huon pine as a handle material.

[Aden Cassidy]

Have been looking for some good native australian woods for handle making, both scales and hidden tang design. Came across some huon pine ones (8 scales) for $25 aus, free shipping australia wide and wondered if they would be any good. Anyone used it before? Is it any good?
They are 150mm x 30mm x 20mm.

My mums partner recently got a job in tasmania and a lot of the hardwoods I want to try seem to have websites that base their business there. Think I will ask him if he can send me up pieces to try if he can.

Looking forward to any info you can give me. Thanks.

[jmccustomknives]

I've never heard of that wood. That being said, basing my opinion on your pic alone, if I saw that on a pallet I'd pass right over it and wouldn't give it a second glance. The color is common, the grain isn't spectacular. There's better woods out there.

[iron woodrow]

huon pine is a beautiful wood, the golden yellow colour and loveyly grain make a perfect piece of art, but it is relatively soft. it is also extremely rare, due to the fact it was used extensively in the boat building trade in early settlement, because it has properties that make it insect and rot resistant. i have made a sword hilt from houn pine, and red cedar and it turned out very nicely, but bear in mind it is not a hardwood perse, it is no ironbark :P but it is still a lot more durable than european and american "hardwoods"
it also is extremely slow growing, with some trees growing to 2000 years old
if you were to use those slabs, you would make a very nice handle. if the blade was good, you could make a VERY nice knife.

[iron woodrow]

I've never heard of that wood. That being said, basing my opinion on your pic alone, if I saw that on a pallet I'd pass right over it and wouldn't give it a second glance. The color is common, the grain isn't spectacular. There's better woods out there.

think of a diamond in the rough

[Aden Cassidy]

thats what I thought about it, was thinking of making more chef knives or something that wont be used for chopping much.
Just thought it would be nice to have an exotic handle on some of the knives I am making, so I think I will definitely get some of these.
I know they only use old scavenged wood from stumps, fallen branches etc.. because it is a protected species.
If anyone wants to know the website I will post it here if there is any interst.

[homeshow]

Think I've seen it in Florida USA we call it Australian Pine. Big trees long needles. Makes pretty good smoker/ grill wood. Try to get a piece with lots of knots or a. burl for making bowls. That is the wood with the best graining.

[Justin Carnecchia]

Pine is usually pretty soft, you might think about stabilizing it.
I tend to agree with JMC their are better woods out their. The pictures might not be doing it justice but when I pic a wood I look for lots of figure or burl. I can't afford fossil ivory or the other exotic handle materials, but a nice piece of burl wood lets me get the handle looking good without spending a fortune. I have a local source were I'm paying $12 for stabilized burl. Even the higher priced Ironwood at around $60 for a handle sized piece is a good deal compared to a couple hundred for ivory. I see a lot of really nice hardwood burls coming out of Australia, I would keep looking. -Justin

[Steve Sells]

Some the the woods I have imported from OZ are Red Malee, Brown Malee, Coolibah, Tiger Mytrle.... look them up. common there and beautiful grain, the Malee like many burls needs to be stabilized to last.

[Aden Cassidy]

here is a sample of the woods I can get from this company.
It shows what the woods CAN look like when they are polished etc....
I was thinking more about the qualities of it that prevent rotting for use as a handle and the nice color it gets when polished.
http://www.tasmaniannativetimbers.com.au/timber

[iron woodrow]

Think I've seen it in Florida USA we call it Australian Pine. Big trees long needles. Makes pretty good smoker/ grill wood. Try to get a piece with lots of knots or a. burl for making bowls. That is the wood with the best graining.

i dont think that is the same.
huon pine has completely different foliage to pines like macrocarpa, and casurina. casurina has long needles and works well for smoking/grill, it also makes very passable charcoal. and roof shingles.
huon pine is far too rare to use for smoking chips!

[mat]

"Think I've seen it in Florida USA we call it Australian Pine. Big trees long needles"possible they are casuarinas we call them she oak.

[Aden Cassidy]

tottaly different thing, here is a link of wikipedia about it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagarostrobos_franklinii

[quint]

If you like it I would try and get it stabilized and use it. There are alot of knives that use wood which doesn't have crazy burl or very peculiar grain patterns and they look excellent.

Or maybe use it in more of a puukko style blade with some other woods.

[Corin]

Send me a PM and I will send you some Beefwood, Grevillea Striata. Heaps better. IMHO