Handles 93 
of quantity is that of brooms. Broom handles also consume a 
large amount of birch and white ash. Shovel handles are made 
largely of sugar maple, while snow shovels consume a great 
deal of white ash. Axe handles are made of hickory, brush 
handles of sugar maple, pick and peavy handles of white ash, 
hickory and yellow birch; while handsaws consume only apple- 
wood and beech. Fork and hoe handles are rarely ever made 
of any wood except white ash, of which a large amount is con- 
sumed for this purpose in other States, and most of the two 
million feet reported in New York goes into these articles. 
White ash is used for fork and hoe handles because it is tough, 
strong, and white. Hammer handles are made of hickory 
generally, this wood being almost indispensable for slender 
tool handles where strength and elasticity must be combined 
with toughness. Hickory is used in the rougher forms for 
mop handles, handrakes, sledge hammers and pick handles, 
along with white oak, white elm, and ash, where strength and 
resistance to sudden shock are essential requirements. Handles 
for coal sieves are made of basswood, beech, soft maple, and 
white ash. Many of the firms reported several woods under 
the general use of “‘ handles” and the relative importance of 
each wood in the production of a given style of handle cannot 
be accurately determined. broad conclusions are easily 
reached, however, relative to the specific uses of such woods as 
ash and hickory, the former being very generally used here 
for fork and hoe handles, while hickory is used universally 
for small tool handles and for axe handles. Saw handles also 
depend largely upon apple and beech, while the ordinary 
cutlery or knife handles consume all of the foreign woods such 
as cocobola, ebony, rosewood, granadilla, and lgnum-vitae. 
Cocobola is rather oily and not subject to much swelling or 
shrinkage in water and when exposed to heat. 
The form of the raw material going into handle factories 
is so varied, owing to the extremes in the dimensions of the 
finished articles, that detailed descriptions cannot be given. 
The class of handles, including the stock for hoes, forks, rakes, 
spades, and shovels, calls for squares of about 2 to 214 inches 
