I think I bit off more than I can chew (Desert Ironwood!).

[RayseM]

There are carbide bandsaw blades. I use a 5/8" and 3/4" on my 14" Laguna bandsaw - nearly exclusively for ripping and resaw. Cuts through even the densest lumber easily to pretty easily. Other advice, you have plenty good info offered above. Those are beauties well worth the $100.00 and worth some patience. Have fun

 

[Fixall]

First and foremost, thank you to everyone who has commented! This forum is something else. You all have been so incredibly helpful.

You could look at grow rings and guess, cut once near one of your lines, have a look and then decide, or cut smaller square blocks (1.6-1.7") and then decide which face you want to use. If you also need larger blocks you could cut the bigger stumps to larger blocks. You will have a lot of cut off no matter what, but there is planty of blocks in those stumps imho.

I see a lot of makers on yt using oversized blocks and ending up with a lot of cut off. That's a shame if ask me. Thats why I would cut it to slices and then cut the rest when you know which knife you are making (according to the size, handle construction type and figure).

Anyhow, thats how I do it, but I have not being doing it for a very long time

That's a great idea to make the blocks a little oversized so I can figure out the cut orientation for the scales later, depending on the figure. I think I'll do that. I planned on making them extra large to account for cracks anyways. Most of the blocks I work with are 1" x 1.5" x 5" and I've found I can go quite a bit smaller most of the time. I could probably get by with finished blocks that are .75" x 1.25" x 4.5" in most cases.

Also, don't throw away cut offs or under size pieces.
Small knives need handles to and combining several small pieces can make a beautiful handle.

Absolutely! I've been saving all my cutoffs for faux bolsters, inlays, and (hopefully someday) slipjoint recover projects.

I was going to say this same thing . Don’t restrict yourself to a certain size block. I’m about to put a cocobolo handle onto a couple steak knives for my son ... and a smaller “cutoff” from a previous project turns out to be just perfect to cut out four scales for those knives.

fwiw- if you keep doing something like this, it would likely be well worth it for you to get a medium size bandsaw. When I first set up shop, the two items I searched for and bought (used) were a bandsaw and drill press. That bandsaw is a little rickety, but it gets used all the time, and gets the job done...

That's the plan. I have about $1000 or so earmarked for a band saw as soon as our house is ready. I'm just trying to decide if I want to go with something like a Rikon 14" closed stand so I can eventually upgrade it to a DVR motor in case I decide to do some metal work (there's a Laguna that caught my eye too)... Or if I want to save some cash and just grab something like a Grizzly 14". Grizzly is actually located in my city, which I think is pretty cool.

You could also see if when the tine comes he would slab it up for you

I thought about sending it somewhere to be cut, but I figure the shipping would be well over $100 to get it there and back because of the weight.

There are carbide bandsaw blades. I use a 5/8" and 3/4" on my 14" Laguna bandsaw - nearly exclusively for ripping and resaw. Cuts through even the densest lumber easily to pretty easily. Other advice, you have plenty good info offered above. Those are beauties well worth the $100.00 and worth some patience. Have fun

Yep yep. My grandpa taught me not to cheap out on saw blades and sandpaper in particular and to use the right tool for the job, lol. Carbide it is!

Good to hear I didn't get ripped off, lol.

 

[Joshua Fisher]

First and foremost, thank you to everyone who has commented! This forum is something else. You all have been so incredibly helpful.



That's a great idea to make the blocks a little oversized so I can figure out the cut orientation for the scales later, depending on the figure. I think I'll do that. I planned on making them extra large to account for cracks anyways. Most of the blocks I work with are 1" x 1.5" x 5" and I've found I can go quite a bit smaller most of the time. I could probably get by with finished blocks that are .75" x 1.25" x 4.5" in most cases.



Absolutely! I've been saving all my cutoffs for faux bolsters, inlays, and (hopefully someday) slipjoint recover projects.



That's the plan. I have about $1000 or so earmarked for a band saw as soon as our house is ready. I'm just trying to decide if I want to go with something like a Rikon 14" closed stand so I can eventually upgrade it to a DVR motor in case I decide to do some metal work (there's a Laguna that caught my eye too)... Or if I want to save some cash and just grab something like a Grizzly 14". Grizzly is actually located in my city, which I think is pretty cool.



I thought about sending it somewhere to be cut, but I figure the shipping would be well over $100 to get it there and back because of the weight.



Yep yep. My grandpa taught me not to cheap out on saw blades and sandpaper in particular and to use the right tool for the job, lol. Carbide it is!

Good to hear I didn't get ripped off, lol.

I personally own a 14” rikon with a closed stand, the closed stand models are better built than the open stand last I checked (used to work at a store that sold both) if I remember correctly the open stand model uses lighter wheels and the table is thinner and the closed stand is beefed up all around. I teach at an art center that has a new 14” grizzly and there is no comparison the rikon is clearly the better saw and works much better in my experience, the grizzly is difficult to get correct tension on the blade and doesn’t run as smoothly. I thought about getting the dvr motor for my rikon and decided against it for now, I just got a portaband setup and I can easily use it for g10 and metal and use the rikon for wood with the correct blade versus having to swap blades for metal or wood.

 

[Greenberg Woods]

There are carbide bandsaw blades. I use a 5/8" and 3/4" on my 14" Laguna bandsaw - nearly exclusively for ripping and resaw. Cuts through even the densest lumber easily to pretty easily. Other advice, you have plenty good info offered above. Those are beauties well worth the $100.00 and worth some patience. Have fun

I reccomend against carbide for most knife makers.

Simply put, carbide is incredibly sharp and long lasting. It's perfect if you are cutting guitar bodies, resaeing veneers or working in furniture. For knife makers, the woods we use tend to be off shaped, very hard, sometimes have pockets of sand or dirt or pebbles, and are generally irregular.

I tried using carbide blades, they were great for a few weeks, but I went back to a good quality carbon steel blade.

I particularly like Timberwolf blades for my saw, as the backs are very well ground and they can be set very well with the guides

 

[Fixall]

I personally own a 14” rikon with a closed stand, the closed stand models are better built than the open stand last I checked (used to work at a store that sold both) if I remember correctly the open stand model uses lighter wheels and the table is thinner and the closed stand is beefed up all around. I teach at an art center that has a new 14” grizzly and there is no comparison the rikon is clearly the better saw and works much better in my experience, the grizzly is difficult to get correct tension on the blade and doesn’t run as smoothly. I thought about getting the dvr motor for my rikon and decided against it for now, I just got a portaband setup and I can easily use it for g10 and metal and use the rikon for wood with the correct blade versus having to swap blades for metal or wood.

I didn't even think about using a portaband for metal and just using the Rikon for wood... There's a Makita Portaband I plan on adding to my inventory here real soon, so that might be an option instead of upgrading to a dvr. Thanks for the feedback on the Rikon vs the Grizzly. With the coupon I've been able to find, the Rikon really isn't much more than the Grizzly.

I reccomend against carbide for most knife makers.

Simply put, carbide is incredibly sharp and long lasting. It's perfect if you are cutting guitar bodies, resaeing veneers or working in furniture. For knife makers, the woods we use tend to be off shaped, very hard, sometimes have pockets of sand or dirt or pebbles, and are generally irregular.

I tried using carbide blades, they were great for a few weeks, but I went back to a good quality carbon steel blade.

I particularly like Timberwolf blades for my saw, as the backs are very well ground and they can be set very well with the guides

Good info, thanks! I'd be pretty bummed to ruin a $100+ blade because I hit a pocket of silica.

I'll check out the Timberwolf blades in particular. The Skil I have now uses 59 1/2" blades so I've just been using Bosch and Powertec since they're readily available and cheap.

 

[sqeezeatrigger]

Send all you want to me for processing!!! Ironwood is about the prettiest wood there is, sure wish I could find a deal like you did!

 

[SilentPartner]

I have a moisture meter I could lend you. Let me know and I'll ship it to you.

 

[Fixall]

Send all you want to me for processing!!! Ironwood is about the prettiest wood there is, sure wish I could find a deal like you did!

Haha, I hear you! African blackwood and desert ironwood are by FAR my two favorite woods... But maybe not my favorite to work with, lol. I'm pretty sensitive to desert ironwood apparently and had to upgrade to a PAPR setup and full coveralls when working with it. I ended up processing one of the smaller pieces that had some burl to it, and it went pretty well. Right now, I'm taking Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith advice and letting the larger logs season for another year or so.

I have a moisture meter I could lend you. Let me know and I'll ship it to you.

Thanks for the offer! After purchasing a moisture meter for this project, I was actually informed that DI and AB are just too dang dense for my moisture meter to work correctly. :/

 

[Greenberg Woods]

You got very lucky, that's excellent quality material with minimal voids. Well cut too, Most people cut burl off axis their first few times.

 

[fishface5]

Such nice wood! But the post is from a year ago.

 

[Fixall]

You got very lucky, that's excellent quality material with minimal voids. Well cut too, Most people cut burl off axis their first few times.

Thanks! I'm super stoked with the quality of the wood. Funny you should mention cutting the burl off axis... I butchered my first attempt, lol. That's why the block on the end is sideways. It was salvaged from the pieces I messed up, lol. I ended up asking a buddy with a lot more experience for a little help and he showed me how to set up a little jig to make the first cut. Once I had a flat surface to work with, and the correct orientation, it wasn't too bad.

Also, thanks again for all the help you gave me previously in the thread. The blade and TPI info were lifesavers!

 

[Fixall]

Such nice wood! But the post is from a year ago.

Yea... I was surprised to see a post in this thread today, lol. I'll probably make a new thread in a year or so, when it's time to process the bulk of the logs. That wood is a bit rougher than the stuff I cut previously, so I'm sure I'll be back begging for help when I start throwing band saw blades left and right.

 

[dirc]

I love this ironwood, best part imho is it doesn't need any 'stabilizing' - (outside of time to slow dry)