Petrified and submerged wood for knife handles

[David LaPell]

After watching TV shows like Axe Men and seeing them haul some logs off the bottom of rivers and streams I had a thought. Here in the Adirondacks we have alot of rivers, streams, and ponds where one could find some large branches, root systems, and even small logs that have been in the water for a long time. I was wondering how well some of this stuff, even pine which we have alot of, would work after it had been submerged for years. I could harvest alot of it during the warm months, but I have no idea how long to alow it to dry out, and then work on it later on. Especially for knife handles. Anyone else use wood like this for anything?

 

[seagill]

I once read about a guy that was harvesting old growth trees off of the bottom of lake Superior. The dense logs would sometimes sink while being floated to the mill, the cold water and low oxygen level preserves them. He was making golf putters with them and selling them for over $200 a pop! I would guess a long, controlled dry period would be needed.

 

[Sven]

I once read about a guy that was harvesting old growth trees off of the bottom of lake Superior. The dense logs would sometimes sink while being floated to the mill, the cold water and low oxygen level preserves them. He was making golf putters with them and selling them for over $200 a pop! I would guess a long, controlled dry period would be needed.

There's an outfit in Ashland, WI that it making all kinds of stuff out of logs recovered from the bottom of the bay on lake Superior. It's very stable wood after years of water washing the sap out. And it's beautiful old growth stuff! We have a large, deep lake just outside of town that has quite a bit of old logs in it. As far as that goes, the paper mill reservoir on the river does too. The MN DNR claims that all of those old logs are part of the ecosystem, and supposedly it's illegal to harvest those logs. I'm not a diver, otherwise I'd want to do some small scale harvesting under the radar.

As far as good grip material goes, I'd love to find some old mammoth ivory out west! A friend of ours in ID and AZ has a piece I identified for her that her dad found years ago. She took it down to the lapidary shop in the RV resort in AZ and polished a couple of flat sides. Beautiful!!!

 

[Iggy]

If I remember correctly. When they built Old Ironsides, they had some left over timber. They sank it in a lake and back when I was a kid, they did some major refitting of the hull. They pulled up those old oak timbers and used them for the repairs. I guess if the conditions are right that would should be good to go.

 

[LouisianaJoe]

When I moved to Louisiana in 1973, I used to go back in the marsh on gravel roads that the oil companies built to get to gas wells. They would put down several layers of approximately 4" X 4" rough cut green oak to make roads through the marsh to put down new wells. I picked up a few of those boards and let them dry out. I turned some of the wood to make tool handles and I used a piece as a mallet. I still have some of that wood today, just in case I need it. I had a mallet made of lignum vitae that had a broken handle. I drilled hole in it with a forstner bit and turned a oak handle to fit the hole. That was over 30 years ago and it is still in use.

I have also looked for wood on the river side of the levy and I have found different types of wood, some from other countries. Another source is when old barns or other buildings are torn down. I carved a paddle out of a piece of cypress that was from a barn that was over 100 years old.

 

[jkc]

I have a "cookie", the sawn-off end of log stamped with a log-mark, sort of the equivalent of a cattle brand, used to ID the log's owner (Diamond Match Co., in this case), from the Big Manistee River in Michigan. This log had probably been jammed into the river bottom while being floated to a downstream sawmill, and anaerobically submerged for 70-80 years. The wood, white pine, was in excellent condition, but, checked severely as it dried out. In the 1960's a local outfit was salvaging these long submerged logs in the more accessible stretches of the river, so there is evidently some way to dry them out intact...

 

[Thiokol]

Taylor Guitars made a beautiful series of guitars with what they refer to as sinker rosewood. There are a bunch of videos on youtube and the guitars look absolutely spectacular. I would suspect that a knife handle would turn out pretty well.

 

[Papaw]

Boker makes knives with scales from Irish Bog Oak. The wood is supposed to be 3000 years old.

 

[LouisianaJoe]

To keep a wet log from cracking, seal the ends. That way the moisture comes out slower on the sides. It will take longer to dry, but that is what you want. This is also advised for green wood that has just been cut.

 

[7tenz]

I saw some folders in a mall knife store that had fossilized dinosaur bone for sides, essentially the same thing as petrified wood. Just thought I'd throw that in here. I would think it is more of a novelty piece. Too expensive for my wallet.