Favorite wood material for handle ?

NEEM!!!!!!
I'm not that excited, I just had to get to the ten character limit....
 
From post on favorite handle materials thread.;)

Out of all the woods the kamis have used for handles my favorite is the Rosewood we used to get when I first started buying khukuris.
Second favorite is the burly or highly grained Satisaal.
There is just nothing like a beautiful wood grain that catches your eye so that you get lost looking into its depth's.:cool: ;) :D :thumbup:
 
Rosewood...........we have it for furniture here in this part of the world.....but actually there are many different species..........and most are dying out....:(

And in here the most precious is the Zitan.........a wood that is so hard and dense and have a dark to almost black purplish color.........that it sinks in water.....like ebony.......

But as a handle material it can be too brittle ? So a more resilient wood is good for Khuk handle right ? :)
 
Osage orange is my fav of the ones I have. Don't have Neem or rosewood yet. That Zitan sounds like Ironwood, very dense desert tree.

But my very best handle is a translucent horn, black and white stripes, by Sgt. Karka. Pics don't do it justice.
Pic 1
Pic 2
 
My favorite khukuri handle material is satisaal (indian rosewood, Dalbergia latifolia). I never had the rosewood Yvsa mentioned above. Is it a different species or just a different color or variety of satisaal?
For smaller, non khukuri knife handles I like cocobolo, tiger maple and birch.
 
littleknife said:
My favorite khukuri handle material is satisaal (indian rosewood, Dalbergia latifolia). I never had the rosewood Yvsa mentioned above. Is it a different species or just a different color or variety of satisaal?
For smaller, non khukuri knife handles I like cocobolo, tiger maple and birch.
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Littleknife the Rosewood we used to get was a dark reddish color with streaks so dark as to be almost black. Every once in a great while a piece would be real curly grain so as to be almost burl like.
It was absolutely beautiful!:D :cool:
 
Would someone post a pic or two of classic rosewood handles ? I have some 5/16 rosewood dowels I am going to make some footed arrow shafts with . I,m pretty sure it is not the same rosewood . It is very light with some pink streaks in it . Someone suggested that my dowels may be European rosewood .
I do not know the woods used for our Kukuuris to have a favourite yet . Would Ipe make a good handle material ?
 
Kevin the grey said:
Would someone post a pic or two of classic rosewood handles ? I have some 5/16 rosewood dowels I am going to make some footed arrow shafts with . I,m pretty sure it is not the same rosewood . It is very light with some pink streaks in it . Someone suggested that my dowels may be European rosewood .
I do not know the woods used for our Kukuuris to have a favourite yet . Would Ipe make a good handle material ?
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Here is a pic of a Birghorka shop 19" 33 oz. Gelbu Special with carved rosewood handle. I had a closeup that was just stunning by comparison, but managed to lose it over the past year. Probably at work. The discoloration at the tip is a reflection of some leaves I think. This is one of my favorite knives.

Regards,

Norm

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SASSAS said:
Does anyone have any closeups of white satisal?
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=351086&highlight=walosi

It looks really nice on this villager...
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Scot, there should be lots of pix of the Satisaal as it was the common handle material for a long, long, time.
The Chandan, Neem, and the other woods we have seen recently are all new materials to us.
Well with the exception of the Chandan, there was a time when the kamis started using the Chandan a long while back but the cracking problems with it then was a lot worse than it is now.
 
Yvsa, thank you for the information. I wonder if this dark rosewood is still available. If you like it so much it has to be really beautiful. :thumbup:
 
That is definitely not the same wood I have . Mine looks a bit like cherry .
I have seen rosewood like that in a carving knife set where the fork and knife go in the same wood scabbard from different ends . I won,t tell you what country they were made in ! L:O:L I,ll just tell you they were poorly made and you can figure it out for yourself .
 
Kevin the grey said:
That is definitely not the same wood I have . Mine looks a bit like cherry .
I have seen rosewood like that in a carving knife set where the fork and knife go in the same wood scabbard from different ends . I won,t tell you what country they were made in ! L:O:L I,ll just tell you they were poorly made and you can figure it out for yourself .
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Rosewood like this on a poorly made knife? They really must have "perfumed the pig" then, because of the 22 HI knives I have with carved handles, this is undoubtedly the finest.

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Well I was going to say that when I got to where I could that I'd dig through my khuks and pull out a couple of the Rosewood handled ones and try to take some decent pix of them.
That isn't going to ever happen now I'm sad to say.:(
I just now went to my safe and checked every last khukuri I have.
What I hadn't realized is that when I sold my last full size GRS and my Super Salyan that I sold my last two Rosewood handled khuks.:(
Had I have realized that I may not have been as apt to have gotten rid of them.
But when I received the full size 21"+ Foxy Folly I didn't need them any longer and a fellow I know wanted them so away they went.
Hopefully one of these days the kamis will find some more and start using it again, guess that's the best we can hope for.
Sorry.:(
 
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