Anyone ever seen scales made from high alpine pine?

[David Schott]

I have been wondering....up here in the NE, we have alpine spruce and pine right at treeline in the white mountains. These often grow for hundreds of years and never get above 3-4 feet high. Their trunks and root systems are often heavily gnarled and wrapped around rocks and in crevices. The wood, with such tiny growth per year in rings, should be incredibly dense and strong. This seems quite the recipe for some amazing wood. Of course, its a federal offense to go ahead and cut a tree down, but I have often seen dead trees nestled under rocks.....

Has anyone ever seen scales made from such wood? It would have to be ethically gathered with permission or scrounged from remote areas. Something about those gnarled and contoured little trees has always seems fitting for a special knife.....

 

[McAhron]

Most are protected species and I would be hesitant to use any.