japanese red maple.............

[bob1961]

i have a branch of this stuff that is 4' long and bout 2" dia at the small end to 3" at the big end from someones yard after a storm brought down a bigger branch down on top of it so i took it home to carve a wooden knife out of it sometime....well it's time to carve now....i think it would make fer some nice knife handles or some other do dads....i've had it bout 6 years now and when i brought it home then i debarked it to keep it from checking and it did good....no cracks....just wondering how this stuff would wear...................bob

 

[SimonKenton]

Japanese red maple (acer palmatum to us bonsai freaks) is purely an ornamental tree and not to be confused with the red maple sold by TOW. I doubt it has the grain structure to be of much use. The Japanese used Ash for most weapons and tools.

-Ray

 

[musketman]

Japanese red maple (acer palmatum to us bonsai freaks) is purely an ornamental tree and not to be confused with the red maple sold by TOW. I doubt it has the grain structure to be of much use. The Japanese used Ash for most weapons and tools.

-Ray

Here is the grain of Japanese Red Maple...

 

[bob1961]

here's a picture of that wood i have to use possibly....

it's looks like a nice tight grain wood from here....i think it was a red maple not sure now....like i said i had it fer bout 6 years now and it was from someones yard after a storm clean up....but i thnik i can make a nice knife handle out of it....maybe a bullet block....something..............bob

 

[NORD]

Ya it looks like it is a nice tight grain without any 'cork' in the center! My only worry for durbility would be...how hard is it? I guess you could always soak it with some thompson's water seal and then you could just buff it to your desired shean when you make your knife handle. :m2c:

 

[vradin]

it's looks like a nice tight grain wood from here....

Hard to tell the grain from the outside. I'd try taking the smaller piece, make a jig hold it and resaw it to slabs on a bandsaw. You can try for quartersawn to get a different pattern, or a simple straight slab off the long axis. Try taking it at a slight 5 or 10 degree angle to get a more interesting grain pattern.

If you're thinking of knife handles, you can get a lot from a 5 or 8" long segment, slab off at about 3/4" thick and you can even do some fancy matchbooking if it turns out the grain is exceptional.

vic

 

[bob1961]

got some more pictures of the maple cut to show the grain and with 1 coat of linseed oil on it................bob

 

[PaulN/KS]

Say,that is some pretty wood.Should make some nice knife handles.

 

[musketman]

Say,that is some pretty wood.Should make some nice knife handles.

Bob does nice wood inlay work, I think it will work fine for that too...

 

[vradin]

That looks like some nice patterns in that piece. I'd be tempted to slab that at 1/4 or 1/2" for matchbook inlay on some boxes or other small projects, and use some of the rest for those knife handles and ball blocks. If you have a lathe it might also work for some short starters.

I wonder how it will react to light? Some woods take on a deeper color when exposed to UVs. This might come up a real deep rich maroon.

Either way- nice save of that downed branch.

vic

 

[bob1961]

Either way- nice save of that downed branch.

maybe i should go and cut down the rest of the tree :hmm: .................bob