'ebruary 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



■'A>»'.tf'k'!'.ir3fr^^ 



!. > l' 





^^/!^ 



:-is§y 



JHE-WGNDER CITY OF HARPWOODiiRODUCTlOl 



J'1'' 



*:■ *■ 



Handles and Handlewoods 



A former article of this series spoke of the use of white 

 ash in the manufacture of farm tool handles and of the 

 forests in the Memphis district as a source of supply for 

 this commodity. Handles for farm tools are only one 

 kind out of many. Nearly as many sorts of handles are 

 made as there are tools for using them, and each class of 

 tools has a pattern of its own in its handle equipment. 



Not only has each tool a pattern of its own, in regard 

 to shape and size; but to a considerable extent each tool 

 calls for a handle of some particular wood. Custom is not 

 the same in all places, and each region is likely to have 

 some one handlewood w^hich is given preference by the 

 people w^ho live there. 



Of course hickory holds first place as a handle wood 

 for a large class of tools. More than 40 per cent of all the 

 handle wood in the United States is hickory. That may 

 look like a high percentage, in view^ of the many kinds 

 of handles in use and the many excellent woods for making 

 them and the abundance of those woods. 



Many articles are provided with handles made of woods 

 other than hickory, for tools are not the only articles that 

 need handles. There are buckets, baskets, boxes, pans, 

 dippers, and scores of other things wthout entering into 

 an enumeration of the different kinds of tools from the 

 cant hook, one of the largest, to the button hook, one of 

 the smallest. 



There are softwood handles as well as those of hardw^ood; 

 for the little grip or handle for a package, and one quite similar 

 in form for a pail, need not be of hardwood. However, the 

 hardwoods are far more important than the softwoods as ma- 

 terial for handles. 



{To be continued) 



