How do you choose wood inlay?

Almost ALL of the different woods CRK uses on the Mnandi rate very high on the Janka Hardness Scale. Some of them are tha hardest woods in existance and have been used to make ball bearings on submarines !!! So with that alone, their durability is without question. Some, as stated above ( cocobolo ) have natural oils to help them resist moisture damage. CRK certainly does their homework when making knives, from the precision locking mechanisms to the exotic hard woods.

Here is a link from wilkipedia that I often check out: The Janka Hardness Test and how it is used. Its mostly used to measure hardness for hardwood flooring in your home. Very interesting, check it out !
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janka_hardness_test
 
Is CRK wood stabalized? If so, I was told with ivory atleast, stablizing is basically filling all the pores with a resin of some sort. The more dense the material the less resin can "stabalize" the material. Is any of this making sense or is it not applicable in this situation?

If what I said does not make sense...oops:D

Just an ivory guy's words that I am attempting to repeat.
 
richstag said:
Is CRK wood stabalized? If so, I was told with ivory atleast, stablizing is basically filling all the pores with a resin of some sort. The more dense the material the less resin can "stabalize" the material. Is any of this making sense or is it not applicable in this situation?

If what I said does not make sense...oops:D

Just an ivory guy's words that I am attempting to repeat.
Click to expand...

I think you're right. The wood has to be stained and stabilized anyway.
 
my story would have been more believable if I had spelled stabilized correctly:yawn:
 
One thing I have noticed is that no matter what wood or inlay you choose, it ALWAYS looks better in person. I thought that Bocote wood was sorta "ho-hum" when looking at pictures on the net, then I got to hold one at a knife show and it was beautiful.

My point is, do what you can to see the knife options you are considering in person. I recently picked up a 2008 Sm Sebenza with Bubinga that I wasn't completely enamored with due to the pictures. Now that I have the knife, WOWSER. It's gorgeous! Try and hold the knife!

The second point is, the knife is always going to be more impressive when you hold it. CRK does a very good job of picking the right graining and figuring of each piece to bring out the best in the material, and that doesn't always come through in the pictures. SO RELAX and get it. I really doubt you'll be disappointed.
 
That box elder is a great looking wood.
I also love Ca. Buckeye burl.
 
Well, obviously I'm going to end up with 4 or 5 of these things in the near future, but to start with I've decided desert ironwood. The wood is becoming more difficult to obtain, which sucks because that means it's being overused and might become endangered. NGK sent me a pic of the 6 they have in stock (and that's just ironwood) and they're gorgeous!
 
I was thinking about picking up a Mnandi soon it looks like a cool knife. After looking at the inlay on the side covering the locking mechanism my only concern was that no metal seems to be backing and supporting that area of wood. Does anyone think this would result in weakness?
 
You can take a look at the Mnandi picture thread :) lots of examples there.

I like box elder.
 
I tried to balance beauty and durability in the inlay. I got one in snakewood. Love it!
 
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