Cuttings for garden tools: sizes and mounting features

The handle is an essential element of any hand tool, be it a hammer or a shovel. Despite the seeming simplicity and unpretentiousness of this detail, a lot depends on it. No one usually pays attention to an insignificant detail, but as soon as the handle looses, turns out to be short or too long, as soon as jags or cracks appear on it, it turns into a serious hindrance to work.

The wooden handle is a necessary part of most modern hand tools to manipulate it. Being a part of hammers or axes, the handle allows full use of the weight of the working part of the tool, accelerating it and creating a lever, without which the tool would not be able to perform work at all. The wood element creates the same effect for shovels, rakes, hoes, scythes or pitchforks.

Many woodworking enterprises produce relatively inexpensive tools. They are used for all types of garden tools. The requirements for a modern wooden shank are dictated by the rules developed over millennia: strength and convenience.

Wooden products completely satisfy these qualities. In the 20th century, aluminum and plastic began to be used for the manufacture of tool handles. Such products are quite lightweight and easy to use, however, they are incomparably more expensive than wooden ones, moreover, they cannot be repaired. Hardwood is used to make wooden cuttings. Knots, cracks and rot are not allowed. Resinous and fibrous coniferous wood is not suitable for such products.

The surface of the products is processed so that there are no chipping, irregularities and cracks that can rub the corn. Often the product is varnished. The dimensions of the inventory are calculated depending on a number of factors: load, lightness, strength, convenience. The length of the cuttings is also not the same. It is determined not only by the nature of the instrument, but also by the growth of the one who will work with it. In cross-section, cuttings are of different shapes. For shovels and other gardening tools, it is made round, and for axes, sledgehammers and hammers, the shape is chosen taking into account the fact that the tool should be clearly located in the hand. Sometimes a shank with a square cross-section is used.

For many garden tools, the classic straight handle is suitable, but for some shovels (shovel and snow), curved handles are used (sometimes with an additional handle at the end). More often, such products are sold already with a ready-made aluminum handle.

Sometimes you have to make the cutting yourself, for example, if the standard one is broken and you don't want to put off the work. To process the workpiece, you will need a certain minimum of carpentry tools: a hacksaw for wood, a hammer, an ax. In especially urgent cases, one ax is enough and, of course, you cannot do without a nail. With such a set, you can make a rather rough ersatz for a shovel or rake.

• It is necessary to select a material (board or slab) in thickness slightly thicker than the diameter that will be inserted into the tool's crown. It is desirable that the workpiece is well dried.
• The circular saw will help you cut the correct size block.
• The planer removes the largest irregularities, knots, etc.
• Gradually, the edges of the bar are cut off, by scrolling, the degree of processing is determined in different parts of the workpiece.
• Sanding with sandpaper is a necessary step, if you have to work for a long time, this will save you from damage to your hands.
• The workpiece can be varnished, although this step is optional.
• Cutting off the workpiece, its working end is brought to the required diameter, inserted into the tulle and secured with a self-tapping screw.

The processing of the workpiece must not be brought to the point that it becomes thinner than the tool body - then it will be impossible to use the product.

Cuttings for agricultural and garden tools are on sale all year round, but especially many different types appear in stores in the spring (before the gardening season). The length of the cuttings of most garden tools does not exceed 120 cm - this length is considered standard. The standard and most common is the stalk, round in cross-section.

Products differ in thickness. If the diameter is close to 40 mm, then this is a shovel handle. For a hoe (hoe), cuttings with a diameter of 30 mm are used. From cuttings with a diameter of 35 mm, a construction dowel is made, used for the assembly of log structures and log cabins. Those with a diameter of 20-25 mm are suitable for a rake or broom. Thin, 20 mm in diameter, cuttings are used to make mops, sometimes a thread is made at the working end of such a product for installing a brush. They also go to the manufacture of gymnastic sticks. For a braid, you need a longer product with a diameter of 30 mm. A special handle should be attached to it, which is installed perpendicular to the handle at the level of the mower's belt, if you place the braid vertically - this is the only way to get a tool that will be most comfortable to mow.

Rectangular cuttings up to 130 cm long are produced for the popular garden tool - the Fokin flat cutter. The industry produces special wooden handles for axes, hammers and sledgehammers. These products have special strength requirements. The most common material is also solid birch. The last two differ in size. The length of the handle for a hammer does not exceed 30 cm. The handle of the sledgehammer is more massive and can be from 50 to 80 cm long. The common thing for these products is their rectangular cross-sectional shape.

The handle for the ax has the most complex shape, combining ergonomics with elasticity and strength. The sizes of these products are also different and depend on the size and weight of the butt of the ax. For cleavers, long, massive axes of a simplified form are produced. Currently, you can find quite expensive axes on sale that have a rubberized plastic handle. It is quite convenient to use such a product, but it will not be possible to repair expensive equipment that is out of order. For motorists and tourists, a collapsible or folding tool (axes and shovels) with lightweight wood cuttings is produced.

Depending on the quality of raw materials and execution, cuttings can be of the highest, first or second grade. Better quality is characterized by the absence of knots, kernels and other defects.Traces of knots are permissible on products of the first grade. The second grade, in addition to knots, can be characterized by some deformations: it can be bent or curved. The best material for making any cuttings is solid birch.

Cuttings go on sale in large quantities, they are made in a variety of various kinds of remnants of the timber industry. Some manufacturers make these simple products from specially prepared raw materials.

The shovel handle is made in a standard length - 120 cm. Sometimes there is a longer one - up to 130 cm. The diameter of 40 mm is chosen in accordance with the diameter of the shovel shovels produced by the industry. The weight of a product made from a dried blank is close to 1 kilogram. Lighter products with a diameter of 20 mm are used for equipment that experiences less stress and for the manufacture of gymnastic sticks.

The length of such products can be from 35 to 110 cm. Products round in cross-section are also available in smaller diameters: 10, 12, 14, 16 and 18 mm. Hatchets are more versatile, their length ranges from 35 to 70 cm. Quality requirements in this case are increased.

There are many domestic producers of cuttings, it is relatively easy to establish this production, there would only be a material - birch wood. All more or less successful timber industrial complexes, and even small companies, have a workshop or workshop for the production of cuttings. Their production has also been established by some small businesses. Some individual entrepreneurs, having a machine of their own manufacture, successfully produce cuttings in a sufficiently large quantity. The main production is geographically concentrated in the strip of small-leaved forests from Central Russia to Altai.

• In Siberia, the Taiga enterprise is known, operating in Omsk. The specialization of production is precisely the manufacture of birch cuttings. The assortment is not wide, but it is in great demand: cuttings for shovels, for hammers and sledgehammers, brushes and mops. Products are also available with PVC coating. Specialists can prepare an order according to individual requirements. Delivery of a wholesale consignment of goods to any point in Russia is possible.

• The Yaroslavl company "Heteria" also specializes in cuttings. The enterprise produces a round cuttings of various diameters. The assortment of "Heteria" products - cuttings for shovels, rakes, mops, pitchforks and brooms. Both a construction dowel and a dowel are produced. The material is birch and aspen. "Heteria" successfully develops the markets not only in Russia, but also in Belarus and Kazakhstan.
• Enterprise "VectorRus" in Vologda also produces cuttings and handles for gardening, construction and metalwork tools. The sales volumes of this manufacturer traditionally remain high, and the products are distributed in the regions of Russia and in Belarus.

• The Konzar enterprise, based in Yekaterinburg, is well known in the Urals. It produces a large number of birch handles and cuttings, mainly of circular cross-section. Along with other products of the manufacturer, cuttings are distributed in the Ural region, in Western Siberia and Kazakhstan. The production of wooden products in colored PVC film - the so-called European cuttings, used to equip mops and brushes has been established.

When choosing ready-made wooden cuttings, first of all, you need to pay attention to their quality. The price of the products is low and the savings when buying a lower quality product will not be significant, but the consequences can be tangible: equipment breakage, calluses, abrasions, splinters.

All products according to GOST are divided into three grades:

• the highest - with a perfectly smooth surface;
• the first grade can have up to three small (no more than 3 mm) knots on the smooth surface of the product;
• the second grade can contain knots up to 7 mm in diameter.

When choosing a product, you need to pay attention to the length of the product. Depending on the nature of the tool, the stalk can be from 120 to 140 cm. The shovel and garden forks, as a rule, do not need a long handle. It is better to equip a pitchfork for loading hay with a handle of the maximum length (in villages in the middle of the 20th century, pitchforks up to 4 meters long were installed for the haymaking period). The shortest cuttings have portable shovels, including a small infantry (sapper) shovel. The length of its birch cutting rarely exceeds 35 cm.

The best material for wooden cuttings and handles in terms of price-performance ratio remains birch. It is lightweight, well processed, retains its elasticity and hardness for a long time. Some manufacturers make handles from the more expensive ash and oak. Undoubtedly, a product made of wood of these species is more beautiful than birch, but often it also has more weight. The same disadvantage is observed in beech products. There are cuttings from poplar and aspen - they are strong and light enough, but unlike birch, they quickly get wet and lose their properties.

It is very difficult to determine whether the cutting is made from sufficiently dried raw materials. You can check by weight. A raw or podoprevny stalk is always heavier. On average, the weight of a normally dried product should be close to 1 kg.

What exactly should not be on the surface of a good cutting:

• cracks: both longitudinal and transverse;
• wormholes;
• all sorts of chipping - traces of cutting processing;
• chips and flakes are a sign of poor raw materials, that is, the stalk was made from waste;
• rot (including traces of mold) - this indicates poor quality raw materials or poor storage conditions.

It is not difficult to correctly plant a shovel on a prepared stalk.

• The lower part needs to be cone-shaped, periodically trying on to the shovel. The handle must not be allowed to wobble.
• Insert the handle into the shovel's crown to a length of no more than 15 cm. Excessive force can lead to deformation of the shovel's crown.
• Fasten everything with a self-tapping screw or in another way. So, fastening with a bolt will require drilling the handle along with the tulle. It is better to fix the handle with a self-tapping screw - it is easy to replace it in case of loss or breakage.

In the next video, you will be making a shank using a drill.