Questions about end grain spalted wood

[Britt_Askew]

What spalted said. If you want thin scales, you have to stabalize a thicker piece, attach them to the tang and THEN thing them out, otherwise you run too high a risk of breaking them

to be clear the piece that I broke - I broke on purpose because I wanted to see how strong it was. After watching it snap in half with minor effort I just decided it was not worth the risk , I have plenty of wood to choose from that I know wont crack. BUT man that stuff sho is purty

 

[neal70]

cutting the end grain at an angle as mentioned above might help, but in the end it's still going to be fibers going the wrong way(too short). spalted burl or crotch wood would give you the greatest chance of success because the wood fibers are so twisted that they become almost knotted. it's all really dependent on the wood you're using. sometimes you just have to gut it out and try.(easy for me to say-i don't have to fix it, if it dosen't work out) best of luck.