Italian Plywood, hehehehe!!

L6steel

L6steel

Joined
Sep 23, 1999
Messages
5,855
A forumite sent me this in a material swap eons ago and I rat holed it thinkin I'd never put near a knife I made much less on one. Well, times change and now I think it's neater than a you know what and I'm gonna make a special run of folders with this stuff for the handles. Odds are I'll never see anymore of this again in my life and I figure I can get 12 sets of scales out of it.
Reason I'm posting this thread is to find out who sent it to me so I can find out if they ever used it on a knife and to ask em how they finished it? Also, since it's compressed laminated wood, does it need to be stabilized?? My friend looked at it through a jewler's loupe and it looks a little porous so I probably just answered my own question but what the hey, I figured it wouldn't hurt to bug you guys with it anyways!
Thanks up front ya bunch of knife makin bastids!

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HAVE A GRAND CHRISTMAS AND A BETTER NEW YEAR THAN THE ONE THATS GOIN OUT!
 
Ahhhem ...Man that's some ugly stuff. Well at least you wouldn't lost the knife.Unless you meant to.:D

Mark
 
Lmaooooo!!!!!!!!!
It grows on ya guys!!
Only took 2 or 3 years for me to get to likin it, lol!:eek:
 
OK, here's the deal.

This is only an opinion so take it for what its worth.

We can make knives all day long and put dymondwood or pakkawood on them and sell them for $125

~or~

We can make the same knives all day long and put some figured wood on them and sell them for $200 and up...

Think about it.
Its up to you.


Craig
 
Sometimes ya gotta do some of both though. I love ccarbon steel, and real woods, etc, but I nkow of a whole group that isn't often willing to pay for nice knives like that, but if I do something cheaper in stainiless and micarta can sell it easily. Same type of thing.
 
Craig, how many times have you seen wood like this made in Italy?
Granted it isn't desert iron wood but I think it's kind of unique and just weird enough that folks would either love it or hate it and the ones that love it wouldn't mind forkin over the bucks for a knife handled with it.
I get what you mean though, thanks!
 
Still trying to decide what I think of the wood itself. Maybe I need the two years too. ;)

It's definitely an interesting/unique look though, will give you that.
 
Originally posted by L6steel
Craig, how many times have you seen wood like this made in Italy?
Click to expand...

Well Michael, you've got me there. I've only been to Venice, Genoa, Florence and Carleone. I never saw any of that wood over there but I am not as well travelled as some folks! LOL!

Have a great Christmas!
Craig
 
I think that in a little over 2 years, I would have found a way to destroy or throw the stuff away! :D
 
Originally posted by etp777
Sometimes ya gotta do some of both though. I love ccarbon steel, and real woods, etc, but I nkow of a whole group that isn't often willing to pay for nice knives like that, but if I do something cheaper in stainiless and micarta can sell it easily. Same type of thing.
Click to expand...


Last time I looked, they weren't exactly giving away Micarta, and most stainless steels were 3-4 times the price of most non stainless knife steels.:eek: :confused: :confused: :confused:
 
I know, but talking a 440C sandblasted blade vs. a nice carbon with oiled wood and stain finish, thinking more time involved than anything. LIke last knife I sold was an HI khuk I modified. Took convex edge on it, applied satin finish to help clean up from the reprofiling to a convex edge, reshaped handle, and then gave it 20 coats of tru oil with ultra fine steel wool between first 15 coats, then 1000 grit wet sanding between final coats. Yet in same market I'm thinking of, that knife, with the huge amount of time invoved, would not sell for much more than a simple 440C, heat treated at home, quick scotch brite or sandblast finish, and micarta handles, which at very most would take maybe a third of the time in work, if not a whole lot less.

hrmm, see what your'e saying on cost of materials too, but not talking about anything hugely fancy when i was talking stainless and micarta, just simple linen and 440C, etc.

Plus at least some of ones I'm working on in that style will have the homemade micarta, which is a bit cheaper cost wise(though again, mroe time involved)
 
Well, even if I don't use it on a knife we're gettin a good laugh out of it!!

I might just cut it up and make a little box out of it.
If I had access to a resaw I could cut it up into veneer and use it to cover a nice size box or even do some inlay work on something, hmmm.
 
Use some good epoxy on that because when the knife steel sees it's going to have to wear that, it's going to want to get away from it -- real bad. :D
 
The wood you have is sold by "Woodworkers Supply" phone # 1-800-645-9292. It is used on a wood lathe for making pens and bowls.
It is called "Colorply". Bowls and pens made of this material are really beautiful. It comes in a total of 6 different color patterns.
As far as making a knife handle I would recomend that it be stabilized first.
 
I thought that looked familiar. You threw me off with the whole italian thing though. I saw it in the pen making section at the local woodcraft store. Thought it was ugly then too ;)
At this point it doens't really cost you anything to use it. You probably don't even remember what you traded for it. Its not really my style but Spyderco hasn't had any trouble selling pink delicas. Might be just the thing to get somebody's girlfriend/wife to start carrying.
 
Thanks Royal, Matt!!!!
Oh well, so it aint Italian, it's still weird lookin!!.
I was thinkin about turnin myself a nice fat bodied pen on my metal lathe anyway so maybe thats what I should do with it.
I'll post a pic of my big fat ugly pen when it's done.
 
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