So this happened….

Bühlmann

Bühlmann

North Lake Forge
Joined
Jan 6, 2022
Messages
475
I bought some really nice stabilized spalted maple from a reputable & popular vendor. While unpacking it I dropped a block and this happened:

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I was really surprised to see this from a stabilized block. Should I be? What would you do if this was yours?
 
Cross cut and spalting (rot) is about as weak a piece of wood as you can get, will be very strong in compression.
 
My gosh, sorry to see (beautiful piece)... I might share the story with the vendor who has likely had similar experiences/might understand your pain and may be able to offer an appealing remedy to your situation.
 
Seedy Lot said:
The process of spalting in wood is from decay by fungus. Stabilizing is not going to make a weakend wood tougher.
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I understand that, which is why it seems odd that it split not along a spalt line but rather the wood between spalt lines.
 
Bühlmann said:
I understand that, which is why it seems odd that it split not along a spalt line but rather the wood between spalt lines.
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I was going to ask this too, it looked broke all over....

Maybe just a freak accident?

I've never beat on stabilized wood before.
I do hit with a hammer all my various micarta's.
Not a fan of paper micarta, now, any more.
 
If you can imagine an axe on a cross cut log cleavage planes can occur anywhere, depending on the angle it hit the floor it could act such.
The spalting looks to go straight through about 1/4" from the front edge and could be the propagation point, stabilizing could have made the section less strong as there is no natural "shock absorbing" of the natural wood, My understanding, which could be misplaced, is that stabilizing only prevents moisture absorption and thus resists expansion and contraction forces.
 
Cross cutting against the grain is the most structurally weak way to cut blocks. You can get beautiful figure, but it comes at the cost of diminished strength.

Professional stabilizing companies like K&G will make spalted wood much tougher.

Who stabilized the wood and what stabilant was used?

Chuck
 
Alpha Knife Supply said:
Cross cutting against the grain is the most structurally weak way to cut blocks. You can get beautiful figure, but it comes at the cost of diminished strength.

Professional stabilizing companies like K&G will make spalted wood much tougher.

Who stabilized the wood and what stabilant was used?

Chuck
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It was an outfit from AZ...I have no idea what they use, but their reputation suggests that it would be a recognized stabilizing product and process. I get that crosscut wood is not the strongest, I just didn't expect a 1.00"+ block to fail from a drop of three feet off of the ground. Live & learn I guess.

Into the burn box with all three blocks! 😂
 
I wouldn’t burn them. After glue and pinning to handle, they will be fine.

You can actually glue those together with a CA glue and if done properly will look right.

Crosscut and highly figured woods are weaker by nature. I always have to handle them very carefully during all steps. I dropped a pretty much completely finished box elder burl scale from less than 3 ft and it cracked. That sucked. I glue it together and finished the knife.

It is my personal knife and was a test knife and the scale is still fine.

Just food for thought.
 
Alpha Knife Supply said:
Professional stabilizing companies like K&G will make spalted wood much tougher.
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I would have expected that stabilization would have given cross cut blocks better strength. Correct me if I’m wrong, but it’s essentially impregnating the block with, effectively, a glue- something that bonds substances.

ETA- maybe it also make the wood more brittle?
 
Bühlmann said:
I understand that, which is why it seems odd that it split not along a spalt line but rather the wood between spalt lines.
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The issue with spalted wood is that it starts to go “punky”, or soft between the spalt line, like a sponge, if left too long. The stabilization will make that hard, but not overly tougher, unfortunately.
 
fitzo said:
It's broken at a really nice angle. Perhaps consider grinding them flat and inserting some kind of interesting spacer material to make it look intentional? Lemons/lemonade?
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This is a fantastic way to keep this block useable still. 👍🏼
 
Sharp & Fiery said:
I wouldn’t burn them. After glue and pinning to handle, they will be fine.

You can actually glue those together with a CA glue and if done properly will look right.

Crosscut and highly figured woods are weaker by nature. I always have to handle them very carefully during all steps. I dropped a pretty much completely finished box elder burl scale from less than 3 ft and it cracked. That sucked. I glue it together and finished the knife.

It is my personal knife and was a test knife and the scale is still fine.

Just food for thought.
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The burn comment was a joke....:cool:
 
fitzo said:
It's broken at a really nice angle. Perhaps consider grinding them flat and inserting some kind of interesting spacer material to make it look intentional? Lemons/lemonade?

BTW, is that another crack adjacent to the break on the smaller piece?
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Yeah, it's not the end of the world-type break. I was just surprised, that's all. I can definitely work with both pieces independently. I think I simply learned that they'll need to be laminated to a beefy liner of micarta or G10 for me to feel good about putting them on as scales. I've been forged over time and tribulations to eat lemons for breakfast! 🤣
 
Alpha Knife Supply said:
Professional stabilizing does make spalted wood tougher and harder. I learned this by processing literally thousands of blocks of spalted wood.

Chuck
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That is true. I misspoke. It doesn’t make it much stronger though. If I drop a piece of spalted spongy unstabilized wood on the floor, it won’t break.

Edit to add: If I dry kiln that spalted piece (non-stabilized) and drop it on the floor…it will break. So by rights, if the stabilization is done after the spalted piece had been “fully dried,” then it is stronger than the “fully dried” non-stabilized piece. :)
 
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