Nervous about cutting this Snakewood

Kitchen Knife Forums

Help Support Kitchen Knife Forums:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Burl Source

Weird Wood Pusher
Joined
Jun 13, 2011
Messages
4,340
Reaction score
7
I bought an old half log piece of snakewood from a knife maker a little while back.
He had this piece for several years. He got it from a wood turner who had it for several years.
Seems everyone who has had this piece has been nervous about cutting it up.

It has been sitting in my office for weeks. I guess it is time to start cutting it up.
I have never cut a snakewood log before so I am not sure what is the right way.
The look I am going to try to get is the dark flecks on the faces of the blocks.

I hope I don't mess this up.
If I do there will be a special on snakewood toothpick blanks in the web store.

sw001.jpg

sw002.jpg


If this goes well, I have a connection in South America where I can import the logs directly from their source in Surinam.
 
The outer surfaces of the log (photo above) look like they will show the flecks better than the split surfaces (photo below). So it looks like I need to cut the blocks with the faces parallel to the outer surface (flat sawn).

sw003.jpg
 
Good luck with it. I can appreciate the trepidation that this can elicit!
 
1st cut is not very exciting.
I am not sure yet if that is because of how I am cutting or maybe the log doesn't have much figure.

sw005.jpg


Now I am going to keep cutting. Worse case this might be a $300 lesson in buying and cutting snakewood.

This wood is pretty hard stuff.
Maybe chopsticks.
 
Well..........
It didn't turn out to be the super stuff, but pretty good.

sw006.jpg
 
It looks good to me :D Sometimes regular stuff is good too
 
What are the dimensions on those chunks? Perspective, please. :)
 
What are the dimensions on those chunks? Perspective, please. :)
12"+ long x 2"+ wide x 1"+ thick on the 2 front ones. There will be some waste when I trim away flawed portions.

My perspective is;
This was not a profitable purchase.
But I learned about cutting snakewood. It is like cutting ironwood.
The source I mentioned in Surinam is able to provide custom cutting.
If I buy snakewood from them I will let them do the rough cutting.
 
I like it, it's not too busy and has nice color. Sometimes outrageous figure can get in the way.
 
Looks nice, reminds me of an old deacon's bench my grandfather made. He was a carpenter, but I know it wasn't snakewood hehe. Not busy, but very nice colour on that wood
 

Latest posts

Back
Top