Favorite Handle Materials

Andy, sanding dust from a similarly colored wood, mixed in with your clear epoxy ought to do the trick. Had a beautifully carved wooden handled Kumar Karda once with a rather large crack in it. I was able to match it's nice reddish brown hue by crushing up some pecan shells. The repaired crack was almost imperceptable.;)

Sarge
 
Thanks Sarge! That's my method most of the time. I haven't used pecan shells though. Good idea. I have lots of exotic wood scraps around the shop that give me great color variation. Just put the dust collector on the orbital sander and give it a go for a minute and presto dust galore. They also sell epoxy tints at the marine store. I've used some of those too. They go for around $7 per tube. Probably use dust.

What a knife! Its too bad I've got to slow down the collecting for a while because I really want a larger Khuk now!

Andy
 
Only woods I don't have samples of are rhododendron and kapur, simply because the lighter woods don't do as much for me and they have been relatively rare.

I think that hands down hill walnut is the prettiest with the best grain and depth to it, but the dark neem and redish/purple chandans are close behind.

Things sure have changed. I obviously love HI knives, but I had so much plain horn and same color satisal for a while that I was sick of it, which is why the antler and USA wood knives were so popular. I'll bet my first 4 dozen purchases over the period of a year were all either plain black horn or satisal.

As to horn, the very rare grey horn with white feathering is phenomenal. I would love to see more of that.

Speaking of the USA woods, the ones I am kicking myself for not trying harder for were the few ones in the customer supplied Osage orange. The texture and feel and look of that wood is incredible. I was able to get three though, and will never part with those (Hanshee, 20" Kobra, YCS.)

Norm
 
The Salyan is Chandan (sp) dark and gorgeous. I wouldn't trade that at all and I can't wait to refinish it.

Here in the states I like working with walnut and cherry. My family has a wooded farm in Mississippi and when storms knock down the trees they harvest and sticker and dry the wood. There are several old barns full of wood on the property (160 acres). I love going there and choosing beautiful walnut, hickory, oak, gum, poplar, and maple. You gotta be careful though. That there is brown recluse country. Last time I picked up some wood I killed over 50 in one day!!!!!!:eek:

Andy
 
I've only gotten wood so far, because I like to re-profile my handles. I wouldn't know the first thing about re-profiling horn. Also, I think wood feels nice~ :)

Nam
 
I like the raw horn on the villagers best for users. For pretty knives, I'd say horn for chiruwa stuff (hard to beat the M43/BDC handles or AK Bowie in polished black horn. For wood, I think Chandan is great looking, but I really like the feel of neem (and depending on the grain, it can look pretty nice), but I don't like it when it is darkened.
 
I would have to dig up your thread on how to treat a neem........light color wood............
 
SAS.......found the thread.........so the grain of the neem stands out more and the dark becomes darker ?
 
re: micarta

I believe the kamis make a micarta-like product already. IIRC....I was talking with Yangdu and Pala about buffing wheels...and they described some of the ones they make out in Nepal, made of layers of fabric stitched together (very typical)..but there was also a version that had been suspended in some type of resin (or similar). That is essentially how micarta is made.

So, who knows?

The kamis should have all been dead long ago from the toxins and dangers of their bladesmithing process. So, it's hard to say what things are "safe"...

Personally, I don't use micarta simply because I work out of my garage and don't want micarta dust everywhere. Micarta is not as bad as carbon fiber or G-10, either. I just like natural wood so much....I use it wherever and whenever I can.
 
I like the natural materials better anyway.

Andy
 
aproy1101 said:
There is a hairline crack in the handle as described by Yangdu. Does anyone have advice on how to handle such a problem. I would assume I should fill with epoxy died to match the wood and sand. That's how I handle it on furniture projects. Maybe you guys have a better method. I will refinish this handle as with all the others, so I plan to do some work on it anyway. How wonderful!!:p

Andy
Click to expand...
I let my 18" Salyan soak in mineral oil for about 3 days and the crack is unnoticable now.
 
Bone is very hard . The only bone I have worked with is deer and Bison bone .I made a bodkin handle out of deer bone and a couple of buttons out of bison leg bone These are very different as you can guess . Bone dries out and ages which might make them more brittle . Maybe they need to be treated/moisturised to retard the ageing process .
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top