How to dry wood for tool handles

[SpankySmith]

Question for someone who knows about handles....due to some recent storm damage I'm now flush with pecan wood. Only thing I know about pecan is that it's supposed to be a very hard wood. How long must newly felled wood dry out, is there a practical way to speed the process along, or will our alabama scorching hot sun do it quickly enough? Does pecan make a good handle (and btw, I'm talking about garden tools, not knives). Thanks for any help. We had a 100 degree heat index here already yesterday...many more days of that and I think all my pecan will be dried out!

[John McPherson]

The best way to dry wood is S-L-O-W-L-Y. If you dry it fast it will check and crack and be brittle. Kiln drying quality wood is like microwaving a filet mignon.

 

Don't split it. Leave the bark on, paint or seal the cut ends, and loosely stack it off the ground in a barn or loft with ventilation.Leave it for a few years. No, really! 5 to ten years is about right.

 

The best handles are split out along the grain, not sawn like boards. They can then be turned on a lathe or shaped with a drawknife and rasps.

[njanvilman]

To add to the above:  If you cut it to rough lengths, seal the end grain with enamel paint, glue, or a commercial end grain sealer.  Keep the logs out of the sun and in an unheated place.  I usually split the logs in half to relieve some of the drying stresses.  It seems to reduce splitting.

[bigfootnampa]

Actually I WOULD recommend that you split it ASAP!  The stresses of shrinkage while drying are not manageable in large sections of most woods ( pecan included)!  So seal ends with paint, split to reasonable sized billets, stack with spacers between layers and a little space between each billet (to allow airflow on all sides).  If you want to make some handles right away, go right ahead!  small handles can be dried in the microwave in minutes!  longer handles will have to sun dry a bit but all will dry faster once they have been shaved to rough sizes!  BTW it is MUCH easier to shave green woods!  The moisture lubricates the shaving and makes the work FUN!

 

Pecan is one of my favorite handle woods!!!!  Pecan is in the Hickory family and often lumbered as Hickory or "Pecan-Hickory".   It is an IDEAL wood for strong handles!!!  

[bigfootnampa]

Well I guess I must be under some sort of restricted access... my posts won't post!  Seems quite STRANGE!!!  I have been here for years with no such problems!

[Rashelle]

You could also in addition to what bigfoot said. Cut to rough over size, seal ends, build a box, stack inside box with a small light bulb inside and a small fan. The light bulb heats and the fan provides airlflow. You are in effect kiln drying on a small scale at home. Just don't overdry too much and allow to regain a stable moisture level according to local humidity conditions. It won't take too long.

 

You can find plans and further information along those lines by looking up drying boxes for bow staves.

[jmccustomknives]

This is how I dried some pecan.  Cut a usable chunk and put it in a gallon zip lock bag with some air space.  Every day I would change the bag the wood was in.  As the moisture content dropped so to did the water that would collect on the bag.  After a few months it was totally dry and ready to use.  Other than that, there's a lot of good suggestions.  Pecan however doesn't make the best handles, it does however make excellent bar-b-que. 

[bigfootnampa]

 

This is how I dried some pecan.  Cut a usable chunk and put it in a gallon zip lock bag with some air space.  Every day I would change the bag the wood was in.  As the moisture content dropped so to did the water that would collect on the bag.  After a few months it was totally dry and ready to use.  Other than that, there's a lot of good suggestions.  Pecan however doesn't make the best handles, it does however make excellent bar-b-que. 

I disagree!!!!  I know of no other wood that is more IDEAL for strong handles!!!!  Speaking of wild pecan here, of course!  Cultivated varieties I couldn't comment on.  

[SpankySmith]

The stuff that came down in the storm gifted me with both very large diameter pieces and some smaller ones I purposely kept with handles in mind, between say 3 to 6" diameter. I brought a couple of those smaller pieces in today to let them dry out in my workroom. Will try shaving the bark and doing a rough first pass at a couple handles. Will be an interesting learning experience. May try the microwave or bag method too. Thanks for the input, guys.

[Charles R. Stevens]

Bow makers paint the ends, rough them out and.make a box (chimney) to dry them in. By placing a light bulb in the base the warm dry air dries them quickly but safely.
Not to contradict the wisdoms of letting the wood season naturally, I'd be tempted to split it in to blanks, paint the ends and stack it in the attic in a criss cross pattern so it gets plenty of circulation

[Candidquality]

Be a good opportunity to test several methods and see which works best on your wood. 

[Ohio Rusty]

The microwave.  I microwave spindles for bow and drill firemaking and the microwave drys out the spindle nicely. If the spindle is damp, it is very difficult to form the glowing coal you need to start a fire.

 

Ohio Rusty ><>

[SpankySmith]

I ended up rough forming several handles out of the pecan wood that fell, and leaving it out in my shop to dry.  I've been checking it along the way, it "appears" to be dry already.  Hard to tell, but I've bought a few more of the pieces inside, it appears the indoor humidity level agrees with it. 

[ThomasPowers]

Location Location Location; when I moved from Ohio to New Mexico I had to re-set *every* wood handled tool in the shop---now these were commercially made handles for the most part and so dried "professionally" but the single digit humidities in NM made them all shrink.  Wetter states often have a winter/summer shift in humidities (especially for inside tools!!!)  If I were you I would figure out the time of lowest humidity in your area and let any handle material dry through that and then use them for handle stock.

 

After resetting; I took the time to soak all the eyes trays of linseed oil to help deal with such issues in the future---also wiped down the heads with the oily rag when I took them out a week later (and discarded the rags in the forge as it *likes* fires to start in it...)

[SpankySmith]

Low humidity time?  In Alabama?  Surely you jest.    We are "air you can wear" just about year round, including right now.  Step outside for just one minute, simply STAND there breathing quietly, not moving a muscle and you will be covered in sweat.   The lower humidity for the foreseeable future is definitely in my house, work room.   We don't normally see "normal" humidity until the dead of winter and I don't think low ever happens.    We can only dream of that mythical, imagined "dry heat" in Texas and New Mexico! 

[Frosty]

Air you can wear? High humidity here is over 15% it's usually around or below10% but winter is the dry season, there's nothing like -20f and 5% humidity to dry things. A wash right out of the machine run out on a line in sub zero temps will freeze in a few seconds to maybe a minute and once frozen it's dry, bring it in, thaw it and fold it up. Our humidity is really hard on woodwork you have to keep it oiled or it checks.

 

Frosty The Lucky.

[Gergely]

If I may hijack Spanky's topic a little:

 

Does anyone know about how good is the wood of white mulberry (Morus alba) for hammer handles?

 

Thanks and best wishes:

 

Gergely

[bigfootnampa]

The mulberry I have here I would not rate as good as pecan, hickory, or osage orange... still, I think it would be excellent for hammer handles... I haven't tried it though.

[Gergely]

Thanks for the quick answer, Bigfoot!

I give it a try then. The stock can be ready for now to be worked with.

 

G

[Charles R. Stevens]

Mulberry is used by the mongols for bows. Good bow woods aren't always good tool handle woods, but good tool handle woods are often good bow woods. I have mulberry and pecan splits under my bench.

[texascherokee]

Texas is actually quite humid. We usually have around 75% to 85% humidity.

[Benton Frisse]

So this microwave method and bag method ya'll speak of.... 

 

Say I had a piece of black walnut, spalted oak, or some cherry that was 2x2x6 for a hidden tang knife handle. 

 

I could stick that sucker in the microwave and dry it?! what kind of sessions in the microwave do you prefer, and how many? I'm doing some research as I type this, but I'd like to hear your personal preferences. 


I do like that bag technique for stuff that I have but dont know what to do with it yet.... 

[jacobd]

^amen, here in Waco most years during summer it's 95-110 and 80%ish humidity

[ThomasPowers]

Sort of depends where you are at in Texas, there is quite a passel of it after all and the Humidity of Houston (avg is 107%) is quite different than that of El Paso which is dripping at 45% as the rains are moving through...

(spent a month in Houston one week and felt I would have been drier underwater...)

[Nobody Special]

When I've played with pecan, the big chunks tended to crack when dried that way.......but splitting it green can be a nightmare. It laughs at a maul until it's dried for a year or two. Best way I know is to wait til it's freezing, then split it when it's 20 or below outside. It makes nice scales in addition to handles.

 

Side note - pecan, like osage orange is native to Texas (okay, and a few lesser states, like Lousiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Arkansas (yeah I know, but never miss a chance to get a dig in at Arkansas, Hook 'em horns!)). If you find it outside, it may be 100 years feral, but it's more than likely a cultivated variety.