Started a spalted birch burl carving knife handle

[Tjurved]

Hello got a big spalted birch burl for free, it had been outside for 1 year. Thought I would do some knife/tool handles of it . It was hard to handsaw in half, then I used an axe so it could fit under the band saw an then it was easy. You never know how the wood gonna look like .

Snapped the end of the tang with some pliers, I'm sure it will hold for me.

 

[crosslandkelly]

Nice job, looks like it will be a great handle.

 

[leaky5]

I hope it works out ok for you. I had a similar piece from my parents garden. Even after some drying and soaking in some wood hardener, it was still your soft to use for knife handles.

Sent from my SM-J500FN using Tapatalk

 

[forginhill]

Fun. Love the look of that. Can't wait to see it finished....

 

[Tjurved]

Yes some bits are quite soft! But I gonna try and see .

 

[Tjurved]

Made some progress. I cut out many handle blanks but some have cracked. Some pieces are very tricky to dry! I have them wrapped in cloth.

 

[crosslandkelly]

Looking good, that's a lovely grain.

 

[Baelfore]

looking good. I've had the softness/splitting problem with spalted birch burl and root before. some areas always seem to be borderline between spalted and punky. it can be quite annoying when you discover a bit after epoxying the whole thing together with fancy spacers!

keep up the good work!

atb
Ste

 

[Tjurved]

Progress! Ugly shape at the front but it will be a working knife . I'm happy first knife in this style for years.

 

[Macaroon]

Nice work - and I don't think it looks ugly at all, looks like a working tool

 

[crosslandkelly]

That looks spot on, well done.

 

[Baelfore]

Lovely work.
that hanlde looks like it would be very comfy to use.

atb,
Ste