i second phil on the spotty gum, either you lot are exporting inferior handles., or hickory is not all it is cracked up to be, in my experience.

fyi: here is a chart that my help out many as good for your use or not.i found it looking for the best wood for a bo for karate and kama handles. 

Edited October 1, 20169 yr by BLACKDRAGON
added info

On 02/10/2012 at 4:18 PM, forgemaster said:

The best handles in Oz were/are made of spotted gum. Now I know that there are a lot of places in the world that have imported our eucalypts and some of them are now classed as noxious weeds by some countries. Is it possible to source some spotted gum, we have had no problems with it, straight grained, smooth, free from most defects, hard as blazes, we reckon its' equal to hickory.

Phil

Yeah, I reckon its hard to beat spotted gum. Ended up with some hickory handles a couple of years back when the Oz dollar was back where it should be against the greenback and we got a wave of tools in to the country from the US. Cant say I thought they were any better than the gum. Only issue was they had soem sort of black stain / wash painted on them

Replaced the handle on a small ball pein the other day, all I could find in the small shaft size was some dodgy hardwood from Brazil in the ready made handle section of the local hardware store. Found 1 handle out of the 10 on display with no knots. Rasped to shape and sanded ok, but time will tell quality wise I suppose.

How apt that you've revived this thread, I've found myself with a number of hammers to reshaft and have, from a recent building project, some left over timber. It's from pallets (mentioned above) and I've identified it as ash. I attempted to rip it down today, orienting the grain to achieve best results only to find my hand saw in need of sharpening.....guess what I've just finished doing at 9:30pm! I have managed to salvage two old hicory shafts to be reshaped for the smaller hammers.

Do we know what the scale of measurement on the left of the graph refers to?

As regards the gum, I aquired a large eucalyprus tree hen it was felled a few years back and have been seasoning it ever since....unfortunately most of it was cut too short to be usefull for handles, and most of what was long enough had more twists than a disneyland rollercoaster, presumably not a 'spotted' gum! But If I can find any usefull sections I may well give it a try.

Blackdragon,

A great chart with very useful information. Thanks for posting it. Where did you get that chart? Perhaps there is more valuable information from that source.

Thanks.

SLAG.

B. T. W.   the "new" wood is preferable to heart wood for handles. It is more flexible, bends much more easily and is more resilient.

My supply of rough ash billets, split from the tree we took down this summer and waiting to be made into hammer handles:

I found the source of the chart with a reverse image search, http://www.aikiweb.com/weapons/goedkoop1.html. It looks like he's hitting the wood with directly with another piece of wood, which is not exactly analogous to the type of stress it would see when used as a tool handle.

Navasky,

Thank you for supplying the reference.

SLAG.

On hammers over 2.5#, I prefer a thick beefy handle.  As such, the easiest way for me to get them is to buy a sledgehammer handle at the hardware store and whittle it down to my preferred shape.  I can get three good handles from one sledge handle, so it's pretty dang economical.

I'd like to try some Spotted Gum one of these days just to see what it's like.  

The most important thing in handle making is to orient the grain properly.  I see so many people ignoring the grain direction, or shaping the handle so there's a ton of run-out at the neck.  Never have understood that!

I find to big a handle leads to fatigue and poor grip, tho cutting down sledge handles (or shovels, hoes etc.) is good for me as I end up taking a rasp to them anyway. 

2 hours ago, Charles R. Stevens said:

I find to big a handle leads to fatigue and poor grip, tho cutting down sledge handles (or shovels, hoes etc.) is good for me as I end up taking a rasp to them anyway. 

You and me both Brother, too large a handle kills me. I like my hickory slab handles but I make them to fit MY hand from 5/4" clear hickory from the local hardwood supplier. He supplies cabinet makers and us blacksmiths. If I give him a call a couple days in advance he'll set a board aside for me or tell me when the next shipment is coming it. He also mills lumber. Great guy I send him any business I can.

Frosty The Lucky.

Spotted gum and hickory seems to be common for hammer handles in Australia.

Store bought hammers I usually get a rasp and file em down to my desired shape for my hand. 

I was given some poplar today, and was told that "oh, thats a hard wood and will make excellent handles, and also takes a stain well." Now, I thought that Poplar was a soft wood? also, how good will it make a knife handle? is Poplar desirable for anything else?

                                                                                                                           Littleblacksmith 

Poplar is soft, we used to make decent beehives boxes with it, Probably not very good for handles even when there are hundreds of varieties of poplars if you include the commercial clones and they vary in hardness. 

if you want to experiment with different wood for handles, try Privet. Particularly the one with large shiny leaf, called Ligustrum lucidum makes great handles. Ligustrum sinense is better but hard to find a large enough branch. 

On September 24, 2012 at 8:56 PM, Dogsoldat said:

any wood thats local that makes a good bow will typically make good hammer handles. theres no reason that ash won't work well for you. I've been making my handles out of black locust that I had collected for my other hobby. I just cut down a 6-8" dia tree and split into billets. Carve out a handle shaped object with drawknife and rasp.

Right on. Finding the right kind of wood is as simple as making it into a bow, and once you make sure it shoots well, cut it up and use it for hammer handles!

Poplar is soft. It won't make a good handle and it also takes stain very poorly. Most poplar furniture is painted, not stained. 

Good Morning,

Old Palletts (around here) use Western Maple. Broken Palletts make lots of Handles.

I trim them on a table saw and radius them on my Metal Lathe. Make them so they suite you, nobody else.

Neil

The only thing that I have found with pallets is the amount of nail holes. Or are they not a problem?

                                                                                                                                Littleblacksmith

Osage orange makes pretty handles and as mentioned it's a famed bow wood---bois d'arc  AKA bodark

Poplar makes nice sheathe cores as it's easy to work and light.

4 hours ago, ThomasPowers said:

Osage orange makes pretty handles and as mentioned it's a famed bow wood---bois d'arc  AKA bodark

Plenty of that around here! its a good wood once you get past the thorns!

                                                                                                                            Littleblacksmith

I prefer to use the nicely air dried 80 year old fence post....

the shavings and sawdust can be used for dying.

I once attempted to use a large tree base from a downed Pecan tree in the area for an anvil stump and handles.  Pecan is pretty prolific in these parts.  Even with Anchorseal on the ends, it still checked badly.  Perhaps it wasn't applied in near enough time.  

Ede

I am not an arborist but pecan harvested in KS and MO is tough.  Once dry ours is miserable to cut or split.  The grain twists back into itself like our beloved hedge.  I have used both for handles and repair pieces.  Both woods are prone to splits and checks.  Thomas is correct. An old fence post is great.  If you have a lot of pecan and you can "protect" it go out after all the leaves are off and "ring" the tree.  Chain saw or chisel cut to the white wood in a ring at the base. This will kill the tree.  Then leave it for a year or two standing.  Bring some extra chains when you go back to process.  You'll be surprised how much more useable lumber you have.  I prefer our golden hedge for the color and grain.  Pecan in the heartland is mainly white.  Enjoy.  A cup of coffee and a twenty two in the pecan grove...not gona get much better!

Papy

Thanks for that, 51 Papy,  I will have to try that technique!

 

One thing poplar is used a lot for is soundboards in pianos (spruce too).