What did you rehang today?

garry3 said:
That's the thing right there "consistent flight". From what I have seen with lithic scatters and the few surviving quivers is that stone age man probably never quit making arrows. He always had shafts in various states of being finished I suspect. They were certainly not wasted hap hazard fashion that is for sure.
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To do some of the things they were capable of (taking birds in flight is common lore) would have required significant experience at both making and shooting of arrows. My dad was a European civilian WWII survivor and he forbade me from ever aspiring to own a gun. Over a period of 10 years in my youth I got pretty darn good with a bow and arrow, enough to be able to marvel at skills attributed to folks that used them generations before me.
 
They were well skilled at straightening arrow shafts with heat and special prying tools. And their fletching was well done, too. They could make an arrow that flew straight.

When I look at these local oceanspray shrubs the branches just scream 'ARROW' at you. And it's really quite hard wood. I wish it grew larger.
 
A 4lb Jersey with rounded ears/lugs. Just BLO.

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I got some input here on what to do with the palm swell and just decided to clean it up and leave the extra – feels good.

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Square_peg said:
They were well skilled at straightening arrow shafts with heat and special prying tools. And their fletching was well done, too. They could make an arrow that flew straight.

When I look at these local oceanspray shrubs the branches just scream 'ARROW' at you. And it's really quite hard wood. I wish it grew larger.
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Whats the dogwood like there SquarePeg? Big and straight enough for handles? I have limited experience with it but have often wondered about its suitability as a tool handle.

A quick Google search of oceanspray confirms your intuition as great arrow shaft material and its historic uses.
 
Here is a pretty good example of what we can find in wood that by all out ward appearances seems fine. I call it wind shake but in most cases its causes from other things and it probably has another name that I am not aware of. It will sure make a guy examine any color differences in an axe handle. I have found this kind of damage a lot in trees that have been pushed over by a bulldozer but I don't get the discoloration to warn me. It is nasty surprise and makes the wood structurally unsound. This came from the inner part of the tree, the outer had no problem at all.
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garry3 said:
Whats the dogwood like there SquarePeg? Big and straight enough for handles? I have limited experience with it but have often wondered about its suitability as a tool handle.

A quick Google search of oceanspray confirms your intuition as great arrow shaft material and its historic uses.
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I hadn't paid attention to dogwood, though it's common around here. It bloomed last month. I'll look into it.

Oceanspray shafts were straightened by heating them and then bending them with a shaft wrench.

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I've heard that serviceberry also makes nice arrow shafts. It's common here and should be common over there in Idaho, too.
 
Some place I have the companion to that shaft straightener. It is the shaft sander. Made from stone and worn smooth from sanding shafts and probably a means of controlling the spine. I am sure I will come across it in a month or two and share it with you. It was picked up on a remote ranch that my father managed.

I do have some experience with service berry. It is one of the woods that came to my mind that I would try before vine maple for an axe handle the others being dogwood and hawthorn. I don't know if you have hawthorn or not. The wild plumb is also one that might be worth looking into if you have it. I view these woods from my experience with them and I know full well that there can be a huge difference in strength from one tree to another and also general growing conditions in a region.
 
Dogwood is a tough, strong wood. The species was always used for gluts and mallets, and almost always made on sight, as it is very common here in Eastern Kentucky. Dogwood is tough enough to take repeated impact abuse, even when used green. I've always wanted to make a few handles from it to see how it works.
 
quinton said:
Dogwood is a tough, strong wood. The species was always used for gluts and mallets, and almost always made on sight, as it is very common here in Eastern Kentucky. Dogwood is tough enough to take repeated impact abuse, even when used green. I've always wanted to make a few handles from it to see how it works.
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The only dogwood that gets to any size (6 inch diameter) up this way is Alternate-leaved Dogwood. Even then I can only see it being used for round handles such as trade axes and tomahawks. But next time I knock one down I'll experiment with the wood.
 
300Six said:
The only dogwood that gets to any size (6 inch diameter) up this way is Alternate-leaved Dogwood. Even then I can only see it being used for round handles such as trade axes and tomahawks. But next time I knock one down I'll experiment with the wood.
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Our dogwoods rarely get much bigger. I did hear an old logger say he once cut one big enough for a tie.
 
Like quinton I made gluts, mauls and mallets from eastern dogwood. Very tough wood, and I did make maul and mallet handles from it. They worked good for mallet (hatchet) length hafts. But, they were not as good as hickory for the maul (axe) length hafts.
 
This is the mystery scout hatchet I got for my daughter. Unfortunately the Canadian Scout museum wasn't able to shed any more insight on it but it seems to be from somewhere between the teens to the thirties.


A regular hatchet handle would have been too big so I hung it on a 13" hickory ball peen hammer handle from Princess Auto, sanded it down so I could stain it blue like her other tools (her favorite color) and soaked it in Tung oil for a day. She would have been happy with anything since it's her first axe, but it is actually a very nice little tool. The steel is excellent and the balance is quite good. Fortunately, she lets me use her stuff :D.
 
This is a nice Flint Edge 3.5lb head on a straight 28" House Handle. I thinned the handle a little bit.




 
jblyttle said:
This is a nice Flint Edge 3.5lb head on a straight 28" House Handle. I thinned the handle a little bit.

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There is no need for an axe better than a Flint Edge. And there are very few that are better. The bit is as good as you could want. The only way to surpass it is with a hard poll, too.

I like a little longer handle on a 3.5 pound axe - at least 31". YMMV.
 
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