giXXer
I read somewhere in this forum that linseed oil is what should be used to condition the wooden handle. Water would rust the steel and if the tool is used in cold weather a water soaked handle could freeze and become brittle and shatter. Linseed oil is flammable so use it with care and dispose of oiled rages properly.
The handles on many of the quality mauls and axes from both the USA and Europe are wooden. I wish someone with knowledge on how to care for them would jump in an post. I use wooden handled sledge hammers all of my working years and had to replace a lot of them. It is not an easy task!
Tom
This linseed (flaxseed)oil, caught my interest a bit! I remember as alittle kid, my dad bought a brand new wooden row boat, and he treated the boat with wood tar for the lower boards and paint for the higher boards. A couple of years later my uncle bought a brand new wooden row boat, and he treated his boat with linseed oil. For forty years, my dad kept treating the lower boards with tar. My uncles boat never needed any further treatment what I can recall...
I am sure linseed oil is an outstanding treatment for wood.
I read some about linseed oil, and there are basically three different sorts of oil.
Raw cold pressed oil, seeds pressed at a temp (from friction) lower than 158F
Cooked linseed oil, at temp of 300-500F
Stand oil, heat treated at temp of 570F
The higher temperature treatment, the larger molecules get, and less penetration. It is hard to get by the raw cold pressed linseed oil today.
It seem to be recommended to heat up (lowering the viscosity) cooked linseed oil for best penetration.
WARNING ALERT!! Due to fast oxidation, cooked linseed oil will easily self ignite together with cotton fabric and saw dust etc.
Flax seed oil or linseed oil, have been used for thousand of years, mostly as a base for paint.