Working with old growth timber

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Theforerunner

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Jul 11, 2018
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I have some old growth timber that spent the better part of the last 200 years underwater then reclaimed 20 years ago and has been sitting in a barn drying since. I want to make some knife scales from it but I’m worried about hardness. It’s either some old cedar or white pine, or something to that nature, with the really dense (deck of cards) grain to it. Do I need to make some sort of stabilization system or should I be able to just get away with some sort of really durable finish coating? I put some mineral oil on a test piece and it really soaked it up. Sadly, I am able to make some indentation with my finger nail in the spots between the darker grains. What would y’all recommend I do with this wood? I really want to make some nice handles out of it for the historical aspects in my
Local area.
 
Theforerunner said:
I have some old growth timber that spent the better part of the last 200 years underwater then reclaimed 20 years ago and has been sitting in a barn drying since. I want to make some knife scales from it but I’m worried about hardness. It’s either some old cedar or white pine, or something to that nature, with the really dense (deck of cards) grain to it. Do I need to make some sort of stabilization system or should I be able to just get away with some sort of really durable finish coating? I put some mineral oil on a test piece and it really soaked it up. Sadly, I am able to make some indentation with my finger nail in the spots between the darker grains. What would y’all recommend I do with this wood? I really want to make some nice handles out of it for the historical aspects in my
Local area.
Click to expand...
Send it to K&G. They do the best job of this, and will get it right,
 
Willie71 said:
Send it to K&G. They do the best job of this, and will get it right,
Click to expand...
Cut up 20 blocks of it and send it to K&G. It will cost you under $10/block to get it stabilized. I send a bigger amounts than that (40-100 blocks) and shipping and stabilizing included it only costs me about $6.50/block.
 
I would think the fact that you can dent it with your fingernail is a big hint that it needs to be stabilized, and the fact that it soaks up finish is an equally big hint that the pores are present to make that stabilization work well. So ... what everyone else has said - off to K&G they should go!
 
Sinker wood (wood that has been submerged for a long time) can really be lovely. Lots of interesting thiings happen to it while under water where bacteria and fungus cant make it rot (no oxygen in the muddy bottom). Stabilization will bring these features out in amazing luster on knife handles. It will alkso turn soft punky wood rock hard.

I have a big redwood burl (around 50 pounds), that was dredged out of an Oregon river about 20 years ago. The estimat is that it was underwater for 200-500 years. It has sap pockets that resemble copal (pre-amber resin). I cut it in half and have been leting it dry and "cure" for the past six or so years. I plan on carving big freeform bowls from each half. I wish I could stabilize it, but the cost would be crazy, and it is too large. While knife handles are a tempting use, I think it will be more valuable as a hand worked art piece.
 
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