Cutlery Proposals for the Bladeforums 2015 Knife

You are absolutely correct, Lignum Vitae is the 'Ironwood' of Central and South Americas.

GSO1962 said:
I would also offer up desert ironwood (Olneya tesota) as a suitable material. When stationed in Arizona, we picked up several Mexican woodcarving done in ironwood down in Nogales. Very dense, tough, and beautiful grain. I'm not an expert on wood, but I believe Lignum vitae is one of those woods also considered to be "iron wood."

I'm up for either one!
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The part of Cattle horn used in knife scales is closer to hair and finger nails. Bernard Levine says so and it's not a good idea to argue with Bernard :D
This is from a google search, not Levines words, I couldn't find his thread on horn.

"The horn is composed of dermal bone, covered by a thin epidermal layer, and lastly a thick layer of keratinized cells. The keratinized cells are like those found in hairs and nails."

Best regards

Robin
 
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So every couple weeks we'd have to trim the scales :D JK!

Pipeman said:
The part of Cattle horn used in knife scales is closer to hair and finger nails. Bernard Levine says so and it's not a good idea to argue with Bernard :D
This is from a google search, not Levines words, I couldn't find his thread on horn.

"The horn is composed of dermal bone, covered by a thin epidermal layer, and lastly a thick layer of keratinized cells. The keratinized cells are like those found in hairs and nails."

Best regards

Robin
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If lignum vitae was the wood of choice, I'd much rather have micarta. The examples of it that I've seen are unattractive to me. I agree that Purple Heart and Osage Orange turn really quick and not in a good way. I'd be okay with desert ironwood though, even more so with the heavily burled type.

I still think Bocote would be just fine and I like that black and white ebony quite a bit, along with Bloodwood. Snakewood would be my ultimate though.
 
gruntmedik said:
How would Olive Wood fare as a shadow pattern handle?
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The Opinel website says olive wood has a lot of oil that is corrosive and eats up carbon steel. So they only offer stainless with their olive wood. Maybe that's why we don't see olive used more often?
 
Just to note r.e. expense that snakewood is great but is possibly the most expensive wood of all. Koa is good but should be stabilized and the really curly stuff as in the example I posted is big bucks. Same with ironwood: regular irinwood is cheap and boring, whereas the nice burl looks great and costs a lot. B/W ebony can be reasonably priced but it takes work to accumulate enough of it with interesting patterns. I will wander over to a couple purveyors this weekend to see if any good boards are available, but I'm not sure what it would take to cover 300 knives.
 
fishface5 said:
....... but I'm not sure what it would take to cover 300 knives.
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Well, if you figure each knife needs a block about 1/2'' X 1'' X 4-1/2'', and accounting for a 1/16'' bandsaw kerf all around, you get 3.252 cubic inches. A (rough sawn 4/4) board foot is 144 cubic inches, so about 44.28 knives per board foot.

If I was doing the buying, I would look for about 11-1/2 to 12 board feet to accommodate 300 knives with a 15% material scrap rate.

Just sayin, if you're shoppin' around..... :D

Edited to add: 12 board feet is 1 cubic foot, 1,728 cubic inches.... It's amazing to think one block of wood 12'' X 12'' X 12'' would make 300 knives worth of scales!!
 
J_Curd said:
Is it common to find faults (gaps/knots/etc) INSIDE the aforementioned woods?
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Please clarify what you mean.

All woods have "faults" so maybe the answer to your question is yes. However, I'm not sure about what you mean by "inside" which you capitalized, so I assume you meant to emphasize.

I'm not sure what a gap would be inside a wooden knife handle.

I generally view knots in wood* as a positive and aesthetically pleasing, but if it were inside the wood then no one would ever see it or know it existed. Not a negative.

As always, I could be misunderstanding things. My apologies if that's the case.




*when I'm turning wood knots can be a significant annoyance, but in the finished product? I find knots attractive.
 
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Wow, I've got to keep it touch more!

Thanks for all your hard work, Charlie (and Eric). I must say the CSC with the bolsters really calls to me. Just seemed classic. Like the GEC too but always scared of getting an unusable nail-breaker.

But then again, I'm usually one to always buy a forum knife no matter what it turns out to be.
 
J_Curd said:
Is it common to find faults (gaps/knots/etc) INSIDE the aforementioned woods?
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Some yes, some no - any burls and wood from trees that grow curvy, twisted & contorted (like osage orange) will have bark inclusions, splits & shear lines that you'll never see until you cut into it.

Other trees that grow straight & tall, pretty unlikely.
 
I was meaning on big blocks that would be cut into smaller pieces. A few posts above there were calculations on how many board feet would turn into X number of knives...I was just curious if it would be possible to buy a big block and find the interior unusable once it was cut up.

Sorry for the derail. :(

Thanks speed freak.
 
I do have one comment about micarta though, if we end up going that route, and was curious about what everyone else thought.

Most micarta is used in the same orientation as the laminated sheets, so you get something that looks like this:

micarta.jpg


That's OK and all, but just about everybody does it that way.

I really like the look when it's cut so the slabs are oriented 90 degrees from above. It shows the squiggly lines of the sheets, and to me, looks a whole lot nicer, like this:

image-14_zpsbad1b78d.jpg


(images above stolen from Google image search....)

If we do go down the micarta road, I think doing something like this would REALLY make the forum knife unique. What do you all think? I can't find any images of traditional's made this way, and I only have one modern folder like that, so I'm not going to post the pic here.
 
Dr. Scott said:
The Opinel website says olive wood has a lot of oil that is corrosive and eats up carbon steel. So they only offer stainless with their olive wood. Maybe that's why we don't see olive used more often?
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Good to know. But since we are considering stainless, it may be an option. I just didn't know how durable it would be. It can have some beautiful patterns in the grain.
 
I love olive wood. It is plentiful, relatively cheap. After all, the orchards must be pruned, and sometimes they chop down the whole tree. Beautiful burls and grain in olive wood. I would love to have an olive wood handled knife with stainless blades!:thumbup:

But, you make a good argument too, Tom!
Double Ott said:
My vote is for desert ironwood burl. It is a beautiful wood, durable, strong with it's own natural oils.

[URL=http://s810.photobucket.com/user/doubleott/media/BR%20DIB%20collection/BRDIBcollection2006.jpg.html][/URL]

Tom
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That display of desert ironwood is beautiful. I wonder how that beauty would translate into small pieces? As in larger pieces show the beauty of natural patterns. Would that be true in a smaller perspective?
 
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