Thread: This should not be possible, black walnut burl end grain cut scales

My father has been a wood worker for years. After retiring from the police department he has spent most of his retirement working wood. Being his son, I picked up a thing or two myself. In the scrap lumber box I found a hunk of quarter sawn black walnut burl that had been discarded from another project. It was an absolutely stunning piece of wood stock. The problem is that it was quarter sawn and end grain. If you have ever worked wood then you know how picky burl can be.

Its beauty is driven by the uneven, disordered growth of the wood. That uneven growth creates a very unique figuring in the wood and creates a 3-D, deep sheen look in the wood. it also makes the wood hard to work, it is brittle and if you look at it wrong it will crack and chunk while working with it. Combine that with an end grain cut and you have a sliver of wood that will break if you look at it wrong or breathe on it hard.

So of course I decided to make a set of ‘special’ scales from it. Dad kept telling me there was no way it would hold up. At less than 1/8 inch thick, more like 2/16 inch thick, it is incredibly fragile and flimsy. So I have been slowly working this over the past few weeks between other scale jobs. Tonight, I finished sanding and poured the epoxy resin finish. I also just finished making a new scale finishing station.

I am counting on the resin impregnating the end grain pours and adding extra reinforcement to the scales. That should make them durable enough to use. I have an 8/8 Henckels Spanish point scallop backed highly polished (or it will be soon) blade to put in them.

So here they are, freshly mounted and tack cloth wiped on the finishing station and the freshly poured resin finish. It is only moments old and the depth and color will deepen over the next day. In another 4 days they will be ready to remove and finish the backs. Then I can mount the blade. I am thinking of using a bloodwood wedge. A nice, deep red wedge to accent the dark walnut should be nice.

So check back in a few days and see if the end grain cut burl scale project worked, or if I ended up spending days working on a pretty set of door shims.

You *might* just be able to get away with it having used the epoxy resin coat providing you don't split them when you do the pinning. I would have suggested using a liner for this project, some sort of backing to keep it all together. The burl grain is intertwined so that should help keep things together but dang..... I don't think I would have risked the time involved without the liners. Hope it works out for you.

Regards

Christian

So far they look outstanding, cant wait to see them finished

Bob

Looking good.
Hopefully they survive the stresses of pinning and regular handling

I hope your experiment works! I have a bunch of spalted maple and ash burled woods that I have stabilized because of concerns about strength.
I have been experimenting with polyurethane, Nelsonite, Acryloid B-72 ,lexan,and boiled linseed oil, all thinned with acetone, in various combinations. All of them are drying now. It takes a couple of months to dry a 1.25" square x 7" block.
If you can find the time would you let me know what resin you are using?

Originally Posted by cannonfodder

At less than 1/8 inch thick, more like 2/16 inch thick...

Uh...

Bad math, but nice scales. I hope they hold up for you.
Maybe rub some viagra on them, I hear that's a good wood hardener.

Nice scales. How do you get the chamfer so even all the way around?

Originally Posted by floppyshoes

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Uh...

Bad math, but nice scales. I hope they hold up for you.
Maybe rub some viagra on them, I hear that's a good wood hardener.

Not really, I know 2/16ths is 1/8th, just wanted to see if anyone would catch it. That is like $0.95 each or 4 for $5. You would be surprised how many would get the 4 thinking it was a deal.

At any rate, a backing would be the best way. Something like a thin brass plate or even a lighter wood like maple and laminate them together. That would actually look pretty nice, but I wanted to see if I could do it. Normally I seal the scale backs with urethane but I am going to light coat epoxy finish these for the added rigidity. My experience with resin suggests it will work out. After all, you are essentially gluing the wood fibers together with high strength epoxy. The end grain cut should allow the epoxy to penetrate the wood even deeper than usual. Hopefully it will work out, if not the next set will get a backing, but it was worth a try.

I checked them this morning, looking good so far.

Originally Posted by cstewart

Nice scales. How do you get the chamfer so even all the way around?

Router, sandpaper and a lot of time and patience.

Since you will be putting epoxy on there anyway, why not use a layer of 4 oz fiberglass?
Epoxy has no real structural integrity in and of itself, but coupled with fiberglass cloth it will be bombproof!