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The Newbies Arena Are you new to knife making? Here is all the help you will need.

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Old 02-19-2011, 05:38 PM
PghDragonman PghDragonman is offline
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Is Cherry Wood All The Same?

IIRC, Cherry wood is a popular hardwood. About five - six years ago, we had to take down a Weeping Cherry tree. After it was downed, we kept the main trunk, but I don't remember what we were going to do with it. That's the second sign, I'm told

The trunk is not too tall, maybe five feet plus, but it is uniformly thick and straight. It has been drying in my basement since then, so I guess it is cured for wood working.

Now that the amateur knife making bug has attacked me (currently working on my first stock removal project), I'm wondering if:

This wood would be suitable for scale material?

How to cut it to harvest a sample?

How to test a piece?

That may be a lot to ask in once post, so I apologize if it is.
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Old 02-19-2011, 07:38 PM
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Ray Rogers Ray Rogers is offline
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I doubt all cherry wood is the same. Lots of other wood like ironwood, ebony, and maple comes in many different varieties so I suspect cherry wood could too. In any case, none of that matters in the slightest degree. What matters is whether or not the wood you have looks like a knife handle that's worth all the trouble it will take to get it out of that tree trunk.

It's old enough, probably dry enough by now. The next thing is did it check (crack)? Cut a chunk off the end long enough for the handles you want to make, leave some extra length. Don't worry too much about it at this point - you have enough for hundreds of handles. Cut up the chunk for handles by squaring it up first so you can get a look at some of the grain. Then, cut some blocks in different directions to see what it looks like each way. Chances are, if it's like most wood, you won't have much that looks like an interesting pattern but maybe you can at least get interesting color. Maybe not. If not, you'll have a lot of plain looking handles or a small amount of fire wood which is what you mostly get when you cut down a tree at random with no hint of what to look for. BTW, I don't know what to look for either so what I've described is what I have experienced. Out of a tree that size I probably wouldn't find anything I like but then I like fancy patterns and burls, plain color and straight grain don't appeal to me.

So, what that boils down to is, if you like what you find you're good to go if you can keep it from cracking and warping ling enough to make a handle out of it. But, that's a whole new subject ....


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Old 02-20-2011, 06:45 AM
PghDragonman PghDragonman is offline
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Thanks for the help, Ray!

The weather is finally turning nice in my area, so I'll probably drag the trunk outside and make some sawdust, then check the grain like you suggest. I don't know how interesting, or colorful, the wood will be, but I've also seem some very nicely shaped plain handles on knives like Opinels or Scandinavian fishing knives. If nothing else, I figure I'll have a cheap supply of wood to perfect shaping and staining techniques on.
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