Hi all.

I would like to use crabapple wood to make the handle of a knife (for sentimental reasons).  I will be able to cut a branch from the live tree.  Where would you all look for accurate information on how thick a branch I would need, if I should cut the branch lengthwise before drying it, and how to dry it effectively and reasonably quickly as a DIYer.

How long are you willing to wait for it to dry, and/or how do you intend to aid the drying process?

If you are willing to wait months or years, then you can seal the cut ends with wax or something similar and just leave it inside somewhere relatively dry.  If you don't seal the ends it's more likely to dry faster at the ends and start to split the wood as it dries.  Knife scales are rarely thicker than 3/8" each and are normally under 6" long, so usually you can salvage scales from a piece of wood 6" or so in diameter even if has begun to split on the ends.

I've never used any "assisted drying" techniques, so I'll leave that to someone else with experience in that area.

One other note:  the first set of scales I made was from a walnut tree in my back yard.  I selected a piece with no knots, twists or any other "blemishes"  and it was decidedly..... boring.  I would recommend trying to find a piece of wood with some "character" to make the handle interesting, but to each his own.  I have no experience with crabapple for this application, but it seems to me that it's hard to find a piece of that wood without some character to it.

Thanks In an ideal scenario, I would be getting to this knife for this Christmas.

I'm curious if you have an opinion on how I should cut the scale out of the wood? 

Edited April 23, 20251 yr by Mod30
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How you plank it out is up to your taste.

What causes shrink checking in wood is sap, not moisture. Sap tends to be high in lignins (IIRC) and as it dries it thickens and gets stickier so as the moisture leaves the sap residue pulls the wood apart as the wood shrinks.

An old trick is to leave logs floating for months in a large lake or better, moving water. 

A trick I've had good luck with is to split out the wood and boil it gently in water with a little dish soap. The sticky stuff in the sap is diluted and carried away by the water so the wood is just wet. Dried over a few days and it hardly checked at all but those were larger pieces. In excess of 4" thick.

I've experimented with a few different species of Alaskan wood, birch, cotton wood, tag alder, willow and spruce. Spruce being pitchy needed a LITTLE solvent in the boil, citrus cleaner I don't recall the brand name. Spruce is the splittiest stuff around though if you saw it green makes nice framing lumber. 

I started experimenting with controlling shrink checking because I was carving figurines and . . . stuff from Alaskan wood while I was doing my year of living in a cabin in the woods. It killed me to put several hours into a dewhicky only to have it check into kindling. Spruce burl spoons, dippers, pipes, etc. were popular, especially mine as I left the tracks left by spruce bark beetles in them. Most people sanded them smooth, they were nice but lacked the character. Diamond Willow was a good seller if you could find a stand.

If you give it a try, try it on something you can afford to lose. 

How are you going to stabilize your scales? I'm a firm believer in vacuum stabilizing with a heat cure epoxy. I don't recall brand names I only did a little a little while ago with help from a couple friends. I'm sure the bladesmiths here can fill you in on that.

 Frosty The Lucky.

 

Apple wood has a high shrink rate. So it will be prone to checking when drying. It is quite the beautiful wood though and from my understanding very pleasant to work. 

One of the best American woods to make a shillelagh with is honeysuckle. It also checks a lot. To cure it slather the wood in lard and put it in the chimney for a year.  The heat helps dry it while the smoke and lard give it a nice color. I used the chimney of my forge for the last one i made. It is about 1-1/2" round to maybe 2 1/2" at the knob, one good swing and i broke the seat in an old oak dining chair that was in my barn. 

The wood database says that apple is good for use on small stuff like small boxes, tool handles, cooking utensils, etc. So it would make quite nice knife scales. The heart wood is nondurable for decay so i would stay away from the heart wood. 

So, i would take a piece 12" long and at least 3" wide. That would give enough to avoid the heart wood and enough that any checking should not be a problem. 

The Christmas timeframe is the problem, unless there is a dead limb on the tree. 

Actually direction of planking will also have an influence on suitability for knife scales (as well as shrinkage to some extent).  For scales mounted on a full tang knife I usually like my scales to have the grain running parallel to the width rather than the thickness (i.e. some of the perimeter cuts from Plain or Live, but not Quarter or Rift  from your sketch above).  Of course if you stabilize the wood you can get away with almost any grain direction.  For stabilizing I have heard good things about "Cactus Juice Stabilizing Resin", but typically the wood should be fully "kiln dried" and put into a vacuum chamber for good penetration.

One could always follow the example of Odysseus and his bed, and attach the blade to a still-living olive tree.

If you can follow Frosty's recommendations for removing sap for check prevention, you can use a microwave to good effect for seasoning smaller pieces. I'm a Design and Industrial Technology teacher and I had a lecturer at university who used to microwave pieces for woodturning. There are videos out there about it, but as usual with YouTube, use your discretion in trusting the content.

Disclaimer: I haven't done this myself and I'm sure there are some risks involved depending on microwave wattage, "cooking" times, etc. Do your own research before throwing timber in your microwave and going for it!

That being said, I know it works because there are companies that use giant industrial microwaves specifically for this purpose.

Cheers,

Jono.

On 4/22/2025 at 12:39 PM, Buzzkill said:

If you don't seal the ends it's more likely to dry faster at the ends and start to split the wood as it dries.

I've had relatively good luck by tying plastic bags over the ends with vegetable matter in it and replacing the green stuff every month or so for about a year. I read about it somewhere; it's not perfect but seems to help considerably. Last I used it on was pecan, which incidentally takes for bloody ever to season but has a gorgeous grain. Tried some pearwood too that I wanted to make a self-bow out of, then got distracted, eventually moved, and couldn't take it with me.

Also, in re Odysseus, I'm not sure you want to build a palace around the knife and then take off for twenty years. then fight off 108 dudes before using it again.

Take a look around for a local knife maker and find out who stabilizes scales. The vacuum draws out any moisture and replaces it with a heat cure epoxy. The wood won't split, warp, etc. and it's as bullet proof afterwards as it's going to get.

Frosty The Lucky.