Paulownia also called kiri wood for handles and totes?
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Tagged: saw handle wood
- This topic has 5 replies, 3 voices, and was last updated 9 years, 2 months ago by Dominik G-S.
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11 February 2015 at 12:08 pm #124567
Is there anybody who has experience with the paulownia (kiri) wood? It is a hardwood with a soft surface. But it is lightweight and strong. Somewhere in the internet i read the comparison as aluminium under the woods.
My question now is, is this wood suitable for making handles and totes for western saws and planes?
What are the cons and pros?
The background of these questions is, I have an “Atkins” panel saw from the flea market with a totally brittle handle and I want to make new handle for it.
Hi Dominik,
I used Paulownia for a nightstand. It is indeed light and a bit more stable than balsa wood, but I wouldn’t want to use it for tool handles. I think it will be way too soft and brittle for that. Working it is tough on the tools as well, since it appears to have a high silicate content. That’s what I can say from my limited experience with the wood. I would use something like rosewood if I had it or just plain old beech.
David
11 February 2015 at 12:22 pm #124569Hi David,
thank you for your post. I would use rosewood (in Deutschland Palisander) if I could get some.
I have difficulties on getting the wood I want. Is there an online source you can recommend? Even oak is hard for me to get. There are only those laminated pieces 18mm thick in the hardware store and I don’t think that they are suitable.Best regards from Germany
Dominik
Dominik,
just find the closest local lumber yard. They should have rough sawn boards of oak, beech, cherry and perhaps meranti. At least that’s what the Holzland store I visit has got in stock. Sure, it’s a bit of work if you don’t use a powered planer and jointer, but it gives a nice workout and good practice.
David
Hi Dominik,
if it was for a chisel handle (not what you are looking for) or a wooden plane you could get square and round stock of beech at most of the hardware stores in Germany.
Small amounts of exotic woods like ‘Palisander’ are sold for example through dictum.de. I never bought wood there but it’s a quality hand tool store so chances are good they care about everything they offer.
If you go to the lumber yard and you only need enough wood for a saw handle you could also ask if they do sell their off-cuts before spending a fortune one a whole board of rosewood.12 February 2015 at 10:16 am #124584Thank you for all your recommendations.
I often use those square stock of beech from the hardware store for handles by laminating them to bigger boards.
It works great but I like to get some other kinds of wood and of course it would be nice to have one piece that fits without laminating. There are also those ready laminated boards of beech and oak in the hardware store but I don’t trust those lamination because of the finger-joints that are used for jointing endgrain with endgrain. These joints often seem to be coarse and not very accurate. But perhaps someone here tried those boards for handles?
Laminating works but it is simply the search for another way of doing it. -
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