Huon Pine Wood Carving Question

[Danceswithhelicopters]

On my current travels I ended up in Strahan, Tasmania. A lovely place with a dark past but also the home to the Huon Pine, of which I'd never heard of.

Huon pine is probably the most durable of Australian timbers, and logs which apparently have lain on the ground for several hundred years are still being harvested and milled. The durability of the wood is due to the presence of the essential oil, methyl eugenol, which gives Huon pine its unique odour. It seems to be an amazing wood and worth a wiki.

We went to a working sawmill which is licenced to harvest fallen Huon pine as it is now banned from being felled. They had this gorgeous hand carved coffee scoop:



But they also had a box of offcuts for a dollar donation and I found, to me, this ideal piece to carve my own.



My question to the hive is having a very fragranced spoon the right wood for a coffee scoop or does the smell tend to fade once worked or does the coffee oil impregnate it fairly fast?

 

[Toddy]

Bound to be someone who knows more than I do about it, but I know that it gets used much like we do sycamore for kitchen and table ware. I can't see them doing that if the smell spoils things.
I know it takes centuries to grow until it starts to reproduce, that the trees only grow in one area of the world, and that it is the most superb boatbuilding timber. Lovely stuff
Be interesting to see what you make of it

 

[TLM]

Methyl eugenol has a very high boiling point which would indicate that at room temp it evaporates at a slow rate. From the woods I am more familiar with juniper seems to retain its distinctive smell longest, several years, but it does fade.

In fact that one can smell something means it is volatile.

For reasons not quite clear many Lapps think that coffee oils are suitable for impregnating new kuksas. I am not sure I agree as they are fairly easily oxidised. From various vegetable oils I seem to remember that coconut oil is the most stable. Of course some oils can be stabilized with catalyst like linen oil in cold pressed state.

PS I like your scoop.

 

[Danceswithhelicopters]

Backside view of the scoop.

 

[Tengu]

Wouldnt you want it to keep its smell?