Can anyone tell me if this wood would be suitable for handles please?

[olliesnook]

Hi to all.
It's been a long time since I've had the chance to make a knife...
But, outside work today I saw in the firewood pile, some really interesting looking wood. I know I've seen scales with these weird black lines in it before, but I can't remember what it's called... I like the idea of stabilising the wood for some scales at some point, and if this stuff looks like it would be any good, I can get my hands on loads of it.
Does anyone have any good advice on whether this stuff would make good handles?
Cheers in advance
Ollie

 

[3fifty7]

I'm working with something very similar. I have some spalted pecan I would love to use as a set of scales.
The spalted veins are fungus I believe and generally the wood is substantially weakened. I've overcut some and will try a few methods. When they all fail I imagine I will pick out a set that I love and send them off to be professionally stabilized.


Sent via telegraph with the same fingers I use to sip whiskey.

 

[i4Marc]

I have similar stuff. It should be stabilized to get the best chances of it holding up in use. I had a stabilized handle block come apart while drilling out the tang cavity. Karl Andersen uses a lot of the spalted woods with good success though. It's a nice look when done well.

 

[Fish30114]

I would cut that to scale sized chunks and stabilize it myself. I have a stabilizing system I originally purchased for stabilizing pen blanks. I use 'Cactus Juice' check out Turn Tex website the principal is Curtis O'Seebeck and he is a great guy, and Catus Juice is good stuff IME. You need a vacuum pump tank system like this : http://www.ebay.com/itm/311764213609
This is a good deal based on my experience. If you send me some of that wood I would test on a knife handle for you

 

[kuraki]

I love black line spalted maple and seek it out. I have some coming back from K&G right now, and a bit block of it waiting to be sliced up into sayas.

It really broke my heart when I destroyed this set of scales by not keeping track of where I doweled the maple and ebony together. Like I almost teared up a bit. These are now nothing but dust

I think it needs to be stabilized as well.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

I do spalted persimmon and maple that looks a lot like your wood. It should be cut to oversize handle blocks and dried well, then stabilized. I would not use the cactus juice type on these somewhat decayed woods, and they need the fully cured resins that the pros use. It will come back harder and will sand and polish quite well.

 

[JTknives]

I love black line spalted maple and seek it out. I have some coming back from K&G right now, and a bit block of it waiting to be sliced up into sayas.

It really broke my heart when I destroyed this set of scales by not keeping track of where I doweled the maple and ebony together. Like I almost teared up a bit. These are now nothing but dust

I think it needs to be stabilized as well.

Wow that sucks dude, that really looked good.

 

[Willie71]

I do spalted persimmon and maple that looks a lot like your wood. It should be cut to oversize handle blocks and dried well, then stabilized. I would not use the cactus juice type on these somewhat decayed woods, and they need the fully cured resins that the pros use. It will come back harder and will sand and polish quite well.

I've used cactus juice on spalted poplar, and it works quite well. It has to be impregnated properly. This is the application cactus juice is best at. Lightweight and pourous woods are the easiest to fully impregnate. I've cast items in cactus juice too with good success.

 

[kuraki]

Wow that sucks dude, that really looked good.

Thanks, I was really proud of how that one was turning out. Especially since I was trying to do the "right thing" and shore up that joint with dowels. There are two in there, one above the one you can see. I tried grinding a finger groove through the one exposed in the top picture and ended up exposing the second one. That's when I gave up and ground them off.

 

[olliesnook]

Wow, thanks for all the replies. I'll get my filthy little hands on as much as I can, it's just firewood outside work. My main issue will be getting it cut, as I don't have a large enough saw. I'll keep you all posted on how it's going, and if I can send any small pieces on to anyone, I'll do it for postage cost.
Cheers
Ollie