Did a little chopping today....

Andrew Colglazier

Andrew Colglazier

Joined
Sep 14, 2006
Messages
4,409
The problem - I was out of mosquite for our grill. The solution... this!

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My CAK is a fairly big one, probably in the 30-34 oz. range, just right for chopping! :)

I headed out to find some suitable wood to chop, and settled on this branch and surrounding deadwood which was encroaching on our entry road and fence -
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After a half an hour of chopping and gathering, I had this -
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This blade held up very well. I wore gloves, noticed no hotspots at all. The blade showed no sign of damage at all, just needed some sap cleaned off. Mosquite is pretty hard when it is dry, so some of these branches did offer a bit of resistance. But not enough! This is a great blade!

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Thank you, Yangdu, for a real quality product!!

:thumbup:

Andy
 
Man thats cool. My first was a Chiruwa AK too. Still a great design.

And check out the Misseltoe on that tree. Wow. Its hard to find it that low to the ground around here. We used to go out on the farm every christmas and shoot it down with a .22. You could just chop it off with your AK. Its a parasite, btw, you may want to.
 
aproy1101 said:
Man thats cool. My first was a Chiruwa AK too. Still a great design.

And check out the Misseltoe on that tree. Wow. Its hard to find it that low to the ground around here. We used to go out on the farm every christmas and shoot it down with a .22. You could just chop it off with your AK. Its a parasite, btw, you may want to.
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Andy, the mesquite trees out there are FULL of mistletoe. Many of those trees are dead, probably killed by the stuff.

Andy C.
 
I think I see that CAK smiling in the last picture. Good stuff, fine job.
 
Andrew Taylor said:
You know Mesquite would make good knife scales, as it is a bit like Desert Ironwood.
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Yup, I have read that it can be good. Doesn't it need to be stabilized before use? It does seem to be very hard! We have a ton of it. Some of it is wormy, full of holes. It would be easy to find good quality stuff, though.

It has a nice dark red color to the interior. I may have to try some!

Andy
 
Andy,
yea I am serious..Shoot me an e-mail through the site...I need some for knife scales and I am tired of giving OTHERS my $$$!!! :)

Might as well keep it on the cantina!!

AND I need BURL!!!!<~~~needs burl!
 
Burl is a type of wood I think...not really sure justbeing silly<~~~medicated!

Dude if ya can hook me up with some slabs of that mesquite, you will go on my Christmas card list!!! :)
 
Hey Andrew,

Very nice review and pics:thumbup: :)

How does mesquite compare in hardness to other woods a yankee like me might know?;) I know hawaiian mesquite was hard--Kiawe they called it. amazing stuff for barbeque fuel.
 
Leatherface said:
Burl is a type of wood I think...not really sure justbeing silly<~~~medicated!

Dude if ya can hook me up with some slabs of that mesquite, you will go on my Christmas card list!!! :)
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I did a little research on what makes burl... basically, it is a portion of the tree which has bee effected in some way so as to create irregular patterns of grain in the wood. As examples - injury to the tree, insect damage, areas around forks, knots or roots.

The trees on our place should be perfect for this... lots of mistletoe, which should be able to effect the wood in interesting ways.

I'll do some looking around the next time I'm out there!

Andy
 
MauiRob said:
Hey Andrew,

Very nice review and pics:thumbup: :)

How does mesquite compare in hardness to other woods a yankee like me might know?;) I know hawaiian mesquite was hard--Kiawe they called it. amazing stuff for barbeque fuel.
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In my google search, it seems that mesquite is actually quite a hard, dense wood that doesn't normally need to be stabilized.

I would say, it is not as hard as osage orange, but harder than ceder. About as hard as live oak, if you are familiar with that?

Andy
 
Andrew Colglazier said:
I did a little research on what makes burl... basically, it is a portion of the tree which has bee effected in some way so as to create irregular patterns of grain in the wood. As examples - injury to the tree, insect damage, areas around forks, knots or roots.

The trees on our place should be perfect for this... lots of mistletoe, which should be able to effect the wood in interesting ways.

I'll do some looking around the next time I'm out there!

Andy
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Yes, you can get burl from where a limb has been lopped or broken off, or where all the roots join the trunk. Wood that is dead on the tree would not really need stabilising unless you have a lot of rain. For live wood, you can try painting the ends with wax, wood glue or similar. What this does is makes the drying more even, which stops splitting, cracking and warping. Of course after this, you would have to wait a few years. Commercial stabilising forces resin into the pores using pressure and vacuum. If you have limbs that have broken off and have been sitting in the sun for 5 years, the wood isn't going to move much. Worm holes could be a 'feature' as long as the wood isn't rotten.
 
Hey AC, I wouldn't mind an 8 dollar shipping box stuffed with that stuff either. I can pp you the 8 bucks for the shipping, of course.
 
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