Thread: Apple Wood Scales

Has anyone ever made, or seen, scales made from the wood of an apple tree?

My dad just cut down an old apple tree stump at my grandfather's house, and he said its an incredibly hard wood. They have saved some of the wood for me, asking if I wanted to make straight razor scales from it.

most fruit woods are excellent for fine woodwork, apple included. I bet it would work fine. The remnants can also be chunked and make excellent smoke for your bbq efforts.

Orest

hm ... apple burl, sounds yummy.

X

depending on how much I've got access to, I may have some to share if anyone is interested in making their own applewood scales

Traditionally saw hadles were made out of apple wood.

Dutch

I'd love to have some apple wood to make a set of scales from. Let me know if you decide to share some. J.

Originally Posted by Dutch

Traditionally saw hadles were made out of apple wood.

Dutch

nice disston!

cheers,
ryan

Check it out: http://picasaweb.google.com/bwknight/AppleWood

I have five blocks of wood, some of it is split so I'm not sure if all of it will be useful. There is a razor in the pics to show as a size comparison.

I think I can get at least one set of scales from each block though.

Originally Posted by bwknight

Check it out: http://picasaweb.google.com/bwknight/AppleWood

I have five blocks of wood, some of it is split so I'm not sure if all of it will be useful. There is a razor in the pics to show as a size comparison.

I think I can get at least one set of scales from each block though.

There is no indication how thick each of the blocks are. Have they been cured? If the wood is still green and you want to stop it from spliting very much, you should paint the end grain with any type of latex paint. This will even out the drying process and reduce (not eliminate) splitting and checking.

Depending on the thickness of the chunks, you may need to set the wood aside for 6-months to a year before working with it. If you mill green wood down to the thickness you will need for scales, it is very likely to distort as it cures--it will certainly change dimensions.

Pretty wood...let us know how the project turns out.

Cheers,
Ed

With all those pictures, I cant believe that I didnt take any "profile" shots of the blocks, they are all wedge shaped, 3 to 4" on one side, and about 1" on the other.

I asked about the tree that was cut down, and the apple tree had been cut down for quite some time. My dad helped cut the rest of the stump out of the ground with a chainsaw. The stump of the tree was about 2' tall or so, maybe 8" in diameter.

The wood is bone dry, no moisture at all, and I'm sure the tree has been dead for a year or more.

I'm afraid that a lot of the wood has split, but I still think there is enough left in solid pieces to get several usable chunks out of to make scales.