Handle wood native to Montana

[Hengelo_77]

A friend of my girlfriend married a man in Montana. Now I want to make her a knife for the out doors over there with a handle half out of Dutch oak and the other half from a wood that comes from Montana.
What would be a good wood to use?

 

[firebert]

Not a huge amount of hardwood here in Butte, anyway. I have seen some amazing turnery made from juniper, though. We have that stuff in spades. Or you could go with something like birch burl.

I would personally love to see a fancy juniper handled knife.

 

[Harry Stone]

Here's a list of native trees:
http://www.glaciernursery.com/hiandre/nativetree.html

Ponderosa Pine is the state tree. Don't know about making a knife handle from pine though.

 

[Erik Fritz]

Check with alpha knife supply but they used to have some stabilized cottonwood burl that was just gorgeous. and from looking out my shop window it must be native.

 

[SteelSlaver]

In eastern Montana a old juniper fence post should be easy to come by and come August it will be dry. Some of them have to be getting near a hundred years old. I must be fairly stable, my brother used some for a neck on a mandolin and it has been playing well for years now

 

[Dan Pierson]

Mike Miller does some great things with stabilized juniper burl http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=550746.

He also sells it -- I've got a few pairs of scales that haven't dared to use yet. I think his is collected in the southwest though.