Did you ever stop to notice...

As if to prove my addiction is out of control, today I visited the Gilmer Wood site again. I don't have any particular needs, of course... that goes without saying. But that didn't stop me from buying what appears to be a sizable quantity of Camphor Burl. Worse still, it's green wood that won't be ready to use for at least a year, and even then will require stabilization.

And yet, I am still excited by the purchase.

It's a sickness, I tell you.
 
That will have to wait until the package arrives. Gilmer took the pics down after I bout the item.
 
Got the shipping notice from Gilmer... 28 pounds. Scheduled delivery date... tomorrow! One of the advantages of living in the PNW... quick shipments from Gilmer.
 
The massive 28 pound hunk of wood arrived today.
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Incidentally, yes, I am bright enough to know this purchase was a mistake. Not my first, and certainly no my last.
 
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Woah Greg! 60 to 100 knife handles with that block of nice big eyes & Cinnamony burl.

For my next purchase, I plan to grab a couple small dried camphor blocks + a few more squares of African Blackwood.
 
well it might not have the best figure for knife handles but it would make a killer something!
Have a few beers and stare at it for a while, stroke it before you go to bed and drag it around the house for a few days.
That's the way to find out what that *something* is going to be.

(Cut it in four equal slabs and make a bookmatched table top?)
 
Cutting it will be the FIRST problem (of several). It's huge. I'll get a major workout making a single cut. Making two cuts will be two days workout. Cutting it into slabs means I won't need to work out for a month or two. Not that I work out, mind you... just sayin.
 
Despite the fact that I have an obvious addiction to handle materials, I try to avoid being wasteful. Last night I spent about an hour going through my bag of cut-off scraps from previous handle builds. The purpose was to find pieces large enough to be cut into book matched EDC scales. I ended up with six pairs, including two made from beautiful Amboyna Burl pieces that I'd used on previous handles. One of the pieces I split was shaped like an obelisk, so the scales came out tapered. I have a feeling that will make an interesting handle. I'll post pictures later today.

While I rarely make full tang knives, I think now I'll have to make a few (probably from 1084) just to give me a reason to use the Amboyna scales.

Meanwhile, I also find myself now collecting synthetic materials, which also begs for full tang applications. What on earth am I doing to myself?

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Nice stash, Greg. Hey, you could make kitchen knife display cases or sayas out of that camphor burl... but yeah, rippping it thin will be a PITA without a nice saw.
 
Excellent idea! As for saws... maybe it will accompany me on my next trip to Kirby, OR. ;)
 
Old topic, but reminds me of this afternoon. Got piles of wood I had stabilized, boxes of antler and horn, black wood and curly maple, ect. And still can't find just the piece I need for a certain knife! Now I'm looking online for stabilized wood. It never ends!
 
This is funny. I took Judy to dinner Friday, and she noticed a pile of wood on the back seat. She asked what it was for and I told her it was wood I got in a trade for 10 small "bait" knives at the Harrisonburg show. I put it on the back seat to remind me to box it up and send it out for stabilizing. She smiled and said, "Didn't you go there to sell wood?"


Greg,
I got some red camphor burl a long time ago. It took years for it to get to a condition where it could be stabilized....and it still warped a bit in stabilizing. I used a few blocks, and still have the rest.
Let the big block sit for six months to a year.
Cut about 3" off one end and slice that into large (oversize) blocks. Trim 1/4"off all outside surfaces to remove any wax. The blocks need to be quite oversize to allow for some twist and warp in drying and stabilizing.
Let the blocks sit for six months to a year.
Stabilize a few blocks and see how they do. Let those results guide you in whether to cut up and stabilize the rest or not. My blocks were OK looking, but rather light and soft. The lovely sassafras smell decreases in drying, and is also greatly reduced by stabilizing.

It makes great guitar bodies and also turn into nice bowls and such, so maybe just slicing 3" off one end and trading/selling the rest of it as-is in a solid block to a wood turner or luthier would be a good idea.
 
Guys!
You need to use the advantages of WOOD PORN! My wife will walk by my desk which is right near the kitchen and say to me in her loving voice.
Looking at some more Wood Porn my dear? As I cruise the wood sites for great cheesecake pictures!!
I already have more than my quota of WOOD and have learned to use modern tech to get my fix on a daily basis in at least this department.

Then there are tools?
 
If I never bought another piece of wood, they would still have wood to place in my coffin when I finally die. I probably have 300-500 handle blocks stabilized, and enough wood to cut another 1000 blocks ( not an exaggeration).
 
That Sir is a big hunk of wood ! :eek:

Just starting out, I hope to have such problems down the road. :p
 
Don't worry, you will. Seems a law unto itself, you make things, wether it's knives or what, you learn to pack rat stuff, and sometimes I think it breads, and no mater what you've never got the piece your looking for.
 
Well, the good news (I guess) is that I am not overly attached to what I have. I seem to be able to part with some of the good stuff, largely because I know there is a lot more good stuff out there to get.

As for the camphor, I did cut off a smallish piece a couple of weeks ago... something like a 1.5 x 1.5 x 8 piece. The smell was delightful, though I worried about allergic reactions. Thankfully, I didn't have one.

I looked the piece over and decided it probably wasn't going to be useful for handles. I did like the idea of making a knife block out of it though... someday... after I retire and have nothing better to do...perhaps.

In the meantime, I have plenty of handle wood to work through. Why just the other day I took a perfectly good piece of stabilized Koa and reduced it to dust and a small piece of a handle I may never make. Thankfully, I have cut the larger Koa piece into two parts, and only ruined the smaller part.

Which still leaves me struggling for a handle solution for my mother-in-law's slicer. Now I'm thinking Kirinite scales on a G10 frame.
 
If you don't have a bucket of thrashed blades and another of ruined wood scales, you haven't been making knives very long!:D
 
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