Paul, I think this WIP will be "IP" for quite a while! Having made a facsimile of the littlest Kenyon in your project, I know how much filing you are going to have to do to get that monster back looking like it was folded. I was wondering if one of those 'dreadnought' style files for softer metals would be better for the roughing-down stage. Any thoughts, Matt??
I guess you both missed these, then?
Here &
here.
Gidgee
is a bit tough on saws and plane blades, but rasps, scrapes and sands very well, imo. In fact, I would far rather use Gidgee than a few other less hard woods I've tried. It finishes quite easily, you can move quickly to the next grit size without having lots of residual scratches. I sand to 400 (cloth-backed paper) then give the surface a good rub-down with 0000 steel wool. The resulting surface is lovely, with the deep lustre that so many Acacias have when polished.
One of the most difficult woods I've used for handles is Myrtle Beech. Easy to saw & plane, but is difficult to scrape really well (needs a very sharp scraper with a really fine burr) and you have to work through every grit size carefully to eliminate scratches.
Stewie (Planemaker) loves Tiger Myrtle, but he must be far more patient than I, or know some secrets to working with the stuff. A couple of TM handles I made a few years back nearly drove me nuts - I think I polished the handles 3 times before I'd got rid of every little scratch or rasp-mark. The one on the right is TM, the one on the left is from one of the few sound bits of Hairy Oak I've managed to find that was large enough to squeeze a handle from:
Attachment 440978
They did look ok when I finally made it, though.
Cheers,