bowed wood

hardheart

hardheart

Joined
Sep 19, 2001
Messages
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I have some claro walnut blocks, about 7/8" thick. I want to split them in half for scales, but they're bowed a little bit along their length. Any ideas for getting them straighter so I can cut them on my table saw, or will I just have to do a lot of sanding to get thin, straight scales? I already lose 1/8" from the blade, so I'd rather not.
 
I have staightend scales with a heat gun by heating them up and laying them down like a rocking chair, and SLOWLY clamping each side with a c-clamp. It must be HOT, i did not say warm! I have had moderate success with this, but never tried it on a block. Also let the piece come back to room temp before removing clamps. Sometimes takes a couple times.
Matt Doyle
 
From my experience with wood, not so much my experience with knifemaking: Your best bet is to dry out the wood as much as possible,even if it warps, and this will leave the wood in its least stressed state. If you do all sorts of other treatments to straighten it, then the sample may become internally stressed. These internal stresses may revert back to warpage later on when it is mounted onto your beautiful knife, and the handle scales may force themselves off the blade. Like you said though, your problem is lack of thickness. You should try and get your local timber merchant to cut it on a bandsaw for you (thinner blade and less material loss) Good luck
 
I believe that trying to straighten them will induce stress that will try to unstress (I.E. WARP) later on at the wrong time. The way I have been trying to combat that is to start off with an overly large piece, and as the pieces warp, or become unstressed, you can sand out the warp. this means you cannot just cut a piece and slap em on, you have to wait. how long? till they stop moving. Funny thing too is some folks think that stablilzation stops wood from moving completely, which is not true. If there is stress in the block it will show over time.
 
These blocks were dried for a year, according to the person I bought them from, so hopefully they don't have much movement left in them. I do such a lousy job on the bandsaw, I dunno. I could also try to find a blade with a thinner kerf for the table saw.

I did buy some english oak scales from another seller that were stabilized in some manner that left them coated with a plastic like residue. I was gone for two weeks, and it gets incredibly hot upstairs where the wood was. When I came back, the scales were warped something fierce-bent, twisted, and full of cracks. I decided against buying more stabilized scales from them, luckily the redwood & thuya burl I got from them didn't do the same.
 
Keep the blocks as they are. Take a piece of straight scrap wood the same width and about 1" thick. Epoxy the bent block to the scrap block. DO NOT CLAMP, just let the epoxy harden. Take the assembly and run it through the saw to get a flat bottom.Turn upright and run it through to get a straight outside edge. Next run it through to get a straight cut through the middle. Last, run it through to cut the walnut from the scrap. You now have two straight scales.
Stacy
 
hardheart said:
I could also try to find a blade with a thinner kerf for the table saw.
Click to expand...

Talk about timing. I just got a Freud diablo 7 1/4" 40 tooth finishing blade, supposedly has a kerf of .059. It cuts the hardest stuff for DAYS. I used it to cut some Ipe, and it handled that no sweat. Nice blade.
http://www.internationaltool.com/freuddiablofinishingblades.htm
It is really thin and does not waste tha much material. Moreso than a bandsaw, but not nearly as much as a plain jane 10" blade. I went to the table saw cause my bandsaw likes to go from cutting square to about 20deg by the end of the cut. Talk about frustrating. Adjusting blade tension makes no difference.:mad:
 
I went to the table saw cause my bandsaw likes to go from cutting square to about 20deg by the end of the cut. Talk about frustrating. Adjusting blade tension makes no difference.
Click to expand...
Gixxer, I will be the first to admit that wood and I do not generally play well together. I can do a pretty good job on a knife handle but that is about the extent of it:o I have a friend that plays quite well with wood and mentioned this same problem to him. He stated that the blade I was using did not have a wide enough cross section. He said that going to a blade with a wider cross section would cure the problem you/I were having. I still made him cut my blocks into scales anyhow!:D
Matt Doyle
 
gixxer said:
Talk about timing. I just got a Freud diablo 7 1/4" 40 tooth finishing blade, supposedly has a kerf of .059. It cuts the hardest stuff for DAYS. I used it to cut some Ipe, and it handled that no sweat. Nice blade.
http://www.internationaltool.com/freuddiablofinishingblades.htm
It is really thin and does not waste tha much material. Moreso than a bandsaw, but not nearly as much as a plain jane 10" blade. I went to the table saw cause my bandsaw likes to go from cutting square to about 20deg by the end of the cut. Talk about frustrating. Adjusting blade tension makes no difference.:mad:
Click to expand...

Ipe is rough to cut straight. I build decks out of it and when I have to do jigsaw cuts even the best starts going weird on you.

I keep debating using it for knife handles. I don't have eny super pretty grain stuff, but I've got several dozen 3/4 x 5 1/2 by 6 to 12 inch scraps......
 
mdoyle said:
Gixxer, I will be the first to admit that wood and I do not generally play well together. I can do a pretty good job on a knife handle but that is about the extent of it:o I have a friend that plays quite well with wood and mentioned this same problem to him. He stated that the blade I was using did not have a wide enough cross section. He said that going to a blade with a wider cross section would cure the problem you/I were having. I still made him cut my blocks into scales anyhow!:D
Matt Doyle
Click to expand...
I was using the widest blade allowed on my feeble 9" benchtop saw! That's okay, more motivation to get this!!
http://www.grizzly.com/products/G0555X
That's MISTER 1 1/2 HP to you!!

koyote said:
Ipe is rough to cut straight. I build decks out of it and when I have to do jigsaw cuts even the best starts going weird on you.

I keep debating using it for knife handles. I don't have eny super pretty grain stuff, but I've got several dozen 3/4 x 5 1/2 by 6 to 12 inch scraps......
Click to expand...
I have decided to try the stuff for beater knives so you can have the feel of wood, and the stuff still be practically bulletproof. The stuff I have is fairly straight but some of it has a little bit of chatoyance (SP?). That freud blade slices the stuff pretty easy, even down into scales.
 
Remember that ipe splits like crazy if the ends aren't sealed. (epoxy, weldwood, wood hardener? the wax sealer is way too slippery. hell, linseed oil might do it, I have no idea)

I just cut a handle out of it for one of the knives I am working on, we'll see :)
 
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