What's causing these hairline fractures in my Osage handle - newbie question

Geek, Jantz has it on their site. It can also be found on eBay.

I'm betting that his cracking is more from using an end-grain piece than one too green.

Osage is finicky...dense as hell, hard to sand on a grinder without burning it...and if it does burn it can run deep quickly making it impossible to sand it out. Also, if you make the CA and dust slurry...it will not be the same color as the wood, it will be darker. Osage dust starts to oxidize fairly quickly (turning brown) and makes filling and blending with the dust fairly difficult.
 
You aint lying about the easy burning part. The only positive aspect is the deep burns forced me to sand down past the blocky handle syndrome it was initially stricken with.

It's a pretty dense wood - I thought about carving the handle slabs at first....it scoffed at me and spit in my coffee!

I chose the end grain cause it had more character, perhaps I'll try going with the grain the next time around.

Thanks for the tips Griz.
 
No prob!

For some added character, if you have a small pencil butane torch handy, work the flame over the wood very lightly till it starts to turn colors. You will see it toast up with several shades of browns, reds and oranges. I bet that end grain would toast up beautifully.
 
Alright so I tried the toasting method...heated it a little too much and some of the epoxy sizzled and the scales lifted a tiny bit at the front...it did turn a nice toasty color though.

I applied a coat of tru-oil and it actually has a nice kind of holographic look.

I think I read somewhere around six coats is generally the minimum....how long do I wait inbetween coats?
 
Osage may be a bit too dense for the Tru Oil to work properly....sitting on top of the wood rather than penetrating into it. Might do some researching and see if anyone else has used it on Osage.

As for coats (under normal practices)...as many as it takes to get the look you're after. Which is all really dependent on the wood itself. Don't rush the coats though, if each coat isn't dry, you will have issues.
 
Also, next time for toasting, try shaping the handle completely without gluing it, then toast the scales and glue it up.
 
There you go assuming I have patience again ;)

Somewhere I thought I came across a thread about Osage and tru oil oh well it's been a learning experience.
 
Awesome. I think those cracks that are appearing give that handle some super character! Good job on the heat coloring!
 
These are my experiences with Osage Orange...and so far, I love it. Probably my favorite working wood thus far! They have all been wetsanded to 2000 grit. The 3rd handle got a light wipe of light brown leather dye and one fine, thin coat of Tru Oil.

Refinishing a Case XX Ridgeback:
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Bullnose skinner:
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And the "mess up" of the previous picture. I burned a pin while sanding, so I took my woodburning tool and scorched around all the pins and the tube to give it an aged look.
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Very nice. My next couple of knives will be curly maple and walnut but I think Osage will definitely be back on the list.
 
I am not trying to hijack the thread, but what did you put on the curly maple to finish it? I used watco danish oil and the result was really blotchy.
 
Geek-

This is my first and so far only experience with curly maple, exhibition grade.
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What I did was to dry sand to 600 grit. Then I wetsanded the wood from 800, 1000, 2000. Once complete, I gave it a light coat or 2 of leather dye (same color used on the sheath). Once dry, I took some ultra fine steel wool and lightly rubbed the handle, this polished away a bit of the dye leaving the curls a nicer dark color. Once this was complete, then I started in with my Tru Oil finish. Several coats rubbed into the wood with a ultra fine steel wool pass after each one dried. After all was dry and ready, it got a coating of meguiars carnuba wax and a intense hand buff using a microfiber towel.
 
Cool. thanks. I am trying to figure out how to make the grain pop without spending 30 bucks on nitric acid and high quality boiled linseed oil.
 
Thanks Shaughnessy!

Man, I searched and read forum entries and websites for probably a month prior to using that wood to find the absolute best method for proper finishing and ultimate grain pop. I probably bookmarked 20 different pages or more. Some suggested the acid and heat trick, some suggested certain oils, etc. I used a recommendation given on a muzzleloader site for refinishing a curly maple stock. There were so many other methods that I wanted to try, but I had no scrap...this was a "get it right and do it once" deal for a customer's order.
 
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