Local wood for handle materials? East coast

Hey Keith,

Yes, I am on Long Island. Sayville. Good luck with your new obsession.

Paul
 
Keith, it sounds like you and I are at similar stages in the addiction. I like to use local stuff when I can, basically for the reason Dave said in post #15. I have a machete that I re-handled from a yellow cedar post that was replaced in my basement (comfortable and 'warm' in the hand but pretty soft). Today actually , I'm working on some juniper that I cut last spring (March). There's a thread about it here.

Anyway, I haven't bought any stabilized wood (yet) so I'll share only what I've learned from 'dry' woods so far...hardwoods (like fruit or 'nut' trees) are inherently more durable than softwoods like pine, as you mentioned. I'm not a fan of oak myself, but I love walnut, cherry, maple, and box elder. A burl is a tumor on the trunk of a tree. The grain has a lot of shape to it. To find them 'in the wild' look along fence lines where the tree has grown into the wire - landowner's permission and all that. It never even occurred to me to buy up old furniture for the wood. I usually ask if I can raid the scrap bin at local cabinet shops.

Personally, my background is in boatbuilding so I'm familiar with a few different finishes that have (so far!) endured well enough to call durable. Varnish is a good one, but there's a learning curve in getting a premium finish. Hey, that's why we're here, right ? Oils are good as well, but they must be applied often (as opposed to heavily) for the deepest penetration. Even still, it needs to be touched up every once in a while. When it starts to feel 'furry' (don't know how else to describe it), give it a wipe with some fresh oil. I think most would agree that food oils like olive oil are appropriate for kitchen knives, but Tung oil,linseed oil, and even teak oil give a better result.

For the record, I won't take offense to any corrections offered other members. I'm still learning myself.
 
You might also think about trying a few block of dymond wood, it's layers of dyed birch epoxied together and is basicly stabilized. I haven't used it in years, and it doesn't sell well on knives. It will give you the feel of working stabilized wood and is cheap and the solid colors look pretty good and it makes a good handle for a user, just don't put it on something you want to sell. Pakastan's el-chepo version of it seems to have killed the market for it on knives. I wouldn't suggest getting a lot of it, but a few blocks or scales will give you good experiance working stabilized wood for a fraction of the cost.

This is what I found on the definition of burl,

A burl (British "burr") is a rounded outgrowth on a tree trunk or branch that is filled with small knots from dormant buds. Burls are the product of a cambium.

The famous birdseye maple superficially resembles the wood of a burl but is something else entirely.

Burls yield a very peculiar and highly figured wood. There are a number of famous burls (each from a particular species); these are highly valued and used as veneers in furniture, picture frames, household objects, automobile interior paneling and trim, and woodturning.

In some tree species, burls can grow to great size. Some of the largest occur in redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens); when moisture is present, these burls can grow new redwood trees.

The world's largest and second-largest burls can be found in Port McNeill, British Columbia.

One of the largest burls known to man was found around 1984 in the small town of Tamworth, Australia. It stands 6.4 ft tall with an odd growth resembling a trombone


I guess I should call most of my stabilized wood "highly figured" as most of it came from crotch cuts and root balls and such, any wood can have figure, just depends on how much and what the wood will look like finished.
 
Keithcellini said:
When you say apple and crab apple I think you mean actual "apple trees" If so we do have them all over and I should be able to get lots. Thanks for all the tips guys, keepem coming.

The only bad thing about knife makinf at least for me is that I am constantly thinking about it and am getting sidetracked at work. I am telling everyone I know that I want to build custom knives and the reaction I usually get "after an odd glance" is "WHY" I suppose I can't blame them because I truly did not know how great many of these custom knives are until I looked into it. Now I am hooked and since there is no way I can afford to pay someone else to make hem for me I am going to try and do it myself!

I can honestly say that I am hooked.
Click to expand...
No, this is not from apple trees. Completely different tree.
http://www.gpnc.org/osage.htm
 
Osage, mock orange, bodock, bois de arc.... all the same wood. It's a wonderful wood for hard use knives and I have sold several knives handled with osage. It's hard to work, if you heat it up while working it you'll get nice reddish/orange circles around your pins lol I just take it to 600 grit and then hit it with pure carnuba wax on the buffer (still being careful because the buffer will burn the wood lol)

Will
formerly known as badbamaump
 
You all have such great information. I do like the idea of using wood that I harvested myself locally, Kind of think it gives it a lil soul. I love the way the burl pattern looks on knives so I may take a walk with the ole lady in the woods and keep an eye out for different kinds of wood. You say root balls? I suppose this makes sense bacause you can get very erratic growth around there which in turn should make the grain quite nice. Never really thought of that but it makes sense. In some instances I bet that wood that cabinet makers and such throw away because the grain is disfigured in some way would be great for knives because of the fact that we need small pieces.

I am excited to be armed with all this new knowledge and I am on a quest to find the grainiest gnarliest most deformed chunks of wood I can find! I will pay close attention to the root zone and knots.

Once I locate the wood is it best to let it dry naturally or is it better to cut it into smaller pieces perhaps slightly larger than the scales and let them dry that way?
 
The rule of thumb is generally to let natural wood (hardwoods) dry 1 year for every 2 inches of thickness. I'm sure it can be dried faster, but I don't know the method. I'm sure if you ripped it into 1 inch thick slabs, you would speed the process up. I try to find wood that is already dead so I have a head start.
Plus, if you are trying to get permission from a land owner, it's much easier to get permission to only take wood from felled trees, or very dead ones.

I try to locate areas where they are digging up whole trees so I have access to the roots, or burls that might be higher up the trunk.

Crotch wood works well also. (where the branches meet the trunk):eek:
 
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