THE USES OF WOOD 



WOODS USED IN THE MANUFACTURE OF HANDLES 



BY HU MAXWELL 



Editor's Note: This is the seventh story in a series of important and very valuable articles by Mr. Maxwell on wood and its 

 uses. The series will thoroughly cover the various phases of the subject, from the beginnings in the forest through the processes 

 of logging, lumbering, transportation and milling, considering in detail the whole field of the utilization and manufacture of wood. 



AS an all-round handle material, wood has no equal. 

 If handles of moderate weight are wanted woods 

 may be had like cedar, white pine and basswood. 

 If strength is of prime consideration, strong woods are 

 available, such as persimmon, dogwood, maple, birch, 

 beech and hickory. Sometimes weight is essential, 

 though that is the case with small rather than with large 

 tools, and lignum-vitae, live oak, and certain tropical 

 species meet that requirement. Elasticity is a prime 

 requisite at times, combined with toughness, and our 

 forests furnish what is wanted, notably, hickory and 

 hornbeam. Sometimes in using a handle the hand must 



dry, are poor conductors of heat, and that quality is taken 

 advantage of by handlemakers who fit curling irons, 

 frying pans, corn-poppers, stove lid lifters, pokers, coffee 

 pots, smoothing irons, and other similar articles and 

 utensils, with wooden handles to protect the hand from 

 the heat of the fire. 



Woods are tested in laboratories and experiment sta- 

 tions to determine their various qualities, and the handle- 

 maker puts to his own use data so worked out, and he 

 measures his material's strength, elasticity, hardness, 

 weight, and other properties, and determines what woods 

 suit best for various kinds of handles. 



WOEFUL WASTE OF HANDLE STOCK 



The best hickory handles are made from split billets. Riving the wood offers a guarantee against cross grain, and for that reason is preferred to sawed 

 wood. In splitting operations the waste of wood is regrettable. The picture gives a view of a typical handle camp in a Kentucky forest. 



slip to and fro, as with an ax in chopping, and a wood is 

 required that will polish smooth so that the hand will 

 not be chafed. Many woods polish smooth, but few equal 

 hickory in that particular. Beauty is sometimes, though 

 not usually, considered in the selection of a handle wood. 

 The handles of pocket knives, miscellaneous cutlery, 

 screw drivers, curling irons, and other toilet articles, 

 afford a considerable use for handsome woods. Our 

 forests possess many of fine color and dense grain, among 

 such being cherry, kalmia, manzanita, wild lilac, koeber- 

 linia, walnut, satinwood and devil's claw. All woods, if 



The annual demand for wood by handle makers in 

 the United States approximates 280,000,000 feet, con- 

 sisting of thirty-three kinds, of which four are soft- 

 woods, twenty-three native hardwoods, and eight hard- 

 woods of foreign origin. The number would appear 

 much larger, except that manufacturers follow the cus- 

 tom of grouping several species as a single one. All 

 maples are listed as one, all birches, pines, oaks, hicko- 

 ries, ashes, and cottonwoods in the same way, though 

 each of these includes several trees of the same genus. 

 Nearly all handles are made of hardwoods, their contri- 



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