walks with gun said:Does anyone know of any 18th century grooving or carving on hawk handles to make them less slippery when wet?
That's an excellent point. My late wife and I had an antique shop for a couple decades and I've seen old tool handles and furniture that had been scraped for final shaping. One guy from Ohio who used to haul in stuff was a whiz at scraping with pieces of glass. Harry was fascinating to watch and I tried it a few times and found it surprisingly effective. Even removed paint from a small stand doing it before refinishing...hardly a tomahawk handle, but scraping is an effective technique that gives surprising results! :thumbsup:tenngun said:well a lot of boys scrape instead of sand gunstocks and its smooth as glass. just finished a stock and worked a lot with a knife scraping it. I went on to stain, sand off stain, sand off whisker, sand, whisker, sand, but it doesn't feel any smoother then scraped. I did have some scratches I couldn't see till stained but it felt just as smooth.
spudnut said:Look under carrying a hawk , seventh post down shows a hawk with a handle that looks carved
Native Arizonan said:Osage Orange aka Bodark or Bois d'arc is the best wood available, according to many.
Settlers in the mid 19the century planted it specifically to have implement handles available. I know of a few old homestead groves in Arizona, where it is not native, that date back to at least the 1870s.
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