[TheForge] Keeping hammer handles tight

Fri Jun 27 23:23:12 2003

If you soak a handle, when it swells, it crushes the fibers.
When it dries out again, it will be looser than before.
It's the continual swelling and shrinking that causes handles to come loose.

First thing is to fit the handle properly to begin with, and it's best if it's
drier than normal conditions. Then it can only swell, not shrink on you.
If you want to make sure it's completely dry, you can stick the head end of the
handle into sand sitting in a bucket on a hotplate.
Leave it there for several hours and it will get good and dry.

After that, the one thing which will keep the handle tight is to keep water
vapor from getting into the handle, especially at the end grain going through
the hammer head. Epoxy works well.
Forget oil or wax. Neither one does a very good job of reducing the penetration
of water vapor.

Bob

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]]On Behalf Of Dragons Watch Forge
Sent: Friday, June 27, 2003 1:59 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: [TheForge] Keeping hammer handles tight

I think this has gone around before but with my last HD crash I lost
lots of good tips, so.
How do you guys keep the handles in your hammers tight?  I have let the
hammer sit in the slack tub which keeps the head tight but does not do
the handle any good.  I tried soaking neats foot oil into the handle at
the head but it seemed to dry out also.  Any suggestions?  I'm in
central Texas and everything dries up here in the summer.

Larry