Silver Vine Wood

Walt2

Walt2

Joined
Mar 13, 2001
Messages
1,157
I bought two sets of stabilized Silver Vine scales from Gallery Hardwoods and put one of them on a knife per customer request. He wanted a sheath and I had one that I obtained from TKS. I soaked the sheath and formed it to the knife. As it started to dry, I periodically would check the fit. I left the knife in the sheath about 15 min at one point and when I pulled it out, I saw something odd on the scales where they made firm contact with the leather. The scales were softened in these spots. Evidently the combination of tanning chemical/water attacked either the stabilizing material, the wood, or both. After sanding the spots out, of course had to redo the scales. Now, I'm not sure what I will do. I'm wondering about using something like Teak oil on the scales. Has anyone had this sort of problem before?
 
Hmm, never seen that before, but then I don't use a lot of wood, stabilized or not. I do tend on natural woods to give a good coat of Watco Danish oil to help seal it even if it's desert iron wood. You might try danish oil, it gets down into the pores and would probably help protect the wood.

Most stabilized wood is stabilized with an acrilic resine, don't know what would soften it up.
 
I think Teak oil sinks in better than the Danish oil, but with stabilized wood, neither one should sink in.
 
Walt, I've got a block of the stab. silver vine that I got a good three years ago. Its been sitting on my computor desk ever since I brought it home and its doing fine. I'm really not sure why I bought it to tell you the truth. Must have had 35 bucks burning a hole in my pocket. I'd contact Larry and tell him what has happend. After hearing this I may leave mine on the desk for another few years.
 
I'd contact Larry. I haven't used alot of Silver Vine but have used it twice without that problem. It seemed fine to me both times.

Good Luck.

Sean
 
Thanks for the replies. I haven't decided whether to contact him or not.
 
I have used a lot of stabilized wood, of many species and have found them to be impervious to most all liquids. I wet form all my sheaths and have never had the problem you have discribed here. Do you think there is a chance a block got through without being stabilized? This just happened to me recently.
Fred
 
I think it is stabilized. Both sets looks the same. I tried some Teak oil on it and it did not want to soak in although it did make it change color slightly. The spots or areas that had firm contact with the wet leather turned a very light color and was soft. I could scrape it with a fingernail like it was a coating peeling off something. The spots were not very deep, maybe like the thickness of fingernail polish on a fingernail.
 
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