katalox - unexpectedly dense

Chakte Viga for handles - Start of Omnibus

David Weaver

I'm experimenting with different handle woods. I can't remember why I bought chakte viga, but when it arrived, I thought at first that it was relatively unimpressive, and the blank that I got was cold and wet when I sawed it and then turned handle blanks out of it, but it dried fairly quickly (testing its weight) by putting it on a platform next to the furnace chimney here.

Surprisingly, it made one of the smoothest feeling handles I've used so far.

(waiting for the katalox to stop losing weight to try it).

As I try different woods, I'll post them here. I realize there aren't that many people making handles for tools and chisels, but it's nice to know some equivalents.

Chakte Viga isn't quite like olivewood and it's not quite like boxwood, but it's nice in its own way (small pores, polish and turning is easy, turning the socket hole out for the handle is relatively easy - hit or miss as far as interesting color, but feels as good as anything).

(well, that large photo allows seeing of things i can't see with the naked eye at regular size!! It makes it look full of pores, but the pores are tiny and fill easily when finishing whereas something like rosewood or ash, that can't be done in five minutes of finishing with shellac and wax on the lathe).

leopardwood handle - omnibus

David Weaver

Made a handle over lunch out of leopardwood. Interesting wood - somehow I nicked the ferrule, but this is my chisel so no problem (The first successful forge weld, and the handle looks bulky, but this chisel by looks is deceptive. It's a heavy cross section and a tall thick tang.

Leopardwood is like a matrix - the stuff in the matrix comes out kind of easy, but turns cleanly with a skew if the last cuts are light. Of course you could sand it to that, but that would take a while and it's a very dry and dusty seeming wood.

Hardness is just over 2000 (looks like lacewood, but much more dense). kind of OK ho hum other than the nifty looks. Similar hardness to chakte viga but less agreeable for handle fitting (Stringy hardness). Wouldn't be surprised if a hard mallet may not get along with it, but I use a urethane mallet, so none of these woods are really going to have any trouble.

Re: leopardwood handle - omnibus

Oskar

Your chisels really look great David. Must feel good in hand. Well done!

Re: leopardwood handle - omnibus

Paul in NJ

David,

I am interested in the forging process. Would you elaborate a little more? Do you shape the bolster before or after forging? How do you strike the bolster to forge? Do you hold the chisel in a vice and strike the bolster using a socket or tube?

When I made my chisel, I pre-shaped the bolster. That was a little fiddly. I heat shrank it to the tang. I toyed with the idea of silver solder but in the end it was ok as it was. Pushing or striking the handle just pushes the bolster tighter onto the tang. Incidentally, I burn my tangs into the handle. I do a pilot drill before shaping the handle. I have done many chisels and carving tools this way over the years. Thanks Todd Hughes for splaining it.

regards,

Paul Dzioba

Re: leopardwood handle - omnibus

David Weaver

The bolsters are oversized squares with holes drilled in the center. They're heated and shaped to the tang until they're on far enough (all done with borax on both parts if forge welding will follow later to try to limit scale). Then if the bolster will be shrunk on, I knock it back off one more time since it's essentially to shape, flatten it, and then heat it with the tang of the chisel left cold and drive it on one more time through the round hole on the anvil. After that, it's just a shrunk on square and I either float and file or grind and file it to size after.

The only thing different with the forge weld is the whole process with borax dribbled on anything that gets hot while sizing and then I've been using a brazing torch to heat the bolster and the joint, and once it's hot, just tap it to forge weld (can't hit it that hard, but there's no need to - it's a tiny area and the metal is soft).

I just hold the chisel with a pair of tongs for all of this and when shaping the bolster or pounding it around the tang during sizing, I just rotate it to make sure it's progressing evenly.

I think this is a very weak weld, but moderate tapping with a steel hammer didn't remove the one in the picture whereas if it's shrunken on, it can be knocked back down the taper of the tang pretty easily.

Re: leopardwood handle - omnibus

David Weaver

Thanks, oskar. Manipulation of the shape and proportions/weight is a nice thing to be able to do. There have been a few hit or miss temperings so far, though. One chisel ungodly hard and at least one that's a little soft.

Not that practical I guess, but neither is the whole hobby of woodworking if we start counting dollars and time.

Re: leopardwood handle - omnibus

Paul in NJ

Thanks David. Your chisels are looking great!

Thanks, Paul

David Weaver

I realize that description wasn't that great! I'll try for clarity to make it a little better...

* the chisels are shaped with the tang finished, left cold

* one of the little bits in the picture below is heated and hammered with the tang going through a hole in the anvil (not a blacksmith, not sure what the round holes are called, but luck to have two of different sizes - a vise with the jaws closed would probably work as well, though

* The formed bit is on and off the tang a couple of times to be flattened and then near to the last attempt, hammered on the tang turning the chisel around, taken off one more time and heated and then driven a bit further onto the tang

If there's forge welding, one quick high heat and then tapping the sides of the blank to complete a weak weld

All shaping and sizing is done to the blank after it's already on the chisel.

I've noticed that it would be nice on the smaller chisels to have a thinner smaller bolster, but such a thing bends too easily when heated. That was my failure breaking the tang off on the most recent forge weld attempt. I guess it would just be more sensible to build one that's longer on the tang (thicker) than needed so that it doesn't bend or fold as easily and then grind and file most away.

Practical for someone making a couple of chisels, but it would be a nuisance for more than that. I hope the rambling first attempt was nothing other than not enough coffee kicking in!!

Re: Thanks, Paul

Paul in NJ

Your first explanation was understood, and the second was better thank you. If I do another chisel, I will try it your way. I was placing the file tang up in a vice, sliding the bolster over the tang, and then tapping it down with an appropriate size mechanics tool socket.

regards,

Paul Dzioba

katalox - wood omnibus

David Weaver

Very hard, slower turning, with little bits of random tearout if you try to rush it (grain a lot like bubinga that's got curl, but a harder wood).

In the end, a very disappointing color. The density makes things like olivewood and indian rosewood feel like a medium hardwood.

Not a fan of the color - too bad, it's not that expensive compared to other very dense woods. this is just sanding wax under shellac (sanding wax being a final sand with beeswax/mineral oil 50/50). Not a fan of coloring things where small dents or scuffs will remove color, so if the oil doesn't darken it considerably, I'll shelve using more of it.

Very aromatic as far as tropicals go (with the peppery rosewood smell) - I can feel a tingle from cleaning up the dust and shavings without a mask.

rubbing with oil prior to shellac...

David Weaver

..practically no effect. oiled handle on the left, other on the right.

I dried my wood in cylinders next to the furnace pipe (not very hot, but hot compared to my shop - maybe about 120 degrees F when the furnace is running). Some of the wax penetrated just the surface of the wood and made it pleasingly dark, but it didn't penetrate it much. I'm sure it's possible to soak the wood in some kind of wax and mineral spirits to darken it through and through, but not worth the trouble).

If anything, I think it's too hard and musical for chisel handles, anyway. (chisel on the left is an old butcher chisel of the type that warren describes - less than 1/8th thick at the business end and no bevels.

Re: leopardwood handle - omnibus

Bill White

RE: Oskar's comment about David's chisels......

Oskar, not only do they look good, but they perform VERY well.

BTW, I waxed the handles on the ones I got from David. Made 'em feel good too.

Granadillo

David Weaver

At least I think it is. The billet was unlabeled when it arrived with a group

Super smooth turning, but dense. Top level ease of polishing. Only the tiniest thin coating of behlen turners finish on it.

Chisel is a parer that broke while flattening.

One more louro preto 

David Weaver

I just love the amount of color variation that it can have but assume it will be gone as it ages and becomes darker.

domestic apple - handle omnibus...

David Weaver

..not dense compared to what else has been used in this thread, but the surface finish is extremely close-pore (small-pored) and turns and polishes easily.

linseed oil wiped on and then shellac rubbed over (poor man's french polish first step - no inclination to have much finish on these handles, just enough to keep them from getting filthy right away).

Re: domestic apple - handle omnibus...

Oskar

stunning David! Applewood is such a great wood. to work and watch.

Thanks, Oskar!

David Weaver

it's definitely a special wood among the mid-weight woods. Really amenable to taking surface detail, but not soft. Saws smoothly and gives the illusion that the saw is a little dull.

Too bad it doesn't grow in big trees most places now.

Re: domestic apple - handle omnibus...

Paul in NJ

Nice shape on the handle. The chisel looks great too! Apple is a wonderful wood to work, I wish there was more of it around. Have you tried dogwood yet? It turns like butter, extremely fine grained. My brother once gave me some from a tree he had removed that had a pink cast to it.

Re: domestic apple - handle omnibus...

David Weaver

I haven't at this point -my mother has a bunch of dogwood trees, but she views them like they view cows in india. 200 miles away where I am now, there's a big rogue apple tree on one side of me and a big dogwood tree on the other side of me, but they're over the property lines.

I may be able to beg some branches off of each. It'd be nice to turn some branches from the pith - they'd be super rigid unless there's something I don't know about them (thinking of the gumi ,etc, that they use in japan - often or usually comes with the pith in the center).

Re: Thanks, Oskar!

Oskar

it is.

Not only are large trees rare, but the large trees I see here around are all seriously twisted. The bark looking like a cork screw and makes me wonder what apple trees grow straight, if any. Wouldn´t want a plane body blank out of such a twisted tree.

only once...

David Weaver

I thought I recalled the neighbor's tree being straight - it's under a bunch of larger trees and has a clear stem for about 15 feet, but upon closer look, it's large but not that great (no twist, but looks like several large stems glued together the way it grew).

The area where I grew up had 23,000 acres of orchards. somewhere around 25 years ago, I saw a field of trees tipped over - big trees. Some had been bucked into firewood but most were probably burned in a slash pile after nobody wanted more (this is in a mountain area - there's plenty of wood available in bigger clearer stems).

I haven't seen anything like those trees since, and anything big and old is likely to be bug damaged here.

A user on the old woodnet forum who called himself "walnuts" gave me two nice clear blocks about 4" thick and 6" wide and 18" long. Dead straight and perfectly quartered. I've never seen anything like it since. It was a bear to dry the first couple of weeks (I had to follow it around daily and glue every small check that appeared as left alone, they were very deep the next day).

Pink american heart beech is nice (when it's as dense as it can be found), but it's just not quite as nice. The array of exotics available is excellent, though, and my surprise favorite so far (chakte viga) can be found in straight blanks that make 8 handles without issue ($20 per blank plus shipping). It's hard to complain about that.

Re: only once...

Oskar

thats a very fine gift from walnuts. Would walk a long way for such blanks.

the Chakte Viga does indeed look good...

Re: domestic apple - handle omnibus...

William Duffield

I also have some that's pink. I wonder if there is a correlation between pink wood and pink flowers in Cornus florida? I also have some spalted, but I haven't experimented with it yet to find out if the spalting affects its structural integrity.