potential new handle material: superwood

Minor details :D
FortyTwoBlades said:
In the article they describe the researchers shooting it and the bullet being stopped and embedded in it, while it shot right through the non-treated piece of wood. But they don't mention the dimensions of either of those pieces. :p
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Or, maybe in addition to knives, as an enhancement to "performance" medications.

From the article:
"This new way to treat wood makes it 12 times stronger than natural wood and 10 times tougher,"
 
About 15 years ago, I helped our high school build a robot for the FIRST Robotics competition. Out budget was a joke and we were using the school wood shop. Much of the 'bot was made of wood, even the drive wheels. To save face, my son made a team sign on a piece of Cedar siding: "975 Featuring W-Fiber" I still have it in the garage. Our informal motto was "Wood is Good" and in subsequent years, we tried to at least have a little piece of wood somewhere. Five years later, a few teams that used wood were applauded for their "innovation". Maybe they used more expensive plywood.

karl_linn62.jpg


Edit: About 5 years later, we got good. Received a Motorola Quality Award for a 'bot that was lean, tight, powerful and 4 wheel drive. In one head-butting encounter, both of the 'bots flipped backwards. Tit for tat or thereabouts.
 
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A) I wonder if it is strong and stable enough to thread for screws. If so, it might actually work for the frame of a knife, rather than as scales over a metal frame.

B) I can foresee the construction possibilities. Imagine if you could frame a house with 1"x4" superwood studs. The weight and space savings could be enormous. Imagine instead of using a steel flitch plate over a bay window, if you got a 1"x8" (or 10" or whatever) of superwood that will expand and contract similar to the surrounding wood with temp changes so that you don't get creaking.
 
Spyderco military with Osage orange scales and m4 steel sandwiched between stainless.:cool: Sal, take my money! :D
 
19-3ben said:
A) I wonder if it is strong and stable enough to thread for screws. If so, it might actually work for the frame of a knife, rather than as scales over a metal frame.

B) I can foresee the construction possibilities. Imagine if you could frame a house with 1"x4" superwood studs. The weight and space savings could be enormous. Imagine instead of using a steel flitch plate over a bay window, if you got a 1"x8" (or 10" or whatever) of superwood that will expand and contract similar to the surrounding wood with temp changes so that you don't get creaking.
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:confused: I suspect this "superwood" will be dimensionally stable compared to wood . The cellular structure is removed and everything is greatly compacted . Think of a very dense composite material . If it's 10X harder than wood , not real easy to cut or drill etc .; but, yeah I think you could thread it if thick enough . My WAG ! ;)
 
The article said they shot " bullet like projectiles" at it. Let me try my .308 then I'll be impressed.
It does sound interesting .
 
I'm more interested in how the process changes the look of wood ? If wood looks like :poop: after that ........well , it can be stronger than nanoboutanium ...
 
"...partial removal of lignin and hemicellulose from the natural wood via a boiling process in an aqueous mixture of NaOH and Na2SO3..."

One method of making paper pulp in the Kraft process uses these or Na2S. "White liquor is a strongly alkaline solution mainly of sodium hydroxide and sodium sulfide Na2S." It sounds like they are making cardboard, but not overcooked. I found a number of articles mentioning the use of NaOH and compression for wood products. Interesting.
 
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