Community Brainstorm: Handle material ideas.

B

B-Willi

Joined
Jul 14, 2015
Messages
9
I apologize if this is the wrong sub-forum but it seemed as though it was the best fit in my eyes. Anyway, I had this idea. We're all knife makers who obviously love making knives, exploring new things, and making things look pretty, so why not work together and brainstorm and share some extraordinary ideas that we have with each other to further advance the craft of knife making or just to be a little adventurous? Being the typical bored 17 year old in highschool I get to thinking of some pretty erm... "interesting" ideas for various handle materials (Personally I'm a major fan of quality woods and anything unique). Now you may wonder, why not just try these ideas and see if they work out? Well being only 17 I don't have to funds to try every one of my 12 dozen ideas I come across through the course of a week so I figured, why not make a thread where people like me can share their ideas and brainstorm together to see if they're even possible and maybe even see some of the more courageous members try them out :D:thumbup: Enough of the ranting that probably didn't make sense anyway. Heres my first two ideas!

Many of you may have seen ziozeb's beautiful work on his black and gold dagger in the custom knives forums (http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/1311800-Black-gold-dagger). Members began discussing different materials that could be encased in resin like the gold leaf, steel foil, etc. I too began to speculate; What about leaves? I figure you could create the best and most unique "Camo" effect ever seen with these leaves and Resin. Opinions?:thumbup:

My second idea is along the lines of homemade micarta; but not quite. Micarta is made by the layering of resin soaked paper, fabric, or many other materials. However I got to thinking, a quality plane makes thin wood shavings, would it be possible to layer these shavings (possibly different woods too) and make a mean looking natural micarta. Combining the benefits of micarta and the traditional wood for us wood lovers. Opinions?:thumbup:
 
Thank God, another boored 17 year old who understands a limited budget and loves brainstorming neat ideas! Not too many around here...kinda refreshing. I have heard about people trying your "natural" wood shaving micarta (have heard of crushed up leaves too) but have never seen it done. I'd be really interested to see it if you try though! The only potential issue I see is that fabric is obviously done in layers, whereas wokdshsvings are random and possibly not as strong as a result. I don't know, maybe someone more familiar with this will chime in.
 
Nic. said:
Thank God, another boored 17 year old who understands a limited budget and loves brainstorming neat ideas! Not too many around here...kinda refreshing. I have heard about people trying your "natural" wood shaving micarta (have heard of crushed up leaves too) but have never seen it done. I'd be really interested to see it if you try though! The only potential issue I see is that fabric is obviously done in layers, whereas wokdshsvings are random and possibly not as strong as a result. I don't know, maybe someone more familiar with this will chime in.
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I've got a young creative mind, would be a shame not to use it! Once I can afford to get some epoxy resin I plan on doing all sorts of micarta type experiments! I don't know if you're familiar with "worthless wood" call blanks (Hunting calls) But I figure one could be easily cut into scales to make some neat handles too.
 
My favorite strange handle material was on a beautiful puukko made by Theo Eichorn, whose table was adjacent to mine at the OKCA knife show this year. The handle was made from stacked discs of computer motherboard (green silicon wafers shot through with copper and metal filaments), shaped and buffed, it looked nothing less than amazing.
 
A few years ago I saw a FORD with metallic paint but the metal particles were much larger than standard .I thought they had said it was a special limited edition .Would make an interesting handle .

The other one of interest to me is a bee hive pattern in metal with resin ? I have seen that on knives . Special nuclear or electricpower stuff ???
 
Stacked pieces of wood could give an awesome look.
Like the stacked leather washers, but with different types and thicknesses of wood.
 
someone posted on a here awhile back on how to include a photograph underneath some clear handle material....very cool , i bet that would work with original 2-d artwork too
 
Build a simple vacuum chamber out of a quart jar and order some cactus juice so that you can do a good job of stabilizing and the sky is the limit - grapevines, corncobs, pancakes, a lock of hair, beef jerky - I reckon just about anything could be used for handle material if you set your mind to it.
 
i think a stabilized bees nest / honey comb would look nice. or a sea sponge, or pull the tape out of an old cassette tape. how about carpenter ants or insects cast in resin ?
 
woodster said:
i think a stabilized bees nest / honey comb would look nice. or a sea sponge, or pull the tape out of an old cassette tape. how about carpenter ants or insects cast in resin ?
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I'm not sure if these kids will know what a "cassette tape" is... :D
 
mete said:
A few years ago I saw a FORD with metallic paint but the metal particles were much larger than standard .I thought they had said it was a special limited edition .Would make an interesting handle .

The other one of interest to me is a bee hive pattern in metal with resin ? I have seen that on knives . Special nuclear or electricpower stuff ???
Click to expand...

Superconductor I believe. Also there is honeycomb expanded aluminum product for some kind of construction, but I haven't seen enough of it to know what its called.
 
Woodster, the most important amber today is amber that has entraped insects.Perfect for studying whole insects rather thanfossils.
 
Ariel Elias Salaverria of AES Custom Knives has done some unusual handles over the years.
cablesoga1.jpg

chainknife4_big.jpg
 
mete said:
A few years ago I saw a FORD with metallic paint but the metal particles were much larger than standard .I thought they had said it was a special limited edition .Would make an interesting handle .

The other one of interest to me is a bee hive pattern in metal with resin ? I have seen that on knives . Special nuclear or electricpower stuff ???
Click to expand...
C-Tek?
 
I like the Raffir materials. I've used the stripes with good results, and I have a block of Ntangle that I just haven't used. I don't think it would be hard to make.
 
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