Best handle woods?

T

TheSurvivalist

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Jun 13, 2004
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Which of these hardwoods would make the best handle material for a hidden-tang fixed blade? For a hard use full-tang fixed blade? These are ones available to me locally:
- Bloodwood
- Cocobolo
- Ebony


TheSurvivalist
 
OK, Here's my opinion.

A lot of people use the "ebony" name wrongly and are referring to African Blackwood. If this is the wood you mean, this is the winner. "True Ebony" is not as tough, in fact a little brittle and more prone to cracking.

Cocobolo is a close second after African Blackwood. In fact they are both from the same family - Dalbergia species. Don't know more than that. Cocobolo is a little less dense and often lighter, more orange coloured. Both African Blackwood and Cocobolo and other true rosewoods are dense, oily and when seasoned well, very stable, environmentally resistant and finish beautifully. No varnish, sealant required.

But like many other woods, the Dalbergia spp. woods are notorious for causing skin and respiratory sensitivity and allegic reactions, so due care must be taken.

My 2 cents. Jason.

Jason Cutter
Knifemaker, Australia
Jason Cutter Bladeart
www.jcbknives.com
 
Thanks for the information. The local woodcraft shop has a wide variety of "Ebony" and African Blackwood. I guess I'll go with the Blackwood.

TheSurvivalist
 
How about osage orange?.....It is my first choice for rough use.....If you need some for a knife, let me know ....carl
 
Since we've moved onto suggesting other good handle woods, here are some other non-stablised woods that I think are fantastic for hard-use handles.

The other rosewoods (as mentioned)
Gidgee and Ringed Gidgee and related acacias spp., eg.- Mulga, Lancewood, Strawberry Jam (no kidding),
Walnut (not as dense but very tough)
Olivewood
Yes, Osage Orange (Bois d'Arc)

Unfortunately, the plain-figured woods are much tougher.

There are many others, but its Monday morning and my brain is still on weekend time... Jason.

Jason Cutter
Knifemaker, Australia
Jason Cutter Bladeart
www.jcbknives.com
 
I like all three but would put in a plug for lignum vitae which you can order online. Its got a wild grain, nice color, hard enough that you could probably make a good knife out of it and it takes an incredible finish.
 
TheSurvivalist said:
Which of these hardwoods would make the best handle material for a hidden-tang fixed blade? For a hard use full-tang fixed blade? These are ones available to me locally:
- Bloodwood
- Cocobolo
- Ebony


TheSurvivalist
Click to expand...

What type of places sell woods like thoes localy? Like hobby shops?
 
Woodcraft Supply sells all these and many more.Also check the yellow pages for exotic wood suppliers,probably listed under wood or lumber.For the price of a pair of scales from a knife supply,you can buy a board foot or more from a supplier.
Stacy
 
Is anyone familiar with big leaf maple ? How hard is it compared to hard maple ?
 
Leatherbird,
I know that you have limited your selection to only 3 kinds of wood but there are many strong woods out there that will make a tough handle. Osage orange is one of the toughest woods out there and can be found in your back yard (Location: America The Beautiful).
Another is strong and stable wood is persimmon. I found a large persimmon tree that my neighbor wanted removed and I took advantage of that. I had it sawed and has been drying in my shop for about a year now. I used a couple of pieces for handles and it is very hard and strong.
I’m not saying that your choices are not good but pick out what you like.

Joe
 
Joe,Thanks for the advice,it is appreciated! I'm not limiting myself to 3 woods,just trying to reseach the stabilised woods.Thinking about a coffin handled Bowie with palm swell,if ya' can imagine that, :eek: ,and would like to use a dark or finely grained wood.Congrats on being back in the knifemaking business! :thumbup:
 
Persimmon is American ebony - diospirous virginiana. If you look very closely at the end grain and side grain structure (talking 10x or better) you'll see they are identical except for the color.
Black locust is another tough guy like osage and grain structure is similar in many ways. One obvious exception is the natural oil in osage (that dust, bright yellow, will stick to anything. Both make great trouble free handles and when finished and polished will let you look into their souls. If you are selective as to where and how you cut these woods you can get some very beautiful grain patterns and figure, just a little more tricky to spot. My "other" favorite tough guy is tight grained curly hickory. Take it over the best maple anyday.
Biggest trick to any of these is slow speeds, sharp belts, and hand rubbed finishs.
Love natural wood handles and we have native woods that can rival any imports with a little effort. No good handle is easy.
Carl Rex
 
Mete, I am only familiar with big leaf rather recently. I bought a block off Ebay, mine really burly for sure and I like it and have worked it and would buy more - I am happy. My opinion is IF'Y about the comparison. It might be close but maybe not as hard. I base my opinion on working it, not field testing it.

My vote for best handle woods: what I've seen tested to pass for that. What did Grandma's kitchen knives have. They didn't swell much either; did they over the many years. Here in West Virginia hichory and poplar are two favorites for fence posts and they last for, it seems, generations. Another very common favorite for that is locust. I'll take locust as a first choice and hickery as well. Many of the knives we saw mom and grandma soak over night in dish water where handled with such, hichory being common. There is also cherry, walnut and of course oak. If I want a knife of wood handle, one that is to be kicked around, bashed around, soaked to drowning for ever I'll take hichory or locust and polar as my last of the three - all good - no super fancy but good.

RL (Hey Mete, I just bought a linear amp off Ebay. 600 watts out. Don't got it yet. In the mail real soon. I'll try to get on SSB sometime in a few months. We'll QSO on 80 some time next year, I hope. Right now I am only CW and that will be my main stay.)
 
Roger, sent you a picture of a fine big leaf maple rifle stock. You might post that. In the past Big leaf [12" wide leaf]maple was discarded as far as a decorative wood !!!!.....That amp will help on 80m especially in the summer .
 
Learn something new every day. We have persimmon trees here and there in some of our woods, but I've never known that it was supposed to be that strong or whatever. It doesn't generally get big enough to cut into lumber like we do with other trees. I may have to try some.

Osage orange is a very dense wood that is very strong in the lengthwise direction, but splits easily. I.E., it would make a great walking stick, cattle driving staff, bow, etc. But I'm not yet convinced it's the best choice for things that need holes drilled in it, or strength in more than one direction, or splitting resistance. It is VERY resistant to weathering and rot though. We have used it for fence posts for generations- there are still standing sections of our pasture fence that were set by my great great grandfather over 100 years ago.

Our shop is heated with a wood burning stove, and every year it seems like hackberry is about the toughest to split. (compared to oak, osage, hickory, ash, more oak, and various others) But I've never experimented with it otherwise, and it's not very pretty wood.

Thought I'd share something about locust wood. (I assume black, water, and honey locust. Not sure about the thornless varieties.) My grandpa once told me that this wood naturally gets very slick with use, and was highly sought after for making things such as the runners on sleds & sleighs, sliding doors, and stuff like that.
 
I have to agree with Roger about the Hickory. My grandfather was a a country butcher of sorts, and I have his old butcher and boning knives. All are plain carbon steels with Hickory handles. They have seen much abuse, are over 50 years old and still look good-tight and flush with the tang, etc. They have been soaked in water/blood for extended periods, put up wet, left outside for several days, and are still very functional. They are not really pretty, being very straight grained, but are sure tough as can be. One of my forging hammers has a hickory handle that is as curly as super premium curly maple and will be knife handles as soon as it breaks, or I get around to removing the hammer from it. Persimmon was the wood of choice for making mallets to strike a froe(a tool for splitting wood shingles) with, and the woods in a set of golf clubs were made of persimmon until the 80s. I haven't used any persimmon for knife handles, but I'm sure it would make a good one and with selective cutting could yield some nice burls. I've never used any of the woods on your list, so I must bow to others knowledge and experience.

For you Australian makers: We have a tree here in Southwest Floride we call Australian Pine. It's pretty soft when green, but hard as a prostitute's heart when dry. It tends to crack/split when drying, and I've been told it's a member of the beech family, though that is just hearsay at this point. Are any of y'all familiar with this wood?

Todd
 
Mete, PLEASE PLEASE re-send that email. I think I missed it.

I got the amp primarily for CW pile-ups. I love pile-ups and chase DX even more wantingly than I used (USED) to chase girls. The years, ya know. The tired old years.

Thanks.

RL
 
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