Mystery Oak for knife scales?

Col Defender

Col Defender

Joined
Nov 11, 2011
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Haven't heard much about guys using oak and I certainly have not. A little story here... we burn wood as our primary source of heat and I cut haul and split it all myself. A couple of years ago, I cut an unusual (for here) type of oak on a guy's yard who just needed it gone. Still don't know what kind of oak it is but it is not one I see around here usually. It's good firewood though, and I was about to put the last of it in the furnace this morning and stopped myself thinking it might make nice scales. Here's what it looks like - pretty reddish wood:



So I roughed out a couple of scales and here they are:




After cutting them much of the red is gone and the grain is not particularly impressive. Anyway, two questions - does anyone know what kind of wood this is and what do you think of them as scale material. Perhaps the grain would stand out with fine sanding and the red appear after the newly cut surfaces are exposed to air for a while??

Thanks much!

Steve
 
It looks like regular white Oak to me and, unless the knife was a beater you want to use around your place, not that impressive for handle material. There's also a good chance it will crack once installed. I did use some red oak I bought from Home Depot once, finishes nice but even there, it looks pretty much like what it is, plain ordinary wood.
 
Won't be a Bur or White Oak because of the reddish colour. Oak of any stripe is rarely used for handles because of the open pores in the grain. Surely you can find a small chunk of curly maple, black walnut or even Black Cherry in someone's woodpile. Better yet see if you get hold of some Apple or Pear which is beautifully figured, lovely coloured and hard as a rock (tough).

PS the red colour is from oxidation of iron compounds in the wood. Cherry and Apple and Alder gradually turn a lovely warm red for the same reason.
 
The photo appears to be black oak, a member of the red oak species. The grain is too coarse to use for knife handles. The only good oak knife handles are fashioned from white oak crotch wood due to its tight grain and lots of character. Will post photos later.


Col Defender said:
Haven't heard much about guys using oak and I certainly have not. A little story here... we burn wood as our primary source of heat and I cut haul and split it all myself. A couple of years ago, I cut an unusual (for here) type of oak on a guy's yard who just needed it gone. Still don't know what kind of oak it is but it is not one I see around here usually. It's good firewood though, and I was about to put the last of it in the furnace this morning and stopped myself thinking it might make nice scales. Here's what it looks like - pretty reddish wood:



So I roughed out a couple of scales and here they are:




After cutting them much of the red is gone and the grain is not particularly impressive. Anyway, two questions - does anyone know what kind of wood this is and what do you think of them as scale material. Perhaps the grain would stand out with fine sanding and the red appear after the newly cut surfaces are exposed to air for a while??

Thanks much!

Steve
Click to expand...
 
Tom Crain said:
The photo appears to be black oak, a member of the red oak species. The grain is too coarse to use for knife handles. The only good oak knife handles are fashioned from white oak crotch wood due to its tight grain and lots of character. Will post photos later.
Click to expand...

I give my dad knives that don't make the cut. He likes to mess with them and put handles on them. He almost always uses some wood like this and usually 2-3 months later it shrinks and pulls away from the handle and pins. It will work but I wouldn't sell it to anyone.
 
Thanks guys for all the opinions. Differing ideas on the type of oak but unanimous on its unsuitability for knife handles. Into the furnace tomorrow probably where I know it will do well. I do have a variety of wood, Cocobolo, Mesquite, Walnut, Curly Maple and Lace Wood, all here and waiting to go on a knife so I have a variety of possibilities for future knives.

Thanks again!
 
Col Defender said:
Thanks guys for all the opinions. Differing ideas on the type of oak but unanimous on its unsuitability for knife handles. Into the furnace tomorrow probably where I know it will do well. I do have a variety of wood, Cocobolo, Mesquite, Walnut, Curly Maple and Lace Wood, all here and waiting to go on a knife so I have a variety of possibilities for future knives.

Thanks again!
Click to expand...

I know you can kiln dry curly maple and it makes a stellar handle. Feels really good, warm almost in hand.

Not sure of the entire process myself though, never done it.
 
This is some Red Oak I cut and dried about 15 years ago, pretty much everything from
crotch, Burl, and even some Birdseye. Enjoy Ken.
 
There are two families of the many oaks , red and white .While red has a distinct red tone white is rather pale .I do have a white oak taken in a high mineral area ,cut about 50 years ago. You would think it's been stained .
 
I use oak fairly often simply because I've got quite the stash of some pretty
fair stuff (like 2 steel garbage cans full)-- and a fair amount of my customers like it.
All of these excluding the Barlow are the natural color after stabilizing. They have
either lemon oil, or linseed on them after finishing the knife.
Ken.
 
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This is Dutch oak. A different kind as over the ocean.

Try and get the stuff with the rays (tiger stripe)
Filling the pores gives it a nice and smooth surface

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Ken, that is as pretty a wood as I've seen anywhere. Who would have thought the plain old Red Oak I grew up with could look like that! Just a matter of finding the right portion of the wood, just like Black Walnut - the straight grains are nothing fancy, but get the crotch, knot areas, etc where the grain does the curves 'n swirls, you've got pretty wood! I'll have to go thru some of the old planks and see if I can find some areas with nice grain. Just never considered looking at Red Oak for knife handles.

Ken H>
 
Pretty similar to hickory, which is the standard for pretty much every working knife made before the sixties.
 
That's Black Oak, like said is in the Red Oak family. I cut and burn a lot of it here.

I would not use straight grain Oak, it's just boring, but I'm always lookin for figured or interesting Oak.
 
Though definitely not as nice as what Ken posted, here is a knife I made from some oak I had. It came from a huge Chinkapin Oak(just over 3' in diameter) that blew over in a storm. It was at the very base of the tree and the grain is really wavy. I would call it curly but I'm not sure if that is the proper name of the grain pattern. The grain in the block I used for this knife showed better 90* to what I cut it, but it split and to salvage the piece I had to slab it the direction I did.

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Chris
 
Back when I started getting serious about looking for "Good" wood for knife handles I had a
buddy that burned it for firewood. We talked about the different cuts and what I was after. One
day 6 months down the road he shows up with a trailer load of burls, and crotch wood. My 14"
Delta band saw gets rolled outside, new blade on it and away we go. 10 hrs later I was pretty
convinced I'd never run out. Its still fun to go thru it and decide what I want to use.
Ken.
 
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