Wood for tools and tool-handles

Two pieces of quarter-sawn oak. Fast growth on top. Slow growth on the bottom. If you embiggen you will see far more porosity on the lower piece. Image from blog linked to below.

There are some uses for wood around the homestead that are "high-end" uses. Those uses might include tool handles, mallets-and-wedges, furniture, doors. That is different from low-end uses like fuel.

 

Close-up of end-grain. Also from the blog linked below

This wood-worker points out the reasons why, contrary to uninformed opinion, fast-grown wood is often better than slow, old-growth wood for those uses.

...each growth ring has two sections; the early wood/spring wood is the open porous bits. Then the latewood/summer wood is more dense. Generally the spring wood is the same size in each ring – the summer wood can vary from year to year, depending on various factors – light, water/nutrients, competition and more.

Wood-lots can be managed for fast growth and straight grain

A chunk of Black Locust in our woodpile. The widest growth ring is 5/8" across. The log was 7" in diameter, not including bark.

In addition to release cuttings, there are species that respond very well to clear-cutting.

Black Locust throws root suckers and if you aggressively thin the number of stems per acre, cull crooked stems and aggressively clean off side-branches, you can get eye-popping growth rates.

Oak often throws new stems from the stump and some red-oaks (Northern Red Oak, Cherrybark Oak, Nuttall Oak, Spanish Oak) can be very fast growers and be quite knot-free.

Some species of hickory (Bitternut and Pecan come to mind) can be lightning fast growers in good conditions.

We are seeing a lot of ash attempting to come back from Emerald Ash Borer. Most of it is crooked.

One work-around for the concern that the grain might walk off the hoe-handle and leave it vulnerable to splitting...if you are making your own tool handles then you can make even mediocre wood suitable by splitting the handle out of a long round and then smoothing the sides. Saws don't "see" grain but the splitting ax and wedges sure respect it.

If splitting staves makes mediocre wood better, then it should make superior wood outstanding.

Hat tip Lucas Machias