Recent content by Wakkibatty

This is spot on. Medullary rays are typically made up of very different cell types to regular wood, regardless of whether its a hardwood or softwood tree you're talking about. Medullary rays are part of a tree's circulatory system, and can considerably vary in both thickness and number. In...

I have no idea to be honest... 🤔 If I had to guess -- (and I'm guessing HUGELY here!) -- if it had any effect at all, I reckon it would speed up the process of the turpines reacting with the rubber... simply because: - you'd be increasing the surface area greatly, as well as the concentration...

Did you use mineral turpentine or natural turpentine oil from trees? The latter comes from resinous softwood, while the former comes from petroleum distillate. Their molecular structure may not be identical. You're quite right to check with an industrial chemist however, as I'm only a...

Did a bit more reading on the turpines present in both spruce timber and latex rubber to see if I could identify exactly what terpines you'd need to recreate the effect. Here's what I found: -- the effect is definitely real. Natural latex itself is also a terpine (didnt know that bit!) and the...

Well yeah... pretty much -- in theory. You dont't need a massive amount of heat though - heat is not kind to many blades. You just need something a bit warmer than the standard room temperature of 22 -24 degrees centigrade. You want *just enough* heat to encourage the more volatile...

Mmm... honestly not sure if the hinoki aromatic oil would do much., but i do t see the harm in tryi g it either. Just be aware you might ruin your rubber in the process. Hinoki (from memory) gets its scent from D-limonine, which (again from memory) is the same aromatic chemical that's in lemon...

Thank you. Nice to know my hopeless timber obsession comes in handy at times for things other than blademaking. 😁😁😁😁

Bingo -- that would definitely do it. 😁😁 If the house was built in 1928 and has lots of exposed spruce timber, then the house would quite possibly be made of old-growth, forest grown spruce (if so then also -- niiiiice! 🥰🥰) Old growth timber has old wood grain -- it's denser, stronger and has...

Sweat is (or can be) surprisingly acidic stuff. It's pH can sometimes be the same as mild vinegar in some cases. Sweat also contains sebum, which is a natural skin oil. So badically the sweat on your hands can have enough natural oil in it to semi-boost a rubber's top sheet.

I have a whole bunch of left field questions for you regarding your attic results (if you don't mind me asking them, that is). You've really gotten me hugely curious now, both with your answers, and with the results of your other tests. I actually have a bit of a theory as to what might have...

This one is REALLY out of left field, but maybe try the Loki Telson Germany. I just wrote a review on it over on another thread (its over here if you're curious...) I make the comment that it reminds me a bit of a non-boosted grippy version of a standard H3. You need to use H3-like strokes and...

I currently have the Telson Germany fitted to the BH side of my main blade. (Typically I use the Telson 100 instead but I felt like a change). I've been using it for the last month, and frankly its not that bad.... nor is it terribly good either however..... frankly it's a bit weird. But I'm...

I know what youre getting at here, but I suspect what we're seeing in that pic is simply woodgrain lines that aren't parallel. To be fair, this is more unusual with koto compared to other woods but not totally unheard of either. Although... having said that, now that I look closer -- the outer...

Good to know. I'm a bit worried however that you said 'less mis-aligned', and not 'correctly aligned' or 'normally aligned" If the outer layer on the other side isn't running perfectly vertically up and down the blade as per usual, then it's just not going to play properly. Golden-son's...

If just one outer layer is all that's misaligned, then no -- it shouldn't affect blade performance too much, in theory. That misaligned layer is enough to render it a factory second, but the rest of the layers should largely help compensate for the misaligned grain to some degree The blade...