ThomasPowers Posted December 21, 2021 Share Posted December 21, 2021 Can you cut it short, plane it flat, glue on extra for the swell and reshape? Hmm remaking it might be faster and easier... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donal Harris Posted December 22, 2021 Share Posted December 22, 2021 Brent took a standard ash handle and cut it down and reshaped it. I could do as you suggest and plane it down and build it back up after shortening it, but I want to change the head profile a bit. What I wanted to make was something like his “Middle of Nowhere” pattern. I really like it because it has clean and almost elegant lines. I don’t like most other patterns. I couldn’t describe to him exactly what it is I don’t like about them except to say they look like “sporting women”. I believe that is a family friendly term for what I actually said. The lugs are big and exaggerated. I want to shave down the beard just a bit to make it easier to get my hand around. As for the handle, I want it about 2” shorter, thinner, and made of bois d’arc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swedefiddle Posted December 22, 2021 Share Posted December 22, 2021 Merry Almost, Look up a 'Shaving Horse'. I find these the best way to hold your stick, when you are doing the shaping. You can glue up some thinner pieces of ?? (whatever you have handy, that is a hardwood), lay out the pattern/shape that has caught your fancy and cut it out with a bandsaw. Fire up your 'Draw Knife' and before you know it, you are looking for the sandpaper and stain. Yes, you can use any Vice, but it so much easier with the 'Horse'. Don't be afraid of looking at old Pallet's, lots of good hardwood!! Generally not price prohibitive. The best road of Life, is not the straight and narrow. Take a few side-roads, don't be shy. You might enjoy what you learn!! Neil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted December 22, 2021 Share Posted December 22, 2021 Pallets used to be air dried lumber too; less brittle than kiln dried. Now that they are often heat treated to kill stuff; I don't know if/how that changed their properties. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted December 22, 2021 Share Posted December 22, 2021 I think the issue is less about brittleness than it is about expense: kiln-dried lumber costs about 20% more than air-dried, and there's no point in investing the extra money in something with a fairly short lifespan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted December 22, 2021 Share Posted December 22, 2021 Not that it was done on purpose; just a happy side effect of air dried wood. Any ideas on the effects of HT on pallet wood? "Core temperature of 132.8 degF for 30 minutes" minimum. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frazer Posted December 22, 2021 Share Posted December 22, 2021 132.8.... Kelvin? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted December 22, 2021 Share Posted December 22, 2021 Fahrenheit. The point of heat treating pallets isn't to change the moisture content, but to kill off any bacteria, insects, etc that might pose a risk either to the material carried on the pallet or to the environment into which the pallet is taken. (The unintentional introduction of non-native insects can have a devastating effect on local ecosystems; see Emerald Ash Borer.) Half an hour at 138°F -- basically the temperature of hot tap water -- isn't going to have a substantial effect on moisture content. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frazer Posted December 22, 2021 Share Posted December 22, 2021 I know, I know, I just had to get that in there. TP would've responded to my excluding a unit to some degree or other. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted December 22, 2021 Share Posted December 22, 2021 To be fair, 132.8°K (-220.6°F) would probably do a number on any creepy-crawlies in the wood as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted December 22, 2021 Share Posted December 22, 2021 Frazer's right; I must have grabbed that from a US based website. I'm familiar with heat hardening wood for wooden spear points; but that is done around charring temps. I wonder when the effects actually start? 220 degF and we might start getting some expansion of boiling water concerns as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted December 22, 2021 Share Posted December 22, 2021 Conventional wood-drying kilns operate between 80°C/176 °F for hardwoods and 115°C/239°F for softwoods. I don't think that steam expansion is a problem even at the top of that temperature range, as you're dealing with extremely small quantities of moisture dispersed throughout a very porous medium. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donal Harris Posted December 23, 2021 Share Posted December 23, 2021 12 hours ago, ThomasPowers said: Pallets used to be air dried lumber too; less brittle than kiln dried. Now that they are often heat treated to kill stuff; I don't know if/how that changed their properties. Those I have tried are brittle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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