Ring Gidgee

primos

primos

Joined
Jan 27, 2000
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615
I am continually on the look for different materials to dress up my designs. A couple of years ago I got to try out some Ring Gidgee (or Gidgea), a wood native to Australia, and fell in love with the stuff. Gidgee, to the best of my knowledge is a naturally stable wood. It is highly figured and a pleasure to work with.

My personal favorite is the Ring Gidgee variety. It reminds me to a degree of a nice Curly Maple which has been stained. Here's a shot of one of my Montero's done up in Ring Gidgee:

montero.jpg


This is the natural coloring. With this one I did nothing more than hand-sand and put on a coat of wax. This one has a natural sheen. I have found that you can also pull out a glassy shine with Gidgee much like you can get with some of the high grade Ironwoods.

My good friend, Australian bladesmith extraordinaire, Steve Filicietti recently sent me some blocks of Gidgee that he cut. It was some of the most gorgeous stuff I've seen. I personally think that Steve should be selling the stuff, and he has let a little bit of it go. But Steve is not certain that the awareness of, and the interest in Gidgee would justify continued efforts in harvesting this beautiful wood for anything other than his personal use. It is afterall, hard work, and does take away time from his knifemaking.

Anyway, I'd like to get a discussion going about this beautiful Australian wood and cover the whole gambit. I think it could make for an interesting thread. For example:

  • Collectors - I'd like to see shots of knives in your collection which are handled in Ring Gidgee or one of the other highly figured Gidgee varieties. Let us know what you think of it.
  • Purveyors and Dealers - Let us know your opinions on Gidgee, adn how the public takes to it.
  • Makers - Show knives you've done in Gidgee, discuss your opinions of the wood, maybe even share how you finish it. (I guess the latter would be best suited for the Shop Fourm, but I still think it would be interesting here).

Okay, I've already shown one of mine. Anybody ever wonder where this stuff grows? Here's a photo Steve sent me the other day. This is the type of country where Steve harvests the stuff:

//www.primosknives.com/ckd_images/quilpie.jpg

Chime in guys. Maybe I can convince Steve to come over and get involved.
 
Terry, Steve sent me two boxes of this wood to hand out to the makers that live around here. I also gave alot to Batson at the hammer-in a couple of weeks ago. I had never heard of Gidgee wood till at last years SOS show. I heard Batson tell Steve that it was BETTER than Ironwood and that he wanted a 100 board feet of it! When I gave him his box in AL, he kissed me! I told him to stop! It was Steve he needed to be kissing.:confused:

Anyway, I kept two pieces for myself; I think I'll get Flatgrind to use it on my cutter and maybe the other on a Walker or Massey. Here is a tomahawk that Steve made with a Gidgee handle.

I can't get the pic to download; I have no idea why!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Darby, attachments aren't working right now. Spark says it'll be fixed early next week.

I don't own any knives with gidgee handles, but I think it is one of the best looking woods around. I put it right up there with ironwood as one of my favorites.
 
Darby, I think there's a glitch with the attachment feature. If you want, you can email me the photo and I'll host it from one of my web servers.

I'm leaving in just a few minutes for another Easter gathering, but I'd be happy to post it for you tonight.

You can use either tprimos@sport.rr.com or terry@primosknives.com
 
Okay, here's Darby's Filicietti hawk with Ring Gidgee. For the sake of bandwidth I resized and compressed the image.

steves_thk2.jpg


Beautiful piece.
 
Hey Terry,

I don't have any Gidgee-handled knives in my collection (though we could fix that pronto if that Montero of yours is available ;) ). I've only seen one or two such knives in person and really liked them. The wood takes a nice polish and has some lovely figure and colour. Here's the handle of an outstanding bowie by the aforementioned Steve Filicietti: (this could be the poster knife for Gidgee, IMHO. Pic from Steve's site)

standard.jpg


And here's one from another Australian bladesmith, Shawn McIntyre (pic from knifeart.com)

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I know of one or two other makers who have sourced some Gidgee from Steve and I look forward to seeing it on their knives. I expect its popularity will increase as more makers and collectors get the stuff in their hands. Though I have to admit, if that means that Steve is going to spend more time off in the bush harvesting the stuff and less time at the forge, then as a collector of fine forged blades I'd find that a tough trade-off :)

Best regards,

Roger

(PS - Darby - great Hawk man!)
 
Terry,

Great looking knife. I had one block that I used but was not all that impressed with the contrast when it was finished. I would LOVE to be able to hand pick more of it if I had the chance. I've got a few pieces of Mesquite burl that I've been using, it all looks good in block form, it seems to be hit or miss when finished on a knife handle:rolleyes:
 
Beautiful knives and the Ring Gidgee is awesome. Thanks for showing it to us Darby, Terry and Roger.
 
Darby, you dog!!!!

I had to put up with you that entire weekend and you didn't let me in on the goodies, shame, shame, shame!!! :(
Jokes aside, that's some good looking wood. We will see more of it in the future I'm sure.

:)
 
I use mostly woods from AU. RG is one of my favorites, along with western myall fiddleback, curly jarrah, and red gum. Since most are all naturally stabilized and very dense, you actually save time and bucks.
Ken (wwjd)
 
I was lucky and Steve sent me some gidgee last year. I sent some down to Jerry Hossom and had this one made. A knife this nice needed a good 1911 to match so I played a bit myself.
Hossom1.jpg
 
I like this thread, thanks Terry. Ringed Gidgee has been a favourite here in Australia for a long time. Niel, there was another suplier cutting some gidgee for a while , this stuff was from further south and east of where the deep rich coloured stuff grows and is paler and less figured, nowdays it seems I am the only person cutting any gidgee. The less rainfall, the better the wood. I will continue to cut some as the good wood grows in one of my favourite hunting areas, gives me something to do of a day. Because most of the animals in this area are nocturnal ,so to are the cats. I never tire of shooting cats. On one property of 1150 sqare kilometres (where it hasn't rained for a few years) I have found 2 good gidgee trees suitable for handles, most trees grow very short and straight grained. I am often lurking through the forums so if anyone has any questions about gidgee or the other Aussie hardwoods, I'd be happy to provide answers if I can.

Steve,,,,,,,,,,
 
Great looking stuff Terry! Terrill sent me a piece of Ringed Gingee, and want to get it on a knife soon as I can.. Cool wood, is so cool;)
I dont really like wood on a using knife, but nothing looks better than nice wood on a good blade..
 
Originally posted by steve f
I never tire of shooting cats.
Click to expand...

:confused: :(

Hey! I like cats!

Reg. this wood, it doesn't look that much more impressive than dyed maple. I don't mean to be insulting, it's just that pics don't do it justice.

On a separate note, has anyone (esp. Steve, I suppose) ever tried Laced Sheoak? I've got a piece at home, and it looks amazing: orange with interwoven thin white laces.
 
Joss, your right, it is hard to see the colour and figure of the gidgee in photos. Like desert Ironwood no 2 bit are ever the same, theres a lot of stuff happening that you can't really see in a photo in sunlight it's awesome. Lacey Casurina (sheoak)is a Western Australian wood that is also very nice, David Brodziak uses quite a bit of it http://www.omninet.net.au/~brodziak/ .
Your dead right too Flava, cat have devestated our wildlife in the arid parts of inland Australia, it only takes a few generations in our arid inland and your cute little house cat becomes a super predator, and big. Cats haves already caused the extinction of quite a few species of small marsupials, and some of our ground parrots. Cats have a place in the world but not in Australia.

Steve
 
I think gidgee is an acacia species and is related to several other trees with fancy wood including desert ironwood, mesquite and koa. Check out mesquite burls and crotch wood. It often has a similar pattern to the ringed gidgee, although it has slightly different colors.
Mesquite has the good feature of being plentiful in the SW US. It is very hard and dense and is one of the most stable of woods. It will not shrink, twist or crack on you. IT darkens with exposure to light, but doesn't get as dark as gidgee. It often has the ringed or fiddleback colors running across the grain and is chatoyant with many subtle colors.
 
Joss,
Stained Curly Maple can be made to "ressemble" Ring Gidgee, but Ring Gidgee is unique. Also, it is dense and naturally stable. You don't have to mess with sending it off for stabilization, or using the hardening oils, 0000 steel wool, and waiting for days for everything to cure.

Also there's no need to mess with dyes, potassium permanganate, chromic acid, etc. The beautiful color is already there -- naturally.

Steve's right, the camera can't grasp the beauty that the human eye can in a good light. But take a look at this piece. This is one of the blocks that Steve sent me. I didn't pick through the box to find the best one. I just grabbed one.

ring_gidgee.jpg


Even in this state, it has highly visible figure and a deep rich coloring -- that looks better than the photo. Now, can you imagine what this is going to look like when I make a handle, hand-sand it down 2000 grit, then give it a good hand-rub with wax? Imagine the 3D swirly golds intermingled with the rich brown rings.

I can see why Jim Batson wanted a hundred board feet of it from Steve, and why he grabbed Darby and gave him a kiss when Darby delivered the box. This is why I hope Steve will continue to cut and let some of this stuff go.
 
Very nice - it does have a very special appearance on this pic. Nearly as nice as the nicest walnuts, but somewhat more transparent.

I'd be interested in buying a few pretty pieces - maybe $20 - $30 worth...

Thanks,

JD
 
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