Identifying hardwoods, US and Foreign. For knife handle scales.

P

PCL

Joined
May 25, 2012
Messages
977
Hello all, It's been a long time. I have recently acquired a quantity of hardwood pieces of various lengths and sizes. All the wood is already cut, my problem is I can only tell the wood species from either stickers or hand written. An example would be; purple heart, Brazilian kingwood, Leopard wood, Mahogany, Wenge and Olive wood. I need to find a source to help me identify the other wood. I picked this up at a moving sale, the mans uncle was a knife maker. I plan on using them for my scales. Any help would be appreciated.
 
I would post very detailed, close-up pics of the wood in the Knifemakers subforum. Maybe someone there could identify it, especially if it's a wood regularly used in knife handles.
 
PCL said:
Hello all, It's been a long time. I have recently acquired a quantity of hardwood pieces of various lengths and sizes. All the wood is already cut, my problem is I can only tell the wood species from either stickers or hand written. An example would be; purple heart, Brazilian kingwood, Leopard wood, Mahogany, Wenge and Olive wood. I need to find a source to help me identify the other wood. I picked this up at a moving sale, the mans uncle was a knife maker. I plan on using them for my scales. Any help would be appreciated.
Click to expand...
Sign up at woodbarter.com. it is a dedicated woodworker forum. Way more woodworkers there will likely be able to help.
 
PCL said:
Hello all, It's been a long time. I have recently acquired a quantity of hardwood pieces of various lengths and sizes. All the wood is already cut, my problem is I can only tell the wood species from either stickers or hand written. An example would be; purple heart, Brazilian kingwood, Leopard wood, Mahogany, Wenge and Olive wood. I need to find a source to help me identify the other wood. I picked this up at a moving sale, the mans uncle was a knife maker. I plan on using them for my scales. Any help would be appreciated.
Click to expand...
Try this:

HobbitHouse Wood ID site

exotic wood ID site
hobbithouseinc.com

This is based on pics of identified wood pieces, on feedback but also on pics from the internet, in which case it is clearly stated.

Hope this helps.
 
If you want to go old school, check and see if your local library has a copy of The Encyclopedia of Wood. You can hold your sample over a large picture of the wood in question or just flip pages until you see something that matches. I found it to be very helpful, as the properties of the wood were listed along with the pictures.
 
Often questions about different woods in the knife makers section. The guys just helped me out:

Calling all Wood Wizzards Photo Update

What do we have here guys? My brother found this board in our father's old barn. he lives at the old place now and was clenaing up the barn. Can't even begin to tell ya how old it is or how long it'd been there. Definitely hard enough for handles. I'm thinking some kind of mahogany. What say...
www.bladeforums.com www.bladeforums.com
 
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