Apple wood for handles?

Phil705

Phil705

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Joined
Aug 23, 2007
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Any thoughts on apple wood as knife scales? Got a burl free, but not sure whether to use as firewood or handles. I would stabilize.
 
Apple is really neat, I have some spalted Apple that had a nice creamy red and white splaying going on
 
I haven't used it, but to my thinking, if it looks good and seems structurally sound enough, stabilizing should make a great handle wood of it. I know it's hard stuff.
 
I made this one earlier this year with a piece of two-tone apple. It has a really neat creamy color. It's got plain grain, but I love the color.

 
It's kind of plain, and not that stable around moisture, unless stabilized. Difficult to dry without checking.
I'd use it if someone wanted a knife made from materials from the Ol' Homestead.
If you can get a good piece, though, it's hard and durable.
 
Apple wood is one of the types of wood that got me interested in burl and figured woods.
There was a shopping center being built near where I lived in Washington.
They had bulldozed an old homestead and there were some apple trees in the burn pile.
I asked the workers if I could take some of the wood and they said OK.
There were big growths on some of the trunks that looked like brains.
Very cool stuff. I wish I would have saved some because I have never seen it again.

My suggestion would be to seal the cut ends with paint and then stack the wood in a dark shed for a few years.
Let it dry super slow because apple wood tends to like to move when drying.

Save all your cut offs for smoking salmon.
 
Apple was the specified wood for the U.S.M.C. (US Medical Corps) bolo knife. Later, Chatillon Cutlery requested (and received) permission to use other woods (e.g., birch) due to difficulty in getting apple wood.
 
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