wood scales - grain direction?

E

Eddy P.

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Dec 5, 2012
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3
Hi,

I'm hoping you can help me with a question that's been bugging me.

I've got a few pieces of Osage Orange I wanna use for a knife I'm making for a dear friend.
The tree I got these from was only about 6 inches or so in diameter, so the pieces I have are about 1x2x4.5 inches.


(click for larger image)

I guess normally you would put them on a knife the way they came off the tree - with the smaller rings towards the center of the knife - right? But I'm afraid by doing it this way the round contours of the handle wouldn't show the rings very well which would be a shame since I find them quite striking with the color going from brown to a bright yellow.

Can I just turn the wood around, so that the wood that was closer to the center of the tree will be on the outside of the handle? That way the rings wouldn't be parallel to the surface and should show up quite nicely I think. I'm sure someone has tried that before? Sadly I couldn't find any pictures of what it would look like, searching for similar theads discussing this also didn't yield any results.


Sorry if this is a dumb question... I am not very experienced with wood since I usually prefer micarta... with the few wooden handles I've made so far this wasn't an issue.
 
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I don't see that it would matter, in fact you may be better off doing it that way.
How dry is the wood? Wood tends to crack from the center of the tree out. The more of the center of the tree, (Pith) you remove the smaller the chances of it cracking. If you have the center of the tree on the outside you will remove more of the inner rings when you shape the handle. Thats a good thing.
 
When putting on wood scales the grain really doesn't matter. I've always just went with what looks the best. Though like Tom said, you want to make sure the wood is pretty dry or if not you take the risk of it cracking once it is on the handle. I'm not familar enough with woods needing to be stabilized or not to say if you should get it stabilized. I'm sure someone with more experinece will come by though. Good luck.
 
Sounds plausible...

I cut the wood about a year ago, some of it was wet, some had been laying around for a while. It's hard to tell them apart now, but does it matter? It's all been stored in a dry place, I guess it should all be quite dry and ready to use by now? I've only got this one piece here at the moment so I'll have to take a closer look at the other ones when I get the chance, but if I remember right there were no cracks whatsoever in any of the pieces. I made sure to only cut portions without any cracks... travelling by airplane with several pounds of wood in your luggage is not very fun, so I wanted to keep the weight down as much as possible.

I'm not gonna get it stabilized. The wood is very tough and rot-resistant as it is. I wanna keep it as natural feeling as possible, I'm sure the owner will appreciate it. He's not a collector at all, I want him to use it and not just store it on the shelf because it's too nice or something.


Still looking for a picture with scales mounted that way.
 
I would rip the center out of the board, then rip the scales off of each piece so that they are 'quartersawn'. That means that the growth rings come straight out the face of the handle. Thats the most stable way to cut wood. It also shows off the rays, etc that is in the wood. Otherwise, it looks a lot like plywood. No need to stabilize Osage. It should be dry though.
 
I let wood that I cut from wet sit for a few years before using it. That might not be exactly necessary, but its what I do.
 
A friend of mine gave me a couple of scraps of osage orange. Made some scales for a Tenacious which came out very nice. I sanded them up to 600 grit wet/dry, then used Watco Danish oil to finish. Its a beautiful wood.

The osage will tend to burn fairly easily if you are not careful.

Let us know how the your scales turn out.

Ric
 
Remember, osage Orange isn't going to stay that yellowish Orange that it starts at. As it is exposed to uv light it will darken and turn purple-ish...
 
My experience with Osage Orange is that it will turn a light walnut brown or chestnut color.
It varies a lot as far as grain and looks go. I have used it on choppers, machetes, and other rough use knives. In these types, the color change won't be an issue....actually, it is the darker color that looks good to me.

As far as the grain direction goes, if you place the heart side on the tang, you will get larger lines. If you put the bark side inward, you will get smaller lines. It won't be a huge difference, and the amount of difference is proportional to the tree size. I normally place the heart side inward, as it seems to give a more wavy look. Remember that the handle is not a static cylinder, but has a multiple of different curves. (Just like a fashion model, changes in curvature just make the look sooooo much nicer..... Straight lines become wiggles......Russian weight lifters with no changes in curvature....not so much :) )
 
Fiddleback: Not enough tree to get quartersawn pieces. I only have the two options mentioned in the first post.


He wants a hunting knife, I drew him a few blade shapes and this one's the one he liked most:

15007039xj.jpg



I do like it, for some reason I just don't find it very striking to look at. Still not sure about the handle shape. Hopefully it'll turn out better when it's done. He wanted a quite straight and narrow blade, so I'm sure it'll be fine. Guess I'll have to make the other one that I liked way more for myself. I'm ok with that :rolleyes:

I'm aware of the color change with the wood aging. It'll fit the knife nicely I think.
 
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