasted wood although I would not do it myself. Just enough to start to darken the grain lines maybe looks ok. But I don't go for the blackened/charred look.

I figure the wood will darken up nicely with normal use. Natural vs. Forced patina.
 
Not sure how much damage they are doing by scorching the outside fibers. Its for sure not helping though. Interestingly Link handles are charging for that that flame hardened finish as that is the most expensive handle in their line.
 
garry3 said:
Not sure how much damage they are doing by scorching the outside fibers. Its for sure not helping though. Interestingly Link handles are charging for that that flame hardened finish as that is the most expensive handle in their line.
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The 'flavour of the month' fashion component of private industry knows no bounds. Which can somewhat be likened to liberated ladies cheerfully forking over $100 more to have the knees of their brand-spanking new jeans already holed.
 
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