scabbard materials

[fearn]

I should point out that, in the US, "lime wood" is basswood. It's not precisely correct for the Philippines, obviously, but it's easy to get in short lengths (check out art stores) and not that hard to carve, though it can be tedious to whittle. It's also cheap enough that basswood can be used for experimentation and interim scabbards. Finally, if (like me) you get inspired to try hand-carving a scabbard, I'd suggest that certain dremel power tools can be very useful if you're limited in time or patience (or your significant others are).

The chemistry issue here is tannins and similar resins, which are widely present in the pine family (pine, fir, spruce, doug fir, etc), "cedars" (a diverse group) and the oak family (oak, beech, hickory, etc). Tannins will stain iron a nice black (iron tannate is the basis for old-fashioned black ink). Getting well away from these families (as with magnolia and basswood) gets you different wood chemistry that doesn't stain the iron..

There's also the CITES issue and the whole issue of naming tropical hardwoods. Many of the old rosewoods have been harvested into commercial extinction, so matching the wood of a century-old scabbard may be difficult to impossible, even if you have a reputable tropical hardwood dealer nearby. Even if you do find such wood, if it's something covered by CITES, it may not be possible to move that bit of wood out of the US, should you want to sell it. Many other woods aren't harvested sustainably, which means that they are likely to disappear off the market at some point and possibly be covered by CITES in the future (think ebony, mahogany, pink ivory). Since I care about these issues, I check before I buy the wood. It's usually pretty easy to find out whether something is being sustainably harvested, or whether there is a problem with it. Even if you don't care about conservation issues, rare woods are sometimes misidentified, or have commercial names that differ widely from what they're called by scientists or locals. Brazilian cherry isn't a cherry, for example, and sheoak isn't an oak. A number of species are called "ironwood," and they're not closely related.

Even if you don't care about conservation, it's worth identifying them before you buy, because some of them are toxic. Inhaling a bunch of irritating sawdust isn't much fun, and some of them have as many tannins as oak and red cedar do. All of this information is online, if you include search terms like "tannins," "Health," "working with," or "chemistry," in searching for wood names.

Hope this helps

F

[mross]

Here are some resources for wood.

http://www.bellforestproducts.com/ex...FYje4AodmhOeUg

http://www.burlsales.com/

http://www.cuestik.com/

[kahnjar1]

If you are looking for a REALLY soft wood to practice on, why not try BALSA as used in model aircraft making? May not be strong enough for the final product, but real easy for trials.
Regards Stu