Peg material

[DWM II]

Has anyone used sweetgum for pegs? It has woven grain and most of what I hear being used is straight grained wood. What would be the disadvantage if any? Why would straight grain be better?
Donnie

[Dave Shepard]

Straight grain rives better. I made some pegs out of osage orange, and it was very tough to get a good split. You wouldn't want any cross grain in the peg.


Dave

[moonhill]

I am on board with Dave, rived pegs follow the straight grain.  It only takes a minute or two per peg to shave the peg with a draw knife and shaving horse.  I had to shave a point on some turned pegs the other day and the grain ran off in 3" in some of the worse cases.  With rived pegs the grain runs the whole length of the peg.   So, find some straight grained wood and rive and shave.  Tim B.

[routestep]

I know your pegs won't be exposed to water when the frame is closed in, but I think sweetgum rots pretty fast when left out. I would use a more rot resistant wood for pegs. White oak is pretty strong and the heart wood is rot resistant. I'm not positive, but I think black locust is the most rot resistant and strongest for any hardwood here in the US.

[Dave Shepard]

Osage orange and red mulberry are right there with black locust. Locust was a popular choice around here. I will probably be sawing up quite a bit of black locust this summer.


Dave

[moonhill]

More on pegs.  I use mostly Red Oak, it is a readily avaliable hard wood for my area.  I would choose White if it was present, it isn't.  I like locust and have just gained a Black Locust yard tree.  At one time I was using B. locust for test fitting some joints, what I found was they weren't as strong as the oak.  They didn't break but the fibers were crushing almost to the breaking point.  Where the Oak would hold up, and they seemed more flexable.  I am wondering if Locust is less flexable than Oak?  Any of the Enginering Personal have some input based on the wood values charts.  This has not stopped me from using Locust in some joints.  This example is some what related to the discusion over in the 3/4"vs 1" peg postings.  Tim B.

[Thehardway]

I am cutting some Black Locust right now for pegs.  I am finding that only about 1 in 5 actually meet my visual grade inspection, the rest either have excessive grain run out, small knots or heart rot of some kind.  It seems that when I find a good one it is very hard and very strong and dense and heavy and a creamy yellow in color. It is almost impossible to crush or dent these but the ones i have culled are ones that have some rot and are more like you describe, they dent, crush and splinter easily and are lighter in weight but darker or streaked in color often brown or tan.

It appears as though Locust was the peg of choice for boat building and was preferred over white oak.  I would guess this carried over into TF work as many of the timberwrights had shipwright roots in early America. 

Locust is supposed to be harder than either of the oaks as rated by the Janka scale. (measures resistance to denting in side by measuring pressure required to embed a 0.444 in. steel ball one half its diameter)  Hickory is harder than oak as well.  Persimmon and dogwood are harder than oak.  Though not as hard or heavy, Black Walnut is reportedly stronger than White Oak and is one of the strongest North American Hardwoods.  The heaviest of all hardwoods which grow in N.America are a few species of Lignum Vitae (ironwood).

[fuzzybear]

   I don't want to hijack this thread but my question fits here. 
   Living in the north we have only three types of trees spruce, birch, and cottonwood.
The pegs are what I am wondering about. Birch is out.  So would cottonwood make good 2" pegs?  the grain is wide but when dried properly they are hard.
   I know the spruce I have would work. The ring count in a 2" peg can reach 50. the grain runs strait down the peg. They are like iron, hard to drive a nail into.

[DWM II]

We dont have any spruce down here, but I thought it was a soft wood? Would that even matter? I'm learning, thats why I'm asking. Sounds like I'm gonna use the water oak thats been laying in the yard for a year now and cut it in to 5/4 stock just for pegs.
Donnie

[moonhill]

About 97% of the old frames in my area are 1" spruce.  I have used spruce but I switched to  Red Oak and a 3/4" peg for the ease of boring with a brace and bit.  That about as small as I dare to go.  Tim B.

[Dave Shepard]

DWM II, I would cut those boards to the length of the peg, then take a hatchet and split the board in half down the middle, then split those halves, in half. If you split a board or billet on one side, rather than in equal halves, the split will tend to run toward the thin side of the billet. Splitting, rather than sawing them into strips, will reveal any unacceptable grain in your pegs.


Dave

[DWM II]

Thanks Dave.

[peter nap]

Not that it matters considering how new I am to TF....but I'm using split hickory. I make the billets just like I do for ramrods, just shorter and fatter, and shave them down with a draw knife.