Preparing Wood for Handles

BD Blades

Well-Known Member
I have access to large amounts of Mesquite trees/bushes. I have seen some really nice mesquite handles, but do not know how to gather and prepare it for handles.

I would think you would want the root for some nice burl and I would think it would take a long time to dry. I have no experience with this at all. Just cutting it and letting it sit seems like a good way to develop cracks.

Any help would be great.
 
These three products will get you where you want to go. I would mill the pieces into slightly larger than necessary size say 2"x6"x1.5" for burl Id start with Polycryl for straight grain Pentacryl

after soaking that wood in those or similar dimensions should be good to go in around 6 months.
http://www.woodcraft.com/Product/2001793/29299/Polycryl-Gallon.aspx?refcode=05INFROO&gdd=150744
http://www.woodcraft.com/Product/2001793/29300/Pentacryl-Gallon.aspx
http://www.woodcraft.com/Product/2001793/29298/Wood-Juice-Gallon.aspx

You can get them in much smaller quantities as well.
 
I'd cut it way oversized with no pith in it. Generous three/four handle blocks. Seal the ends with melted wax or paint then forget about them for a couple or three years. You could also let logs check then later cut six or seven inch slices and split the piece up along the cracks with a wedge. The few bigger pieces should clean up to nice stable blocks. Since you have a bunch, don't try to save every little piece. Just pick and choose the best and use the rest for the bbq.

The root area is often worth the trouble, Craig
 
If you want to speed things up, cut them to mid sized blocks.... something like 3x6x8, boil them for about 2 hrs, let them cool in the pot over night after boiling, pull them off, let them air dry for a day or two loosely wrapped in news paper. Pull them out and seal the ends with paraffin and give them a month or two and they'll be dry as a bone. If you can, weight them after you dip the ends in wax, and do a weight in once a month. When they stop losing weight, they are ready.
 
I have heard of bowl turnes drying wood in microwave oven. Of course they are dealing with even thinner wood. They stick it in for short periods of time and keep going until they notice that the wood is no longer losing weight. You might give it a try with a stick or two that have defects in them to see if it's a useful technique.

Doug
 
I have heard of bowl turnes drying wood in microwave oven. Of course they are dealing with even thinner wood. They stick it in for short periods of time and keep going until they notice that the wood is no longer losing weight. You might give it a try with a stick or two that have defects in them to see if it's a useful technique.

Doug

Good suggestion, Doug. In conjunction to drying said blocks, it also kills what ever life forms might inhabit your lumber. The trick is to not over heat it as the center of the piece will burn long before you notice any sings of it doing so, by the time you see smoke it may be too late. The other draw back to this method is the occasional nail or other metallic debris found in lumber. I've noticed an especially high occurrence of this in suburban harvested wood. (ie, burled stumps I collect from tree services within the city) A small hand held metal detector will eliminate most but not all chances of killing your microwave and saw blades.

-Mike
 
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