THE USES OF WOOD 



683 



now hasten the process by using the dry kiln. 

 Edged and pointed tools are of so many kinds that 

 it is impractical and would be unnecessary to list them. 

 Axes and sledge hammers, 

 and others like them, must 

 have highly elastic handles 

 in order that the workmen's 

 hands be spared from the 

 jolts, jars, and stings re- 

 sulting from striking 

 blows. Some other tools 

 do not call for resilient 

 handles, chisels, awls, au- 

 gers, and hatchets being 

 in that class. For elastic 

 handles, hickory is with- 

 out a peer. It possesses 

 more good qualities, and 

 fewer that are poor, than 

 any other handle wood in 

 this country, or in any 

 other, so far as known. 

 The expert axman can al- 

 most instantly pass judg- 

 ment on a handle when he 

 gets his hands on it. When 

 hickory cannot be had, 

 handles for axes are made 

 of other woods. Some of 

 the woods answer fairly 

 well, but others are poor. 

 Every wooded region has 

 one or more ax handle 

 woods, though some of 

 them do not rate high. 

 Hornbeam and blue beech 

 are used in certain of the 

 northern states. On the 

 Carolina coast good ax 

 handles are made of tough 

 young oak, and to improve 

 the quality of the wood it 

 is boiled in oil, after which 

 it may be bent far out of 

 line and it will spring back. 

 Many ax handles are of 

 ash, some of birch, others 

 of maples, and in Califor- 

 nia eucalyptus is satisfac- 

 tory, provided the handles 

 can be prevented from 

 warping out of all reason. 

 Locust and bois d'arc make 

 strong handles, but these 

 woods are so rigid and 

 harsh that the chopper's 

 hands may be severely bruised in the process of strik- 

 ing blows. In the absence of better woods, ax handles 

 have been made of wild cherry. 



MATERIAL 



This white ash trunk is prime stock for the handle factory. Nothing 

 better can be had for pitch fork, shovel, spade, hoe and rake handles. 

 This tree grew on the bank of the Muskingum River in Ohio, and was 

 more than three feet in diameter, with an assurance of clear, straight wood. 



When a farmer or a country wood chopper makes 

 himself a hickory handle for his ax, he splits the billet 

 from the white sapwood and shaves it into shape with- 

 out any cross grain. The 

 final polishing is usually 

 done with a piece of glass. 

 The whiteness of such a 

 handle when new is like 

 ivory, and if the handle 

 does not give the country- 

 man two or three years of 

 service, it does not come 

 up to expectations, though 

 it would scarcely last a 

 lumberman that long where 

 it has constant use. Hick- 

 ory rots quickly when ex- 

 posed in damp places, and 

 decay need not advance 

 far or last long before it 

 renders the wood brash. 

 It then breaks easily. 



Fashion governs in the 

 selection of wood for hand- 

 saw handles, but not for 

 those fitted for other saws. 

 The operator of a crosscut 

 saw is satisfied if the 

 handle is strong and is of 

 wood which polishes or 

 wears smooth. A rough, 

 harsh handle is apt to blis- 

 ter the sawyer's hands. 

 Among the satisfactory 

 woods for crosscut saw 

 handles are maple, birch, 

 beech, hickory, dogwood, 

 persimmon, hornbeam, 

 sourwood and gum. On 

 the northern Pacific coast 

 where good hardwoods are 

 few, a satisfactory cross- 

 cut saw handle is made of 

 cascara buckthorn which 

 wears very smooth. 



According to some un- 

 written law, a handsaw 

 handle is supposed to be 

 made of applewood, though 

 some are of wild cher- 

 ry, beech, mahogany and 

 birch. The yearly demand 

 for applewood to equip 

 handsaws with handles ex- 

 ceeds 150,000 feet. It 

 comes from old orchards 

 where trees are cut to make way for improvements. It 

 does not pay to grow apple trees for the wood alone. 

 Early colonists in Pennsylvania, who were acquainted 



