Green cherry handle

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Jul 10, 2017
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32
Took out a cherry tree locally and got a lot of nice straight-grained pieces to save for tool handles.
There is nothing long enough for a 36" handle but plenty of house/boys handle candidates, and lots for other tools.

I thought I'd try making my first long tool handle from tree to axe. Here are a couple of photos of the blank. Side grain is nice and flat and there is a growth ring running right up the center on the back. Being green is carves like butter.
My question is, if I finish it green how can I help it stay straight and not warp sideways.
I've read that some spoon makers boil their green spoons and let them dry. This breaks down some of the "connective tissue" and keeps them from warping.
Does anyone have any thoughts on this.

I've also added a couple of pics of the cache of rounds I kept for the future. All of the unpainted stuff in the second picture is already cut into staves and stashed in my basement.

Thanks for any advice.

Rob

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I have to leave town for a few days.
Sealed it and hung in basement.
I'll pick up this thread when I do something with it.
Thanks guys.




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Forum member 'G-pig' who hasn't been on much for a couple years has had good luck handling axes with green hard maple. It's worth a try with cherry. I would suggest you leave a little extra shoulder for it to settle down on to if you experience excessive shrinkage. And cut the kerf a little deep so you can drive the wedge deeper in a few months when it is mostly dry.
 
Forum member 'G-pig' who hasn't been on much for a couple years has had good luck handling axes with green hard maple. It's worth a try with cherry. I would suggest you leave a little extra shoulder for it to settle down on to if you experience excessive shrinkage. And cut the kerf a little deep so you can drive the wedge deeper in a few months when it is mostly dry.

There is a bunch of Norway Maple around here that was planted over a hundred years ago to beautify the Boulevards. They're super messy and there won't be any more planted when these are gone. I try to be around when one comes down. Until now I've only been interested in the figured wood but have recently been eyeing some nice straight branches that have substantial girth. Perhaps we'll have a heavy snow this winter and some will become nice Christmas presents.
 
Good wood comes from healthy living trees, carefully seasoned. That is not what you have there.

I couldn't really tell you as I'm not an arborist. The wood came from a living tree that was cut down in my neighborhood. It didn't have any signs of being unhealthy that I could tell as in no insect infestations and so on. There where no wood pecker holes or tunnels under the bark. It was formed into a blank and the ends were sealed and it was left to season in my garage since I don't have a basement.

I've been told that fruit wood tends to fail in this manner, and I'm not sure if that is true. I've also had others tell me the wood must have been left outside to rot which I know for a fact is not true. All I do know is based on my experience I'll be steering clear of fruit woods in the future. Honestly based on my experience bucking and Splitting this wood I had my doubts that it would hold up. I wasn't surprised, a bit disappointed but I did learn a lot. Hopefully the OP has better luck than I. I have a lot of respect for those who take the time to make their own handles from scratch.
 
I couldn't really tell you as I'm not an arborist. The wood came from a living tree that was cut down in my neighborhood. It didn't have any signs of being unhealthy that I could tell as in no insect infestations and so on. There where no wood pecker holes or tunnels under the bark. It was formed into a blank and the ends were sealed and it was left to season in my garage since I don't have a basement.

I've been told that fruit wood tends to fail in this manner, and I'm not sure if that is true. I've also had others tell me the wood must have been left outside to rot which I know for a fact is not true. All I do know is based on my experience I'll be steering clear of fruit woods in the future. Honestly based on my experience bucking and Splitting this wood I had my doubts that it would hold up. I wasn't surprised, a bit disappointed but I did learn a lot. Hopefully the OP has better luck than I. I have a lot of respect for those who take the time to make their own handles from scratch.
It's a shame because you did a super job on that haft. Your intuition was correct....
 
I sincerely hope that you have better luck than me. I won't be using any fruit woods for handles in the future.

Broken Pear Handle by MJGEGB, on Flickr

me too! i broke every fruit handle, be it pear, plum, apple tree...
now i use conventionnal wood, ash, and in the future robinia pseudo acacia, and sometimes i used a softer sweetchestnut wich has a tendancy to shrink a lot and reduce diameter in eye, becoming loose...
 
How long was that handle? The tests I did with it resulted in handles from that material cannot be longer then 60cm or roughly 24"? And head weight no more then 1250 gram or a little less then 3 pounds. The wood is just to brittle as you know by now. Beautifull wood none the less!

It was 23" and a 1.25 lbs head. I'm guessing that eye size and handle proportions played a role as well in my case. I was using what I had on hand to see if I could actually produce a handle from scratch. Now I know. I need to get to work on making a couple from the maple I have had sitting around for ages. I think I'll start working on that soon, as I miss having a usable self made handle. I've got a good template at least ;-)
 
I notice in Hacked picture it seems like some of the grain seems to appear almost sheared off. This would leave less long grain for strength. Is it possible or common to over-tighten the base of the head, or to have too dramatic of a taper focusing the strain on that particular point?
Is this something experienced guys take into account?
 
Camperspecial, does the bark on this:
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Looks somewhat like this?:
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Minus all the lichens of course.
 
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