[Thomp]

Received some wood today in mail a reply to an offer here on the board i cant find the original post message on the forum, but it was to the effect send $8.00 Postage for bits and scraps of burrel quilted maple and other exotics,,

Well Isaac, thanks for the wood, I got plans for every scrap.. every one is purdy !

think i got a chunk of sassafras, i been wanting to see how it works, its like mulberry, if popular starts hardwood, i would rank this med hard, below hickory but not rock hard as maple
it smells of fruity like sassafras mildly maybe but not wild as the root dose.

received it today an among the contents is some of the most beautiful spalted cottonwood, but its doty or pecky.
i only want to make a knife handle out of this wood and am wondering if there is a way to stabilize it so i can get it tough enough to support a blade inside and then go through the riggers of carving.

seams this wood would absorb super glue or drilled out it might be stabilized in the center core with a solid core of epoxy..

just some questions, i had if ya got better ideas let me know i dont want to toss this piece of wood. its purdy!

but softer than cork, you cant cut it with a razor blade. it tears....

other burrel and quilted maple i guess and something ? unidentifyable in this neck of the woods,
it looks like the shape of the wedge a woodcutter makes before falling the tree a wedge
light sapwood with the heart rosin covered deep red to a purple colored and hardwood through no detectable smell buy sticky didn't clean it but it put mt to mind of what i heard hemlock looked like???

again thanks for the grab bag,
and thanks in advance to anybody with some ideas on these items

Thomas

[AlArchie]

Check on-line marine suppliers for "GitRot", a two part product designed just for that type of problem. Hardware/Paint stores sell a similar product for repairing rotted sills and window frames. I can't remember what it's called though. I wouldn't try any home remedies on a knife handle......why take a chance on a handle collapsing on ya?

Al

[brian bailey]

I'd use the thin CA glue as it will soak deeply into the wood and harden like a rock.

I make picture frames and boxes out of wormy butternut. Often the wood is real dozy and won't hold up to any machining.

A good soaking with CA glue and the wood is good to go. In most cases you can't even see where I have treated the wood.

Here are some wormy butternut keepsake boxes I have recently made.

[Thomp]

AL,
After sleeping on it , i awoke with the same decision,
there is no need to go through all the rigors of constructing a blade, and making it fit into a piece of waste wood..
i think the decision based on when last night shaping the handle on my 1 " belt sander, and i broke off the tail of the handle when i repaired it the small mini spring clamps sank into the wood.
the shape is modified flex cut, or dead bird as my wife calls it in shape. with a wide tail. the tail broke off. even though the grain was oriented through the thin part..

there is plenty of great burrell and quilted maple, among other nice looking blocks yet unidentified, in this box to be concerned with i should be concentrating on..

Brian,

I couldn't remember the process, or what i read before but remembered something of a vacuum chamber flooded with a superglue or something and the project submerged when the air was evacuated air was replaced by the superglue when the vacuum was slowly released?? maybe that was a restoration project on PBS nova like fixing rotten old viking ships or something..
probobally nova show becuse the process would be a financial desaster for a normal income with all the waste superglue, maybe it was shellach or something else, but the product came out with the consistancy of lennon micarda knife handles.

Thanks fellers for the replays i truly do appreciate it, besides if the question wasn't asked how would this information be on the forum for others to be read..

thanks again.
Thomas

[brian bailey]

Don't know anything about vacuum chambers other than vacuum kilns are big $$$$ !

I just squirt the CA glue on the area of concern and watch it soak in. Maybe give it another squirt or two.

Set the piece aside for about a half hour and it's ready to go.