Hornbeam for knife scales?

[gomipile]

I have access to some slow grown, very dense American hornbeam. I've been using it for tool handles and such.

The hornbeam I have is very straight and clean, so it makes great staffs and axe/hammer/maul handles, etc, but as a corollary there is no burl wood. Thus, there is hardly any with a complex figure.

I was wondering, is there anything special I should know about using it for knife scales? Does it make good/poor/fair scales? Does it stabilize well? Is there a particular way to cut and stabilize it that gives it attractive chatoyancy?

 

[Frank Niro]

At one time , several years ago - say 30 - I made straight hunting knives. I was fortunate to have a specialty hardwood supplier give me many different kinds to try. What I found was if they were reasonably hard, like walnut or harder, and dry they worked well. Now foe a real fancy knife, you might want to use some ---. Frank