OldTools Archive
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267824 | Matthew Groves <grovesthegrey@g...> | 2019‑02‑10 | two-piece hickory hammer handles? |
So at my local model railroading club, a feller pulls me aside and says….do you need any oak lumber? Reflexively I say, “YES!”, to give my brain time to think things over. I of course do not need any oak lumber, but I have friends who may. So after the meeting we head out to his van, where he has a sizeable pile of lumber, all 2-6inches wide, all 15/16thick. We transfer the considerable load from his minivan springs to my minivan springs, and he says there is some ash in there as well. I call two friends and load them up, they take about half of it. So now I gotta store the rest….sheesh. I’m not much of a hyper-organizer, but I DO start sorting this lumber. Red oak pile, that’s easy. THEN I gotta break out my 7x loup and Hoadley’s Understanding Wood. Interesting, Ash. Ash pile. Then this mystery stuff. I’m no expert, but the endgrain doesn’t lie. It’s in the hickory family. So now I have ash and hickory. I sent the red oak with my son for their school RUBE GOLDBERG project. Ash and Hickory are good shock woods, so then I’m thinking tool handles, but nothing thick enough. SO If you have to laminate two (or) three pieces to get the right thickness…..is it still worth it? Are laminated hammer/blacksmith top tools/sledge handles doomed to failure if not made from single pieces of wood? Matthew Groves Springfield, MO |
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267825 | scott grandstaff <scottg@s...> | 2019‑02‑10 | Re: two-piece hickory hammer handles? |
For a while I knew a guy named Jesse who was making really beautiful laminated tool handles. Jesse had (has) a great eye for design, color and proportion. So the handles were outright works of art. But I always thought of them as decorative more than practical. When I am making handles a little extra trim piece or a scrap inside the eye or something I will glue on and trust. Nothing critical. I wouldn't gamble the fate of my skin and bones to a full laminated main handle, in a hard work setting. Rake shovel nippers,......... who cares. But tools that fly fast and hit hard I am cautious about. yours scott -- ******************************* Scott Grandstaff Box 409 Happy Camp, Ca 96039 scottg@s... http://www.snowcrest.net/kitty/sgrandstaff/ http://www.snowcrest.net/kitty/hpages/index.html |
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267826 | Chuck Taylor | 2019‑02‑10 | Re: two-piece hickory hammer handles? |
Matthew, You wrote: ===snip=== I’m no expert, but the endgrain doesn’t lie. It’s in the hickory family. ===snip=== When my brother moved from western New York state to Washington state, he brought some wood with him that had been harvested from his land in New York. Some of it was pignut hickory. Some of that got used as window sills in his house here. Gorgeous stuff. You might want to take a closer look at that hickory before consigning it to use as handles. Cheers, Chuck Taylor north of Seattle |
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