Hola from London

[cotedupy]

Hello, I'm Oli.

Most of my woodworking just involves handle making for kitchen knives. Here's a recent favourite; the main part of the handle is Western Myall, spacer is steel-Red Mallee burl-steel, ferrule is ebony.

 

[Bingy man]

Hello hi and welcome , very nice looking handle-ironically I’m watching forged in fire and a competitor has just split his handle

 

[TRITON]

Hello

 

[sawtooth-9]

That looks beautiful, well done.
Where does the red mallee burl come from ? Sounds like it is an Aussie timber.

 

[cotedupy]

That looks beautiful, well done.
Where does the red mallee burl come from ? Sounds like it is an Aussie timber.

It is indeed! It's a eucalypt and I think grows quite widely across Aus, Brown Mallee is very beautiful too. (I was living in Adelaide for a few years until recently).

My favourite part of that handle though is the Western Myall, which was given to me by someone I knew there who told me to keep it for something special. I wasn't quite sure why at first, cos frankly it looked like kindling:

[You quite possibly already know this, but I did not...]

Western Myall he told me is a smallish but exceptionally long-lived and slow-growing, shrub-like acacia found in the outback, and apparently heavily protected, so you can't go around cutting down living trees. About 20 years ago a geologist friend of his had been working in northern SA for some months and came across a tree that by his estimate had probably been dead for about 200 years, and was maybe 500-700 years old before that, so brought some of it back.

The age of it, combined with long curing/ageing in the Aussie desert made it just an extraordinary wood to work with. Slightly difficult to describe, but it's extremely heavy and feels beautiful, with a dense, tightly twisted grain, and gorgeous tobacco-smoke colour and chattoyance. It's a stunning wood for handle material.

 

[cotedupy]

That looks beautiful, well done.
Where does the red mallee burl come from ? Sounds like it is an Aussie timber.

Here's another one with the Red Mallee as the main part, brass spacer and horn ferrule.

 

[MARK.B.]

Hello and Welcome

 

[Dovetail]

Those are beautiful.

 

[sawtooth-9]

S

It is indeed! It's a eucalypt and I think grows quite widely across Aus, Brown Mallee is very beautiful too. (I was living in Adelaide for a few years until recently).

My favourite part of that handle though is the Western Myall, which was given to me by someone I knew there who told me to keep it for something special. I wasn't quite sure why at first, cos frankly it looked like kindling:

View attachment 143453


[You quite possibly already know this, but I did not...]

Western Myall he told me is a smallish but exceptionally long-lived and slow-growing, shrub-like acacia found in the outback, and apparently heavily protected, so you can't go around cutting down living trees. About 20 years ago a geologist friend of his had been working in northern SA for some months and came across a tree that by his estimate had probably been dead for about 200 years, and was maybe 500-700 years old before that, so brought some of it back.

The age of it, combined with long curing/ageing in the Aussie desert made it just an extraordinary wood to work with. Slightly difficult to describe, but it's extremely heavy and feels beautiful, with a dense, tightly twisted grain, and gorgeous tobacco-smoke colour and chattoyance. It's a stunning wood for handle material.

Some of the mallee are stunning timbers - and yes, I am aware of their growth and age.
I do have a little brown mallee, but would love to get my hands on some red mallee.
Once again, well done - it would be awesome to have your skill

 

[Homeless Squirrel]

It is indeed! It's a eucalypt and I think grows quite widely across Aus, Brown Mallee is very beautiful too. (I was living in Adelaide for a few years until recently).

My favourite part of that handle though is the Western Myall, which was given to me by someone I knew there who told me to keep it for something special. I wasn't quite sure why at first, cos frankly it looked like kindling:

View attachment 143453


[You quite possibly already know this, but I did not...]

Western Myall he told me is a smallish but exceptionally long-lived and slow-growing, shrub-like acacia found in the outback, and apparently heavily protected, so you can't go around cutting down living trees. About 20 years ago a geologist friend of his had been working in northern SA for some months and came across a tree that by his estimate had probably been dead for about 200 years, and was maybe 500-700 years old before that, so brought some of it back.

The age of it, combined with long curing/ageing in the Aussie desert made it just an extraordinary wood to work with. Slightly difficult to describe, but it's extremely heavy and feels beautiful, with a dense, tightly twisted grain, and gorgeous tobacco-smoke colour and chattoyance. It's a stunning wood for handle material.

Had a load of Eucalyptus wood and Cherry as took some trees down but stupid friend doing for burnt them all! "Some people"
going to chop some limbs of Cherry tree outside that are dead n dying if want some? going to take some to group for carving but plenty there.