My old wheelbarrow needed some new wooden handles but they were not available at my local stores, (to check the fit) and online they cost more than I paid for the wheelbarrow and you couldn't check the hole locations.  I didn't want to drill extra holes, adding more weak points where the handles tend to break.  To make my own, I wanted a two inch thick board which is not available at my lumber stores.

I remember having three old oak planks, full of nails, buried under straw, in my barn so I dragged them out.  Two were nailed together and took a massive effort to separate them and remove the nails.  The three foot crowbar just ripped the heads off.  Finally done, I ran the 2" x 8'10" boards through my planer, below.  Two planks I used in my Greenhouse and the third I ripped on the table saw, re-planed and sanded as in the pics below.

You can see the "wave" in this board although it was worse than the photo shows.  It was removed by clamping a longer board to the tablesaw's fence.  Above is the second cut, the first thin cut removed the wavy "bend out".

I rounded the handle ends with a large radius router bit then finished it off with this little belt sander by rotating it with a firm and even, downward pressure.  The other end was held with my roller stand, also used below.  A large wood lathe would be ideal but my little, old table top model (second pic above) will only do a length of 36" and my handles are 52" - two inches longer than the originals and also thicker.

The hole positions were marked with a thin countersink punch, using one of the old handles as a template and then drilled out as below.  The other end is held by a roller stand I made many years ago and has been height adjusted to hold the handle flush to the drill press table.

        The handles were stained in the Windowed Woodshed with Home Hardware's "Wood-Shield Best" (inset and in the background), which they make here in Ontario (St. Jacobs).   I used it five years ago (Exterior Cedar colour) on my garage "door wall section" and it looks as good as the day it was applied. I was impressed with its ease of application, coverage and its "look & feel".  I hope to be doing my deck with it soon, after I pressure wash it with a "wood surface cleaner", (inset) of course.  This will be a much harsher test than a wall.    (Insets were done with Paint.net.)

Here's how the other two planks look in my Greenhouse.  They are so strong that even at 8' 2" long, there was hardly any deflection when I sat in the middle (of the lower one), so they will never need a middle support no matter how many or large the pots are.  Some of these pots were just seeded, the others about two weeks ago.  See Your Own Greenhouse page.

Wheelbarrow finished, in the Windowed Woodshed.

Make Your Own Wheelbarrow Handles

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"Who loves a garden loves a greenhouse too."   William Cowper

"Some of us are like wheelbarrows, only useful when pushed and easily upset."

Jack Herbert