I need some wood...

A.McPherson

A.McPherson

Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
Joined
Jan 27, 2012
Messages
2,873
Hey folks,

Anyone know where I can find some big, black wood? <snicker>

Seriously though, I'm making a Scottish Dirk and if like to make the sheath and handle out of a black wood, preferably the same piece.

The blade is going to be 12-ish inches and the handle will be about 4 inches long so I'll need a piece about 2x18x1 1/2"

Everywhere I have looked online has had pieces up to about 12" but I need something a bit bigger...

Any ideas? And yes, wood jokes are expected and appreciated.
 
How black do you want? Wenge can be had as lumber ... likely you would be able to locate something 2” thick...
 
Sorry, no jokes, but perhaps we should link this with another thread I saw on another forum titled: "A Hunter, a Boner and a Chef"

Check out Gilmer woods here in Portland (https://www.gilmerwood.com/). They have a small mill in their warehouse and go through a lot of exotic woods. This might be what you are looking for:
https://www.gilmerwood.com/products/188486-west-african-ebony-turning-squares
Here's a sample piece I just picked up a couple weeks ago.
20210424_073450.jpg
This one is 1 1/2" square x 6" long and in person it's black enough that I have a hard time seeing which way the grain is. The only thing I don't like about them is that when bring a basket of pieces to checkout, they only give you the total and don't itemize the reciept, so I don't know how much this piece was. They have a website and that's where I get smaller pieces (cutoffs, ends, etc) for my bolsters. They have a basket of $5 blackwood pieces ~3" x 5" ~3/8" thick. You could easily get 2 scales out of each piece.

PS - if you are on a tight budget, and can't justify their shipping cost for 1 piece, and aren't on a time frame, I'll probably head back there again in a couple weeks.
 
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Thanks for the heads up on Gilmer woods fellas!
I got some West African Ebony which should do the trick nicely!

I also picked up some American holly that I'm going to use as a frame for the handle and blade. It should look pretty cool if I can keep the black and white from contaminating each other!
 
A.McPherson said:
I also picked up some American holly
Click to expand...
I'm hoping the same thing with the chessboard I'm making. I wonder if you took the piece I almost bought last time I was there...it's probably got my fingerprints on it somewhere....
 
NICE Blackwood at Gilmer right now. Just got two bricks in yesterday and it has no white, no visible grain. They also have some Blackwood burl sticks. I haven't polished an area yet but it has some burly figure in there. Eager to try this stuff. I love Blackwood.
 
The pieces of blackwood they had were either too small or too big.

The ebony should work just fine... We'll see!
 
A.McPherson said:
The pieces of blackwood they had were either too small or too big.

The ebony should work just fine... We'll see!
Click to expand...

I agree, and ended up buying blocks I will have to re-saw. They had a whole log for sale... <drool>
 
They had a couple of "live edge" planks as well, super pretty, but alas I don't have 3k sitting around! Lol!
 
A.McPherson said:
They had a couple of "live edge" planks as well, super pretty, but alas I don't have 3k sitting around! Lol!
Click to expand...

Yeah, really. Staggering how much big pieces and logs go for. Those giant live-edge conference tables I've seen on the tube are so very cool. I'll have to make do with the pics, too. :)
 
Got what I needed, but thanks! More sources is better!
 
Woodcraft usually has African blackwood and ebony up to 24". I prefer African blackwood over ebony most of the time.
 
Yep been buying from Gilmer (online) for many years. I like being able to pick the specific piece.
 
A.McPherson said:
Hey folks,

Anyone know where I can find some big, black wood? <snicker>

Seriously though, I'm making a Scottish Dirk and if like to make the sheath and handle out of a black wood, preferably the same piece.

The blade is going to be 12-ish inches and the handle will be about 4 inches long so I'll need a piece about 2x18x1 1/2"

Everywhere I have looked online has had pieces up to about 12" but I need something a bit bigger...

Any ideas? And yes, wood jokes are expected and appreciated.
Click to expand...
I've been happy with African Blackwood from Bell Forest products. They have a variety of pieces in stock including 2x2x18.
 
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