Favourite tool handle

lilac, osage orange, dogwood, boxwood, cocobolo

Dave Thompson

>I've recently been making tool handles, mostly for some Witherby chisels. Rather than go with a single wood for all of them, I've been going with a variety of hand collected woods, mostly from my property.

My favorites of the one's I've made are, I think lilac, osage orange, and dogwood. The lilac comes from a lilac bush trunk was around 3" diameter and had about 60 years of growth rings packed in there ( read as dense tight grained). The osage orange is also very dense, smooth to the feel, and has an attractive grain which is deep yellow/orange. The dogwood isn't particularly attractive, but it's tight grain feels nice in the hand.

While not especially attractive wood, another one of my favorite in-the-hand-feel wood is boxwood. I particularly like how the Robert Sorby sash chisel boxwood handles feel in the hand.

I have a cocobolo tote and knob on a Record 07 that are nice to look at.

Dave

Re: Favourite tool handle

Ernie Miller

>I kind of like Pear wood also nice color and feals good also.

Pacific Madrone

Bob Smalser, Seabeck, WA

>Hard, smooth and cool to the touch.

boat building bench

Stephen

>Bob any good ideas for a boat building bench that would go up against a wall?

Re: Favourite tool handle

Steve Kubien

>I've only made two tools which I use enough to have an opinion... A cherry scrub plane (salvaged wood from a pallet) and a spokeshave in jatoba (kit from Lee Valley). Both are very nice but the jatoba has a warmth that is hard to describe. It comes to the hand (as they say) very well. BLO and wax on both of them.

Steve Kubien

Lilac and teak

Bob Hackett(Mainely,Bob)

>Lilac because it is nice to work,looks good and holds up well.

I rehandled afew of my paring chisels with teak and find that I can still grip them when wet with sweat.I would be afraid to hit them with a mallet though,bet they wouldn`t last long.

MB

If a permanent sidewall bench....

Bob Smalser, Seabeck, WA

>I'd just do this one and offset the tail vise. 22" wide is handy, and longer is better for spars. Lag a cleat into the wall ILO rear legs.

If temporary, 2X6's and as thick as plywood as you can afford also works well. Again, longer is better. I've seen sidewall benches 50' long.

mesquite and rosewood

Jack Guzman from Maine

>I'm partial to rosewood. But,one day I saved a few chunks of mesquite that was destined for a barbeque.I made a few handles with it and I really like the look and feel of it.---Jack

Boxwood, briar, ebony, ivory, cabretta, shagreen.

David Barnett

>

Re: If a permanent sidewall bench....

Stephen

>what kind of the wood did you use for the top? I saw a nice bench made out of 2 by 12 at the chesapeake maritime museum with a shelf above it. I guess I was wondering more about your bench at the wall.Thank you for your response. Liked your article on chisels.

Re: lilac, osage orange, dogwood, boxwood, cocobol

Dan Clermont

>Hi Dave,

Any pics of the Lilac handles? An arborist dropped of a 4" diameter lilac trunk awhile back and I haven't done anything with it as I don't truly have any projects for it as of yet.

Thanks,

Dan Clermont

Re: Pacific Madrone

Dan Clermont

>Hi Bob,

I got a slab of Madrone kicking around the shop. Never thought of making tool handes with it though.

Cheers

Dan Clermont

Re: Favourite tool handle

Frank D. in Montreal

>Olive (unsteamed) is really nice too, hard as nails. Just about any wood that's not too brittle or soft is good. Blackwood is nice too, but heavy. Weight can be a factor; on some tools you don't want the handle too heavy for better balance.

1X3 strips laid up on edge....

Bob Smalser, Seabeck, WA

>Of whatever I had on hand at the time.

There's Bigleaf Maple, Pacific Madrone, Doug Fir, and Garry Oak in that top.

Beech - either local or European

Angus Barclay, in New Zealand

>European beech for chisel handles. Despite being 12,000 miles away from Europe a timber merchant in my town stocks plenty of the stuff.

If I can get it one day, I'd like to try New Zealand beech just to see what's different about it (if anything).

regards

Angus

(who plans to make half a dozen more handles this weekend)

Re: lilac

Dave Thompson

>I'll see if I can get some pictures up this weekend. The lilac I have is white with purple rings. It smells similar to tulip wood... both of which remind me of the mosquito repellent DEET (but in a pleasant way) ;-) An unusual thing I found about working with this wood is that it appears to grow in a spiral... that is, it twists as it grows. The bark somewhat resembles a twisted rope. I learned the hard way to pay attention to the flow direction of the end grain when mounting it on the lathe.