Finishes

Wood Handles:

The finish applied to the handle has a particularly critical part to play in the performance and appearance of any stick. Not only must it bring out the beauty of the carefully shaped and smoothed surface of the wood; it must also seal and protect the wood from the effects of high and low humidity, the constant rubbing of hot sweaty hands, rain, mud and anything else the elements can throw at it. Above all, it must allow the handle to slide smoothly through the hand.

Precisely how I achieve this will depend upon the nature of the individual piece of wood. In general, I like to start with several applications of boiled linseed oil. This sinks into the wood, sealing it against the ingress of moisture while at the same time preventing it from drying out too much. Boiled linseed oil, if applied sparingly and well rubbed-in, can harden to a satin finish, which may polish up to quite a respectable gloss. How many applications I use will depend on how "thirsty" the wood is. Many spalted woods, for instance, have a soft, lightweight structure and will absorb a lot of oil - which helps to harden up the surface. Dense woods need much less oil; boxwood, for instance, will polish up to a nice smooth satin finish without the addition of any oil at all, though I would give it one coat anyway, just to be on the safe side. Many of the more exotic hardwoods like padauk or kokobola are naturally oily or waxy. If we apply further oil directly to these woods it will mix with the wood's natural oil and very likely fail to harden properly. In these cases we need to apply a coat of shellac sealer to prevent the natural wax or oil mixing with whatever final finish we choose.

Having completed the oiling or sealing, I now have to consider what additional finish to apply. On the whole I prefer not to use a modern synthetic varnish on a handle. These have their uses elsewhere, but they have a number of disadvantages on a stick handle. Firstly, they can produce a glassy, artificial appearance that detracts from the natural appearance of the wood. Secondly, they often just feel wrong ; yacht varnish, for instance, has a just a hint of rubbery-ness to the surface, preventing the handle from sliding comfortably through the hand, leading to hot, sweaty, sore hands. Harder polyurethane varnishes may lack sufficient flexibility and crack or flake under the rigours of everyday use. Finally, they often can't cope with the mixture of oils, acids and salts from our sweaty hands.

I normally finish a wooden handle with two or more very thin coats of Tru-Oil. This calls itself a gunstock finish, and is really a very high quality, quick-drying, linseed-oil-based varnish. Being formulated for the treatment of gunstocks, it has just the right combination of characteristics to deal with constant handling while allowing the beauty of the wood to show through. This stuff isn't cheap, but it's definitely the best for the job.

Antler (staghorn) handles:

Antler doesn't really need much in the way of an applied finish; the material will polish up to quite a nice gloss just as it is. However, I normally give it just a quick lick of boiled linseed oil to bring out a really good shine.

Buffalo, ram and ox horn handles:

The art of finishing this sort of horn lies in using lots of "elbow grease" to buff the surface up to a very high gloss. Any applied finish would only detract from the appearance and feel of the naked material.

Shanks:

The nature of wooden shanks can be even more variable than that of the wood used to make the handles. As well as dealing with a range of different woods, we have to contend with the characteristics of their bark. This can vary considerably, even between two hazel shanks cut in the same area on the same day.

Again I start off with as many applications of boiled linseed oil as the individual piece of wood (or its bark) requires. With a bark-on shank this is doubly important as the oil helps to keep the bark supple and flexible, preventing it from drying out and splitting. Again, I usually finish off with two or more coats of Tru-Oil. However, the shank has to deal with rather different conditions from the handle. It may have to cope with more abuse in the way of knocks and scrapes, but doesn't have to survive the constant rubbing of sweaty hands. So on occasions I will use yacht varnish if I know the stick is going to be used in particularly arduous conditions, or if the bark is particularly fragile. In these cases I apply many coats of very thin varnish to build up a tough, glassy, but just slightly flexible coating. It may not look as natural or feel as good, but it will provide a great deal of protection for the shank.

Sometimes, when the exposed wood is rather plain, I will enhance the appearance of a stripped, part-stripped or "hand-turned" shank by deepening the colour of the wood before oiling and applying the finish. There are a number of ways of doing this.

If I just need to darken a shank very slightly, the simplest way is to apply just enough heat from a hot-air gun to lightly "toast" the surface. Taken a step further, this method will produce darker scorch marks, which can make quite an attractive pattern. Another traditional method is "fuming", which involves exposing the wood to chemical fumes, usually ammonia. I hesitate to use this method myself in our tiny back garden surrounded by neighbours. Mostly I prefer to use spirit-based wood dyes, inks or, perhaps my favourite method, a solution of potassium permanganate. This partially oxidises the surface, the effect obtained depending very much on the nature of the particular piece of wood. It does emphasise any knots and grain in pale-coloured wood, and can produce most striking effects where the bark has been partially stripped.

This page last updated Saturday, 04 January 2003