Drying wood for knife handle

[fisherman66]

I'm planning on doing a little tree trimming soon for a family member. She has a couple mature rose bushes and crept myrtles. Are these appropriate woods for knife handles? Would it be best to zip tie the ends for drying to minimize cracking? Any other considerations?

 

[hso]

Never heard of anyone using those, but ya never know.

 

[Oldnamvet]

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=741

Go over to this site and post the question. Nothing about knives that these guys don't know -- including appropriate wood for scales.

 

[fisherman66]

Thank you

 

[Valkman]

If it's not a very hard wood like Snakewood or Ironwood it really should be stabilized or it probably won't last for decades of use. It will absorb liquids and deteriorate unless you protect it somehow - soaking in thin superglue might work after it's dry.

That said, if you just want to make yourself a knife and don't care about that then go for it. You could even use screws or bolts to hold the handles together so they'll be replacable down the road.

 

[Kingcreek]

cut the wood, peel the bark, and seal the ends with parafin wax or paint. put it somewhere to dry.
I have put wood pieces in my basement up in the braces between the floor joists above the hot water heater and the boiler.
to season wood for a longbow, I use a plywood box lined with foil with a lamp bulb at each end.
If the wood is soft, you'll want to stabilize it. you can do it yourself if you have the equipment but it would probabaly make more sense to send it out unless you are going to be doing it frequently. involves soaking the wood in a preservative in a vacuume canister.

 

[Skofnung]

Crepe myrtle will check (crack and split) like the dickens. It is a very hard wood once dry. The problem is it's moisture content. From observation, I would say that >50% of the green weight is water.

For most woods, I use wax on the end grain and let it cure for a year per inch of thickness. This will not work for Crepe Myrtle.

A local oldtimer, friend, carftsman, farmer, sawyer, and curmudgeon uses sparkleberry wood for farm tool handles (axes, hoes, shovels, ect...) Sparkleberry is very simmilar to Crepe Myrtle in the way that it drys and works.

He de-barks the wood and soaks it for several years in a handy petroleum substance (kerosene, deisel, whatever... don't use gasoline!) He has a 5' 1/2" long 3" diameter steel pipe that he uses as a tank. Even after such treatments, checks still happen.

I will say this. For all that time (waiting for the wood to cure) there are better woods out there. Don't expect too much from this type of wood.

 

[fisherman66]

Skofnung,

Thank you for that commentary. That was exactly the information I needed. I will be cutting some Oak too. I will dry the Oak and use that instead. The rose cuttings will likely be too small to shape, but I will hang on to that wood just incase. There is one really nice mytrle burl that I will let season just incase too.

 

[Sunray]

"...dry the Oak..." If it's white oak, it'll crack naturally as it dries and there's nothing you can do to stop it. You might get enough uncracked wood for a knife handle if the branch/hunk is big enough though. The cracks do not effect the strength. Mind you, I'm only using white oak for the centre pole for a 15 x 15 tent I made and don't care if it's cracked. Definitely peel oak when it's green. I have an oak, um, walking stick that I made out of a branch(red oak, I think) that did not crack at all. However, the bark is about a half inch thick.
Zip ties won't stop wood from cracking. If it's going to crack it will. If the place you have the wood is very dry, it'll change the way the wood dries. In a house or apartment isn't the best place. A garage would be better. Although a hunk of apple from my ma's tree dried with no fuss inside. Apple has no grain at all, but carves easily.
"Rosewood is a generic term for a variety of wood species belonging to the Papilionatae family of trees." Came from here. http://www.woodgrips.com/about_cocobolo.htm
It wouldn't hurt to cut a hunk, peel it and leave it to dry for a few months to see. It'd make for an interesting project. Of course, telling us how it comes out is mandatory.

 

[Omni04]

Fisherman, if you do make something out of it make sure to post pics, i would like to see how it turns out!

 

[fisherman66]

I will, but it will be several months to as long as a year before it'll be seasoned enough.

I wonder if there is a way to dry it with constant pressure (Like an electical cord wrapped tightly.)

 

[Skofnung]

I don't know if this would work in this application or not, but the aforementioned soaking in petroleum method can be sped up thus:

Get a threaded steel pipe and put a cap (teflon tape the threads) on one end.

Fill with kerosene and add wood.

Drill a hole in another end cap to accept a bike air valve. Add the air valve and use sillicone caulk or the like to make sure that the valve is sealed.

Cap the top end (again use Teflon tape on the threads) and add between 5 and 10 lbs of air pressure from a hand pump.

This speeds up the process.

My late father used this method when making hickory ramrods for the muzzleloaders that he so loved. You could bend these ramrods like nobody's business and they wouldn't break.

My brother and I now use the method when making jo staffs for "hiking" in places that force you to go unarmed. They darn near can't be broken.

Best of luck to you.