March 30, 201313 yr I've just been cutting some handle stock! I needed some handle material for my sledge hammer, and I had a couple pieces set aside for hand hammers as well. I've got the logs blocked out, but the tracking tire on the band saw busted, and will take a couple hours to replace. So I just waxed the ends and oiled the faces and will finish cutting later. The stuff on the left is all maple and the last two pieces on the right are cherry.
March 31, 201313 yr I'm a big fan of fruit wood handles. They hold up pretty well. I have used plum on a couple of handles on the past, both going strong. Cherry should work pretty well too! Andy
April 1, 201313 yr Cherry is too soft for hammer handles IMO. Maple is too brittle IMO. Either makes fine handles for lighter duty tools like awls, files, screwdrivers, even carving knives. Pecan, hickory, osage orange, hackberry, elm and ash are all good hammer handle woods IMO. Forging hammers especially, are put to VERY HEAVY use and need both great strength and flexibility. They and axes are about as tough a challenge for handling as there is! My advice is to go with the super tough woods for handles on those type tools.
April 2, 201313 yr Author I have maple in my Brazeal rounding hammer that I forge everything with. It's still going strong and it's been in there since last march. That's on a 4.5 pound hammer. The handle on my 3.5 pound Brazeal hammer just broke about a week and a half ago, and it was the same wood cut at the same time. I'm not sure what is a "good life" out of a forging hammer handle really though. Maybe a year is good, maybe it's not. I'll let experience speak here.
April 2, 201313 yr In 32 years of hobby smithing I would say that the handle of my "favorite" hammer lasts about 5 years---if students are not allowed to use it
April 3, 201313 yr Reading this thread got me thinking of a company called Serengeti Gunstocks. They take a highly figured and very beautiful blank and re-saw it into slabs which they then laminate back together with a kevlar mesh weave laid in. The stocks are beautiful and don't look like lamination's at all. It just got me wondering if something similar could be done with hammer blanks. Obviously we've got fiberglass handled hammers- it seems possible to blend wood and fiberglass to good effect.
August 21, 20169 yr On 4/1/2013 at 8:19 AM, bigfootnampa said: Cherry is too soft for hammer handles IMO. Maple is too brittle IMO. Either makes fine handles for lighter duty tools like awls, files, screwdrivers, even carving knives. Pecan, hickory, osage orange, hackberry, elm and ash are all good hammer handle woods IMO. Forging hammers especially, are put to VERY HEAVY use and need both great strength and flexibility. They and axes are about as tough a challenge for handling as there is! My advice is to go with the super tough woods for handles on those type tools. I waqs curious & did some searching. Your posts are the only ones I've found to include hackberry regularly. I've a good supply, both at home & work. The 3-4"growth along fencelines & the railway out back seem to make great hammer handles. Even at work they have held up for several years of abuse without breaking. Wedged & oiled seems to do the trick for keeping them tight for the safety inspector too.
August 21, 20169 yr We just had a large ash tree taken down, and I saved a good bit for hammer handles. Nota bene: split, not sawn!
August 22, 20169 yr have you coated the ends????? I used to save any grungy candle wax I could get my hands on and heat it *carefully* and immerse the ends and let it boil out the water and seal the ends well.
August 22, 20169 yr If you boil green wood it will draw out the sap replacing it with fresh water then it only dries and doesn't check. It's the sap making pitch-like water barriers that causes uneven shrinking when it dries. Rinse the sap out and it won't check, boiling is much faster. Frosty The Lucky.
August 22, 20169 yr On August 21, 2016 at 9:48 AM, aessinus said: I waqs curious & did some searching. Your posts are the only ones I've found to include hackberry regularly. I've a good supply, both at home & work. The 3-4"growth along fencelines & the railway out back seem to make great hammer handles. Even at work they have held up for several years of abuse without breaking. Wedged & oiled seems to do the trick for keeping them tight for the safety inspector too. Hackberry is a tree of the elm family. Like all elms it has tough interlocking grain patterns. Resistance to splitting is high! It makes good strong furniture! I've seen office chairs made of it. I've read that hackberry root was the favored wood for froe clubs... back in the day. It is nearly the same density as red oak but much more flexible, less brittle. It is kind of spongey for such a dense wood and so it compresses nicely when wedged and tends to stay tight! IMO it is a a wood that is very under utilized... comparative to it's potential. Large straight trees are somewhat rare... but I have seen some beauties!
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.