Lumber and leather
Einar TKRaw lumber, hides by the sides; there is an intimate art in the process of freeing the finished piece from the rough.
The story of every piece begins at my favourite 170 year old lumber mill. A fair bit of a drive, but this place has never not been worth it.
Within these rough-sawn planks lies the hidden language of the grain - density, toughness, stability, and the character of the wood itself - visible beneath their dusty and jagged-edged surfaces to the keen eye.
Leather is not so different. It doesn't quite ask one to peel back the layers of grime to reveal its potentials, but one must know and intuit how it will act under strain, how it will take a dye, how pliable or how resistant it will be to shaping, if it has a stubborn structure, or if it will comply to the craftsman's will.
These are the responsibilities of an art: to know one's material, their canvas, their brushes and tools, and to understand deeply how all parts combine and correspond to each other in the dance of interwoven sublimation.
Now let's nerd out a little.
Allow me to share a few of my favourite timbers from my neck of the woods.
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Hard Maple A true favourite in the trollshop. Its brilliant white hue and calm flowing grain make it seem as if a kind of organic marble. It also sands to an incredible smoothness, a pleasure to all sensations. Its only unfortunate facet is its mere moderate level impact resistance, so while it remains a long time top choice for knives, shortblades, and display pieces, it is not the ideal fit for hard sparring blades. |
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White Ash The spirit of fire captured in a timber. Its flaming grain never disappoints to dance across a blade in a mesmerizing way. |
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Red Oak A fine furniture grade lumber, warm in its glow and lustrous in its washing grain pattern. Lightweight with medium hardness, I have come prefer this timber for hafts of polearms, support structures, and fixtures like the sword stand. |
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White Oak A truly mighty timber, its distinctiveness felt in its density and weight, diverging from its much lighter brother the Red Oak. It has excellent hardness, but its grain is of a more moderate tone and charm, thus it finds its place in the positions where meat and bone are needed - short hafts and handles which require serious mass and strength. |
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American Hickory Verily a wood requiring haste, as one must race against the makers of axes and baseball bats to quickly snatch the best selection. This is a prime choice lumber for the truly reliable impact tool. Boasting excellent hardness and superb toughness, its long grains are difficulty to split, and these qualities place it as my top selection for sparring grade sword blades, as well as anything that needs to be robust in all ways. |
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Black Walnut The quintessential darkwood, charming the hearts of the world with its lustrous richness, exploding with colour under a coat of oil. Effortlessly adding warmth and depth to any piece, it has become my most trusted favourite for accents and hilt fittings. |
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And from across the world...
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European Beech A bewitching near-golden glow, and much like maple - a quiet pattern suspended in a calm lake of beautiful colour. Lightweight but strong, as well as incredibly stable, I've come to favour beech for large heads of polearms and the blades of massive swords without fear of warping or bowing. |
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South American Purpleheart The absolute stunner in cherry lozenge red. A solid mass of blazing burgundy beauty, it has never once failed to create a truly special piece. Incredibly high density and heft, it yields with it a truly noticeable difference in the swing of a purpleheart blade. It is also for these reasons that it will forever be my choice for the head of the mighty Trjollnir. |
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South American Jatoba Also known as Brazilian cherry, this is a true combat grade material. Gorgeous in its luster under a coat of oil bringing to bear its warm reddish brown, it contrasts majestically against deep dark woods or black leather grip wrap. Densely loaded like purpleheart, with absolutely impeccable hardness and toughness, it is a true premium foreign hardwood made for the highest grade of training sword. |
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African Padauk Among the most vibrant reddish orange one might ever live to see in a lumber. It is a particular pleasure to the eye, as well as to the hand once sanded to its notorious glass-like smoothness. Not the hardest timber of the selection, but certainly among the most radiant. Lightweight and of medium hardness, it is favoured in decorative and light training pieces. |
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African Wenge: A timber of pure luxury. Undulating of black with streaks of brown bands, boasting tremendous density and high hardness, this wood excels as hilt fittings and accents which embody the principle of weight and heavy contrast. Wenge partners absolutely exquisitely with the other vibrant woods listed above as their partnering hilt fitting, balancing energetic luminosity with the concentrated pigments of the earth. |
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