maple for knife/hawk handles

GibsonFan

GibsonFan

Joined
Jul 7, 2006
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I collected some nice straight maple staves while camping over the weekend.
I'm wondering about the best way to let them dry out/age before cutting into slabs to use for scales, etc. This is relatively dry, fallen wood, but not rotten as far as I can tell. I think it would be cool to have local maple handles on my camping knives etc.
 
From making all wood bows, you want the wood to dry out as evenly as possible to prevent cracks and checking. I'd cut it to almost thr right size, then seal the ends with wax or wood glue. Force the moisture out slowly through the top and bottom of the slabs.

BTW...great tutorial on stabilizing wood there, thanks for the link.

Rick
 
I thought about cutting them into scales first, but I would have never thought of sealing the ends, I guess that makes the piece dry out slower? Thanks for the tip :)
 
After it has dried for 6-9 months per inch of thickness you will need to heat it to about 190°-200° F for at least 8 hours to kill any bugs or eggs inside and bring the moisture level down to 8-12%. Then stabilize if you want.
 
Has anyone ever thought ?? Now stay with me here :) You'll need to be patient:confused: Ever thought about dropping a nice hawk over a live straight maple sapling and letting it grow into the head ?? I'll bet it would work out pretty cool . Just a thought :D

Edit : After thinking about what I suggested I'll bet the Handle might shrink to a rather loose fit after drying/seasoning. Just wondering GibsonFan if you have any Birdseye in your area of wisconsin ? I was once told that it is a freak of nature kind of thing that happens to some Maple , and also that it is very localized ( only occurs in certain areas of the country ) Anyone ???? Incidentally we run into quite a bit in this part of the country.
 
David Wesner said:
Just wondering GibsonFan if you have any Birdseye in your area of wisconsin ?
Click to expand...

My hometown was literally built with fine lumber -- I mean the whole economy, back in the day. :)

I haven't come across any nice birdseye or flame maple yet in my adventures, but you never know. You can't tell until it's cut up, so I just look for pieces that are nice and straight.

Sorry it took so long to reply... I've been real busy camping... haven't broken any knives or my hawk yet! I've been beatin' the snot out of 'em, too :)
 
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