Stabilized hammer handle?

[Ranchmanben]

I came across a vacuum setup for sale locally and it got me thinking, what about a stabilized hammer handle? I would think that the wood, hickory, would retain its durability and you’d never have to worry about the the fit swelling or shrinking. The only draw backs I can think of are possible slickness, cost and possible reduced flexibility. The flexibility would be the main draw back for me as I like my handles fairly thin and whippy. Anyone else have any thoughts on this?

 

Ben

[JHCC]

Shrinking and swelling is only an issue in the part of the handle that's actually inside the eye, and it's cause by variations in the moisture content of the wood. This can be combated by (A) sealing the end grain of the eye end of the handle, (B) soaking the handle with something to permanently displace the moisture and/or keep moisture fluctuations from changing the size of the wood, or (C) gluing the head onto the handle with a flexible adhesive that will allow movement without losing strength.

(A) and (B) are usually accomplished simultaneously by soaking the handle end in linseed oil or by applying cyanoacrylate (super glue, Swel-Loc). (B) is sometimes done alone by soaking in in a solution of polyethelene glycol (Miralax). (C) is perhaps a bit unusual, but Uri Hofi glues on his hammer heads with Sikaflex, and some IFI members report good results from using Shoe Goo rubber adhesive.

All of this is to say that there are other proven methods of securing a hammer handle that don't have the potential drawbacks that you accurately enumerate. Of those, I think the slickness would probably be the worst, as a slick, non-breathable finish is likely to cause blistering. Additionally, a stabilized handle would need to be fitted to the head with great accuracy, as the stabilized wood probably would not be as forgiving of any variation in the fit as unstabilized. I also don't know how well it would accept having wedges driven in; it could well fracture more easily, depending on the resin used for stabilization.

In other words, probably safest to keep the stabilizing for your knife scales.

[Ranchmanben]

I hadn’t thought about about the wedge causing fractures. To be honest, I’ve never had any dealings with stabilized wood and so I don’t know how behaves. I’ve always had good luck with BLO and turpentine, no reason to quit a good thing. 

[MC Hammer]

I use swell-loc and it works great!  I put a new wood wedge in there and get things nice and tight, then put the swell-loc in until it stops absorbing it.  I've not had a hammer head come loose yet wit that stuff.  I've had good luck with old hammers and using it too.  I prefer to re-wedge even old hammers.

[arkie]

Like MC Hammer, I use a similar swelling "glue" called "Wonder Lock-em" or something to that effect.  It's marketed in hardware stores to glue loose chair rails and stuff together.  Never had a hammer handle come loose with that stuff.

[Ranchmanben]

It’s usually pretty dry here and I try to soak the head in BLO once a year so I don’t usually have much of a problem with handles coming loose. This was just a thought of possibly improving handles over all. Maybe keep the feel of a wood handle and the toughness of a fiberglass handle. Probably not though.