Cedar Wood for Scales?

[Maverick299]

This may be a stupid question, but I was cutting up a dead cedar tree and was wondering why I've never seen it on a knife. I would think the grains of red, purple, and cream would be beautiful when polished up. Is it not a properly dense wood to use?

Just rambling thoughts from my brain.

 

[Big Mike]

I have a lot of red ceder on my property, but always though it as being a bit soft for handle scales.

Not saying it won't work, properly dried ceder is not crazy soft.

That said, I do have some colorful yew drying in my garage rafters, it's a slow growing wood that's very dense, some shows some interesting contrasting color.

I've had good success with some mesquite and live oak that I've harvested and slowly dried for ten year or so, it has made some exceptional handles.

I also have some nice spalted hemlock, limbs that died and dried in the tree, that I have considered getting stabilized.


You never know what you really have until you finish it out, sometimes the best handles show up unexpectedly.




Big Mike

 

[The Fort]

I think it wood be too soft.

 

[jkulysses]

Much to soft & prone to cracking & moving but I'm sure you could have it stabilized & it would work fine.

 

[bonky]

Much to soft & prone to cracking & moving but I'm sure you could have it stabilized & it would work fine.

I agree. It would probably be too soft on it's own, but if they can stabilize corncob, cactus and pinecones for scales, why not cedar?

 

[Will Power]

Big Mike's mention of Yew got me thinking. I have a walking stick I made out of a Yew branch 25 years ago (it was an old piece I found in a woodshed) It's wonderful stuff, quite light but really hard and shows nice colours, sturdy it is!

As an alternative to Cedar, many French makers use Juniper which has a beautiful pepper scent and is durable for handles.

 

[Creaky Bones]

[/url] photo.JPG by creakybonespics, on Flickr[/IMG]

My cedar handled 14

[/url] IMG_20131209_150726_822.jpg by creakybonespics, on Flickr[/IMG]

Yew 15

[/url] photo.PNG by creakybonespics, on Flickr[/IMG]

Warrior's yew 11

[/url] IMG_20140615_190239_643.jpg by creakybonespics, on Flickr[/IMG]

[/url] IMG_20140615_190146_762.jpg by creakybonespics, on Flickr[/IMG]

And the cedar ESEE 3 I just finished. Both yew and cedar (eastern red in my case) are easy to work with, although the dust should be avoided. It's rough on the lungs. I didn't stabilize any of them. The heartwood is harder than the sapwood. Cedar is not ironwood. It's not osage orange. It is beautiful stuff, and if you can accept the fact that it might dent easier if you bang it on something hard, it makes a pretty darned nice handle.

 

[Jack Black]

Big Mike's mention of Yew got me thinking. I have a walking stick I made out of a Yew branch 25 years ago (it was an old piece I found in a woodshed) It's wonderful stuff, quite light but really hard and shows nice colours, sturdy it is!

As an alternative to Cedar, many French makers use Juniper which has a beautiful pepper scent and is durable for handles.

Some of the Sheffield makers use yew.

Great pics Creaky Bones :thumbup:

 

[Maverick299]

Great pics! Thanks for sharing those.