Cypress wood for scales?

[heefageLA]

Can anyone give me some info on using Cypress for scales?
Im in the works of having a custom knife made and I live in Louisiana. (Cypress is everywhere!)
My dad builds furniture and things and uses Cypress a lot in his work.
I have a lot of it available to me and thought it would be neat to use some local Cypress as the scales on my knife.

I know its virtually waterproof because it grows in such wet conditions, but beyond that, im clueless.

If this should be moved somewhere else to get better responses, please chim in.

Thanks fellas

 

[Patrickknives]

I have used cypress for kitchen knife handles and it worked well. The only issue is it cracks a lot when drying. I put some boards up after spitting logs and let them set a year, for the amount of wood I had the cracks were so bad that I lost a lot, but what was not cracked was good and worked well. Not worth the work to dry but if someone has the wood already should make a good handle.

It is a medium hard wood so water resistance is low, even though it strives in wet conditions, that water will leave pours when it drys and new water will soak in. I recommend stabilization or a good durable finish, I like a 50/50 mix of clear varnish and boiled linseed oil.

 

[heefageLA]

Awesome. Thanks for the advice.
I guess my next step is to get in touch with my father and see whats usable or not.

 

[Jason Fry]

I used cypress on a handle once. The piece I had was not particularly hard. I used a CA finish to try and harden it up a bit. The wood I used was fairly plain, but like in your case, it was a local material that had connections to the knife owner. I say use it if you want, but stabilize it if you can.

 

[Darrin Sanders]

I have a customer who sent me some stabilized Cypress. I'll be making him 4 knives and using it on all of them. I'll try to remember to reply here on how it turns out when they're finished.

 

[woodwrkr221]

I've never used cypress for knife handles but I've used it in furniture. Unstabilized in it's natural state it isn't very dimensionally stable so it'll warp, bow and twist a good bit and it'll expand and contract a fair amount. The cypress I've gotten here in south Miss. has been moderately soft for knife handle use.