I think I've been bitten by the knife making bug - Noob intro with a few questions.

R

Ryanol

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Aug 24, 2011
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So I realized I was in way too deep last weekend on vacation. I was visiting an old buddy in MT that makes custom furniture and out in his shop I saw all these hardwood scraps - immediately I thought, those might make decent handle material.

Long story short, wood wouldn't fit on my carryon so I ended up going to a UPS store and shipping it home!

I picked up some cherry, walnut, maple, some exotic starts with a "P" I think...anyways the first knife I made I finished with some hardware store wood hardner...but reading around here lots of people seem to prefer tung oil and whatnot.

What do you guys think? Is the minwax wood hardner stuff any good or should I switch up finishing on the next project?

Any knifemakers in MN know of a steel supply house in the metro that will sell in small quantities to the general public?
(I've been to Aldos store but the shipping is hard to swallow- understandbly steel is heavy)

Here's a pic of some of the wood I picked up and a couple of knives and blades in progress

Untitled by rlibson, on Flickr

Finally I want to thank all the great members and makers of this fine forum - your work is masterful and your knowledge irreplaceable. I only hope to get something 1/10 as beautiful as what most of you are making.

Thanks in advance.
 
Yay, another convert! :-)

I order my blade steel online. it's frightfully easy.
Jantz, Amazon(!), McMaster etc.

If I were a pro needing large quantities it might be a different story, but for ones and two of various thickness and type, the standard 18" precision ground stuff is a really really nice place to start. No flattening or straightening and you know exactly how to heat-treat it because you know what it IS.

Good luck with your wood stash. I just handled with some unknown and am about to post about it. It's fun.

-Daizee
 
The exotic you picked up wouldn't be Paduak by chance?

As for finishes...each wood acts differently. What may work well on one wood, might flake and fall off another. Usually, any wood that has a lot of natural oil (rosewoods, cocobolo, desert ironwood) don't take many finishes well. Those woods are usually suitable just to hand finish to a high grit (2000+) and a light buff, allowing the natural oils to do their thing. A light wipe of tung oil can help, but don't use too much or it won't soak in. Other woods are hard and dense enough (lignum vitae, osage orange) that a high grit hand sand is all you need. I really like Osage Orange, that stuff is ROCK hard and polishes almost like glass when you get to the 2000 grit stage.

Some woods are too soft for general knife use and can mar easily. You can finish these with a super glue or cyanoacrylate finish. Also, Tru Oil (a gunstock finishing oil) can be used if time is taken to work it properly.

I have not used the wood hardener, so I can't say anything about it.

Tung oil (not pure tung oil btw) is a very versatile finish that works for a LOT of different woods.
 
I really like Tru-Oil. I think it's less nasty to the user than tung.

-Daizee
 
I really like it too, but man there's a learning curve to applying it properly. You can NOT be impatient! lol
 
GrizzlyBear said:
The exotic you picked up wouldn't be Paduak by chance?
Click to expand...

Texted my bud - It was a B not a P

Bubinga...pretty dense stuff.

I guess I should just get over the shipping...nothing about this hobby is really "cheap"

This was just me digging through his "burn" wood in the garage....wish I could have made it to his real shop.
 
Minwax Wood Hardener is useless.

And as an aside, wood that is wonderful for furniture would in many cases be FAR less wonderful as a knife handle. The image you posted seems to show a handle that has grain that is far too large for use as a knife handle. The pieces behind it may be better... I can't really tell.

Sorry to rain on the parade.
 
don't worry about raining on my parade I've got plenty of umbrellas.

Yeah that knife is more a shiv than anyting..it's the leftover piece of a broken draw knife that I hacksaw'd in half and handled in some scrap oak flooring. No bolsters, no guard, the pin holes aren't square and it's epoxied with essentially goop..it's a wreck but it was fun.

Only real piece of wood that I would use for a handle on it's own was that bubinga...not sure if it's the right kind of wood but it seems pretty dense and tight grain. The will probably be glued together to create some accents/inlays down the line.
 
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