Can you cut desert ironwood across the grain?

L

Leon Husock

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Jul 17, 2019
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Yup, it's another wood question lol. I just got a beautiful block of ironwood with these curved bands of grain. It'd look amazing if I cut it across the grain, but I know that definitely reduces the strength of a wood. I'm looking to make kitchen knife handles, not anything that has to stand up to a whole lot of abuse; will cutting across the grain weaken the wood enough that it's likely to split or crack when I make a handle out of it?

P.S. I've got a solid table saw and I've cut ironwood on it before, so I'm not overly concerned about the actual cutting of the wood, which is what the bulk of threads I've seen are about.
 
Cool. Maybe I'll try it out, see how it goes. If all goes according to plan it should yield a really cool kind of tiger stripe pattern.
 
Gotta be careful with ironwood, it splits across the end grain pretty easily, especially as it dries.

eric
 
ea42 said:
Gotta be careful with ironwood, it splits across the end grain pretty easily, especially as it dries.

eric
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Gotcha. Yeah I talked to the place I bought it from and they said it's quite likely to split if I cut it across the grain. I think I'll probably just settle for slightly less striking figure and not risk wasting the wood.
 
If you do decide to cut it across the end grain, you might think seriously about immediately gluing it to a backer of some kind; G-10, Micarta maybe horn or something like that. It'll give it more strength and resistance to splitting.
Also, you should probably let it dry/equalize for a good long time if you're getting it from somewhere not local to you. I say "equalize" because dried wood will absorb moisture from the local environment. Wood from where I live in S.W. TX will be much drier than wood from N.W. WA. If I sent a knife to WA with a non-stablized wood handle and the wood was in my garage for a couple years, it would warp, swell and/or crack for sure!
 
Interesting! That's good to know about the environment. I bought it dry from a company in Oregon and I live in Connecticut, so we're probably comparably humid. I've made the mistake in the past of cutting too aggressively to try to get more out of my wood and ended up with less, so I think I'll probably err on the side of caution here (sadly). But that's a good idea about gluing it to a backer.
 
Maybe try strengthening the grain with epoxy? I love the look of cedar but the durability factor is awful so I will make a rough blank profile and either soak it in epoxy and cut it back out or lather it on until I need it’s soaked in. Worked for me on an old brittle piece of cedar, but not sure how well ironwood would suck up epoxy. Maybe some cactus to the rescue?
 
Lemonader83 said:
Maybe try strengthening the grain with epoxy? I love the look of cedar but the durability factor is awful so I will make a rough blank profile and either soak it in epoxy and cut it back out or lather it on until I need it’s soaked in. Worked for me on an old brittle piece of cedar, but not sure how well ironwood would suck up epoxy. Maybe some cactus to the rescue?
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I've got a stabilizing setup, but my understanding is that ironwood both doesn't benefit from stabilizing and is probably difficult to impossible to impregnate with resin because it's so dense. I decided to err on the side of caution and cut with the grain, I think it's still going to be very pretty.
 
Probably a wise decision. Years ago I was cutting some ironwood up from a trade I'd made with a guy. Where he lived ironwood was firewood. He was on his way north so I met him out in the Mojave and we traded and I got several large firewood chunks of ironwood. It was in log form and so cutting it up was tricky as there is lots of cracks and voids etc. Some of this firewood was indeed firewood and wasn't gonna make scales. But overall it was a good trade as I didn't have to buy ironwood for some years. I had one small piece and I was trying to maximize yield out of it so I did cut it across the grain.Thought it was gonna give me some scales for some smaller knives, that same kind of tiger stripe you mentioned. They were extremely brittle and I did not use them. One broke picking it up. So as ya did with the grain.
 
Yeah, if I were doing scales I would never have even considered it. It was only because I was planning on doing hidden tang blocks, 1.5" square, that I even bothered to ask people's opinions.
 
My 2¢ (as a pro woodworker but just a dabbler in knife handles) would be to cut your blocks up to the 1.5" but not more than 1/2" thick. Set them aside for a few months. When the time comes to make up the hidden tang handle, cull from your stock using only the best pieces and make up a stacked handle with epoxy between the stacks. You could intersperse with micarta or leather, metal or birch bark, even. Finish up with rasps and assorted sanding grits. Would be a lovely knife handle or 2.
 
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So to clarify, different people will say different things about across/ with the grain.

It sounds like you want to make end grain scales, that is the faces of the scales would show end grain.

If so, i generally reccomend against this. Its totally doable, and I dont want to tell anyone what to do. But end cut woods are inherntly weayer and more prone to creck, crack or break than long or bais cut grain.
 
Greenberg Woods said:
So to clarify, different people will say different things about across/ with the grain.

It sounds like you want to make end grain scales, that is the faces of the scales would show end grain.

If so, i generally reccomend against this. Its totally doable, and I dont want to tell anyone what to do. But end cut woods are inherntly weayer and more prone to creck, crack or break than long or bais cut grain.
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All true - which is why I have recommended 3/8" to 1/2" this blocks sandwiched with epoxy and possibly other materials and then solid ends caps. This would make for a beautiful and very durable knife handle - especially in the scale and purpose of a 3-1/2" to 4" puukko type handle.

Maybe not something a pro would want to do for a knife intended for sale and ultimately out of control of the maker as to how it would be used/abused - BUT - for a personal knife I would not hesitate. My 2¢ - not trying to be argumentative.
 
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