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Hi Guys
I want to rescale an old razor and would like to know what the experts think of using Irish Bog Oak ?
Would this be suitable and if so what finish would you recommend ?
I was thinking, that as it has been pretty well stabilised over the centuries that it would now be impervious to water; or is this not the case ?
I would be grateful for any advice !
Many thanks
Phil
Bog oak has a wide span of how it behaves, the ones I've played with have been quite brittle.
I used a liner inside the scales and glued tubes in the wood for the rivets, it worked out well.
No pics, sorry, didn't have a camera back then.
Some sources stabilize it prior to sale. This would indicate to me that many samples are not impervious.
The conditions in the bogs preserve it, but once removed, the wood may have various degrees of mineralization and obviously the bath of tannins is removed.
I don't have any experience working the stuff, but I know about bogs and the preservation that goes on (varies somewhat). I'd suggest that the heavily mineralized stuff will often look amazing but behave more like stone and less like wood (though it is not like petrified wood).
While living in France and buying/fabricating bog woods, Trevor Talbert has made many spectacular pipes (and probably other things) from french morta; I would guess he is expert in the performance of the genre. You might hit him directly for an opinion with an email.
Talbert Pipes
Thanks for the advice Guys and Gal, I have been playing around with a bit of the Bog Oak and have found it to be very brittle and I believe would be totally unsuitable for scales unless it was stabilised. So I will probably go with some Cocobolo !
Many thanks
Phil