What do you put on your hammer handles?

[steveh]

What Dodge is talking about is called whiskering.Char the handle,lightly sand,then put on a finish.I like to use a beeswax,linseed oil and turpentine mixture when the handle is still warm from charring then rub in with a cloth.

[Frank Turley]

I don't understand the "better grip" people. I want a smooth haft, and I hold it fairly loosely. An old smith from Astoria, Oregon, shaved all of his handles with a piece of glass, no sandpaper, and that's what I do. You could also use a steel scraper. I think that lots of old time workers used this scraping method, woodworkers included.

A good finish is one half linseed oil and one half turpentine. The turpentine allows for a deeper penetration of the mixture. I apply it before putting on the hammer head.

I think that with sandpaper, no matter how fine, it raises tiny whiskers on the wood. Furthermore, there might be some small grits left on the wooden surface. Not to forget, there was a time in the U.S., when there was no sandpaper, for example, the colonial period and immediately following.

New store bought hafts, like 16" machinists', are always oversized for my hand. To me, it feels like holding the wrong end of a baseball bat. I take them down with the horse rasp/file, and finish by scraping. I definitely want to remove that shiny, clear coat that the manufacturers put on.

If making a haft from scratch, I work with an axe-split billet and use a hatchet for rough shaping, supporting the haft on a wooden stump. I then go to my draw knife, trying to avoid "tear out" by working with the grain.

[jimbob]

a lot of folks have noticed the whiskers from sanding ...have you ever tried using a bone to burnish the handle?

[Old N Rusty]

water, from slack tub, and sweat. no finish oils on my hammer handles, too slippy.

[Wind Chapman]

blood,sweat& tears work here....and occasional foul language

That is what I use here. I did once try olive oil, but the bear decided that he wanted the hammer more that night. I found the hammer head about a year after. (I leave my shop open because if it is closed, the bear will just wreck the doors to go exploring. This way he just pokes his head in and usually leaves.)

[ThomasPowers]

Dr Nitro-Express has a cure for bear problems!

I like my handles with a pronounced terminal bulb so they can slide in my hand but not "fall out".

[joshua.M]

What do you put on your hammer handles?

I have been putting my linseed oil mix and it seems to seal, smooth, and add extra grip.

I would like something darker though. Not that it should matter, but I like to look at a dark hammer handle. It just feels more used. Maybe it makes me feel like I have actually been using them.

LOL try ebony handles

[Forging Carver]

On 3/12/2011 at 9:05 AM, Frank Turley said:

I think that with sandpaper, no matter how fine, it raises tiny whiskers on the wood. Furthermore, there might be some small grits left on the wooden surface. Not to forget, there was a time in the U.S., when there was no sandpaper, for example, the colonial period and immediately following.

Actually you are completely correct. That's why they tell us woodcarvers to only sand your piece after you finish all carving. Little pieces of grit get left in the wood and it dulls your tools. I would imagine that if this happens, the grit left in the handle would also abraid your hands and feel uncomfortable over a short while. That's why I am happy I have a charred handle becuase most of those grits most likely got burned off during the torching process.

[Frosty]

Is anyone here going to be terribly surprised when I say I warm my handles up good and apply  . . . Wait for it! . . . Trewax.

I make hickory slab handles and after shaping and sanding I hot wax them, it provides a secure grip without holding  hard and doesn't cause blisters like the typical friction aids like tape, etc.

Frosty The Lucky.

 

[Daswulf]

On March 12, 2011 at 9:53 PM, steveh said:

What Dodge is talking about is called whiskering.Char the handle,lightly sand,then put on a finish.I like to use a beeswax,linseed oil and turpentine mixture when the handle is still warm from charring then rub in with a cloth.

I've done the same but took it to the buffing wheel. They turned out well after a light buffing. Smooth but not too smooth. 

[coldironkilz]

Thank you, Scott.    (KISS)

[Forging Carver]

Well I just finished oiling my hammer with linseed oil. I use paper towels to apply becuase it gives me a good excuse to start a fire . Anyways, I was wondering why it was taking over a day to completely dry. I then felt the hammer and it was a bit sticky which means I put too much oil on the handle. I wiped most off with a dry sponge, but it's still a bit tacky. That can be good or bad. I am sure eventually with use it will get better though. Just wanted to share. 

[Glenn]

When applying Boiled Linseed oil and Mineral Spirits to wooden handles, I use a section of old t-shirt  and new piece for each application. The first few coats apply it so it is drippy wet. Some sections of the wood absorb the mix quicker than others so every hour or it is reapplied. The next day it gets a new light coating 3-4 times or until it will not absorb any more of the mix. Then it is once a day for a week and once a week for a month, then once a month for a year.

If you need to use the handle, just wipe off any excess with a clean piece of t-shirt and put it to use.

 

[Quench.]

Forging Carver, if you used raw linseed oil it might takes weeks to dry.  Boiled linseed oil (BLO) will dry faster.  BLO is a misnomer in that it is not "boiled."  It contains metallic driers to speed the curing  (remember lead paint?  the lead was a drier).  Even so, I have found that BLO can take several days to dry, especially if applied in thicker coatings.

There is little reason to build up a pure oil finish.  It does not dry hard, and never will (you can verify this for yourself by taking a jar lid and putting a drop of BLO on it and letting it sit for however long you want.)  It does not provide good protection against moisture, or heat, or stains (if that is your intent), nor physical protection (scratch) for the wood.  There is lots of information on the web about this, but if you finish wood, I highly recommend a book by Bob Flexner: Understanding Wood Finishing.  It dispels the myths, gives clear explanations, and puts the science behind it all into language that most can understand.

I'm a newbie to blacksmithing, but not to wood finishing.  Though not an expert in the wood finished by any stretch, I've refinished a number of new and antique wood projects, and experimented with various finishes and application techniques.  I've been watching this thread with interest.  At one suggestion, I immediately went to the garage, and grabbed a cabinet scraper and went to work on the hammer handles, which had a varnish coating (varnishes DO dry hard, I'll get back to that.)  I like the feel better.  I think I will see what the handles look and feel like after use, before thinking about adding a finish again.

For something that gets used (vs. looked at), I wouldn't use an oil finish.  That said, oil finishes look really nice, and I have BLO in the garage for when I want that kind of finish.  But not when I need any protection at all.  Even shellac, which is not good for liquid water, provides more protection than oil, in that water vapor (think: humidity) will not pass through shellac, but it will go through linseed oil like it wasn't there.  So the linseed oil won't help with wood swelling and shrinking with the weather (if you care about that).

If you want some water and water vapor and stain protection (but still not much scratch protection), and you want it to dry hard and fast, you can use a "wiping varnish."  That is nothing more than straight varnish, thinned with mineral spirits.  I suggest wiping varnish because it can be applied very thin. That will help keep the natural look to the wood, but still give it moisture protection.  A few coats would probably be fine, but even one is better than oil.  The sheen won't be as flat as what you initially get from oil.

A cross between the oil and the varnish is an oil-varnish blend.  It takes longer to dry.  It's not as hard as varnish, not as soft as oil.  And there are resins...there are other types of finishes and no way I can go through them.  The manufacturers do their best to confuse everyone.  Examples, Formby's Tung Oil Finish (which I happen to like) contains very little Tung oil and no oil at all in its raw state; it's effectively a wiping varnish (thinned varnish--78% mineral spirits).  Minwax's Wipe on Poly is a thinned polyurethane, which is also similar, but at least it isn't disguised.

I've said enough.  Just don't want too many people to have sticky hammer handles, or even think they can oil the handles and use them the next day.

-Q

[Frank Turley]

One half linseed oil and one half turpentine put on and rubbed before applying the head. Linseed oil gives the nice finish and turpentine, deeper penetration of the mixture. A gunstock finisher told me about this mixture.

[JHCC]

Tried charring a handle for the first time last night, for re-hafting a 10lb sledgehammer head I picked up on Sunday. Very pleased with how well it came out, especially after a wipe with tung oil.

[Mark Ling]

New handle: apply BLO once a day for a week, ounce a week for a month, one a month for a year, and then once a year. I tend to oil mine several times a year though.

                                                            Littleblacksmith 

[Nick Fisher]

I like burning my handles with my forge fire from the side ports. While the handle is still worm apply beeswax works great for me. 

[petere76]

Rough shape, sand to finish, soak head in antifreeze, linseed oil and turpentine. If you don't use your tools for a while just wipe down the handles with the turn linseed oil mix. Easy maintenance. 

[rthibeau]

properly fit and wedge the handle, no need to soak in anything.  hickory handles properly sized need no additions, just use them.

 

[ThomasPowers]

unfortunately wood expands and contracts with changes in the ambient humidity so a hammer handle that was properly installed at 96% relative humidity WILL become loose at 7% relative humidity.  Furniture removed from King Tut's tomb still moves with humidity changes!  Properly setting the head on a handle and then soaking the end in linseed oil to displace any water in the wood works.

When I moved from humid Ohio to the Desert New Mexico I had to reset all my wood handled tools. I also learned to let store bought hammer handles dry a year before installing them. I use a small baking tray with about 3/8" linseed oil in it and place as many hammers as possible in it and let them sit a week or longer.  When I can see linseed oil seeping above the metal head in the handle then I remove them; wipe them down with a rag using the linseed oil on the underside of the heads to treat both the metal and the wooden handles and let dry.  The oily rag goes into the forge so no spontaneous combustion issues!

We get weeks with daytime humidities in the single digits---it's 8% right now!  I did a bit over 100 handled tools when I moved here. Now it's generally 1 tray a year for replacement handles and new fleamarket finds.

I DO NOT USE ANTIFREEZE AS IT'S AN ATTRACTIVE POISON FOR MAMMALS SO HAVING AN OPEN TRAY OF IT COULD RESULT IN PERSONAL INJURY IF MY DAUGHTER THE VETERINARIAN EVER FOUND OUT!  

[VainEnd84]

Inwould like to add something to this. Adding turpentine or any other thinning agent to BLO and the like actually does not make it penetrate the wood better, that is a myth. In terms of the chemistry, turpentine only makes BLO less viscos, is moves the molecules farther apart, it does not and can not shrink the size of the molecules. It is the size of the molecules that determines how deeply the oil can penetrate into the wood, the only ways that I know of to increase penetration is to allow for longer soak time, stick the wood in a tub of oil and let it sit, or to put it in a vacuum chamber and draw the air out of the wood, then releasing the vacuum and causing the oil to be pulled in. 

Hope this helps dispel any myths about turpentine making oil penetrate deeper/better.

[genesaika]

Since it was mentioned earlier in the thread, is walnut suitable for hammer and tool handles? 

[JHCC]

Reducing viscosity very much makes the finish penetrate deeper. Finish is absorbed into the wood by capillary action, which is governed by pore size and viscosity of the fluid, NOT by the size of the molecules (unless the molecules are bigger than the pores, which they aren’t). 

You can see this yourself by taking three identical pieces of wood (for example, ash) and standing them on end in shallow containers of pure BLO, pure turpentine, and a half-and-half mix. See which one soaks up more finish. 

6 minutes ago, genesaika said:

Since it was mentioned earlier in the thread, is walnut suitable for hammer and tool handles? 

There’s a whole thread about this somewhere on the forum. TL;DR: kinda, not really. Looks nice, not really strong enough. 

[HammerMonkey]

On 3/9/2011 at 8:31 AM, Winston said:

What do you put on your hammer handles?

....Hammer heads.

On edit:  awww, I just realized that somebody beat me to the punch (line). A day late and a dollar short... typical