Name Your Favorite Wood

Which of the following would prefer on a custom folder handle?

  • Amboyna Burl

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Desert Ironwood

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Rosewood, either Mexican or Brazilian

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Thuya Burl

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Maple, any kind of striped or bird's eye

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Padouk Burl

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • California Buckeye Burl

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Box Elder

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Any of the Above

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • I hate wood. Give me wussy plastic! :)

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    0
Peter Atwood

Peter Atwood

Joined
Oct 26, 2000
Messages
2,468
I thought it might be fun to see what everyone's favorite woods were. I just ordered some cool looking burls from Tropical Exotic Hardwoods out in CA. Their website blew me away!

Wish I could add more to the poll though. There must be two dozen woods that I would like to try. Darn! I just remembered snakewood. Maybe Blues will let me change box elder to snakewood.
 
From the choices above its gotta be Amboyna but in truth my fav is Curly Pink Ivory. Stuff ain't cheap but it is well worth it.

<img src=http://albums.photopoint.com/j/View?u=1663783&a=13610262&p=52725177&Sequence=0&res=high>
 
Atwood?
It's a trick question, right?
:rolleyes:
While not a fan of the burls, I do like ebony :)
 
RW, very few of the nice ones seem to be cheap! How is the pink ivory to work? I saw it on the Tropical Woods website but didn't think it had enough character for a small handle slab. Haven't seen it in real life though.
 
My favorite wood changes, depending on what I've obtained and have been getting good rusults from. I picked up some really nice spalted maple recently and had Mike at Wood Stabilizing Specialists Intl. stabilize it for me. The wood acutally has NICE blackline, burls and crotch grain all in the same slabs. I have posted several pics of knives featuring it here recently.
Keeping in touch with several wood suppliers has been working great, they know what I'm looking for.... highly figured wood! They often set smaller pieces aside for me.
Neil
 
Depends on the style of knife.

But. . .here goes ~ Curley Koa, Cocobolo and Desert Ironwood. :D
 
I tend to go along with Neil, it depends. I think the prettiest piece of wood I ever worked was a piece of spalted Birch. It had more going on in it than I've ever seen in one piece of wood. Maple burls are so highly variable that depending on how/if they are dyed and stabilized they can be just amazing. California Buckeye can be spectacular as well. I have some very old Brazilian Rosewood burl that is almost of gem quality. Snakewood is certainly beautiful but ugly to work with; it moves like a snake, and will bite you if you put it into a climate it doesn't like. And some of the Desert Ironwood I've gotten lately has been mighty fancy. On any given day, they're all beautiful!

Here's some pretty fancy Desert Ironwood I used awhile back.
 
Those are incredible Jerry! I bought some chunks of Desert Ironwood from another maker and it didn't look like much....that is, until I sanded it. Holy Smokes, what a beautiful wood!
 
Gotta go with Desrert Ironwood and then cocobolo as my fav's. Sometimes if I just want a nice color and not worried about figure Bloodwood works real well.
 
Originally posted by Rob Simonich
Lodgepole Pine, without it my Tipi would collapse! :D
Click to expand...

Tipi person eh? I have a couple that I go camping and hunting with who use a tipi for their camp shelter. I was very impressed with the comfort of these things. They do use a woodstove in the winter though.

Here is their old tipi. The new one is larger and properly painted:
http://foresthazards.virtualave.net/ColdIdiots.jpg

Here's what we stayed in during that same trip:
http://foresthazards.virtualave.net/ColdTent.jpg

Tipis are really neat, I just don't have the room to store the poles.

Chris
 
How durable is desert ironwood? Is it considered a hardwood? The wood on Mr. Hossom's blade is some of the most beautiful wood I've ever seen.
 
My favorite is ALLDAY WOOD - result of great figure(ing!), very stabile(ized!) and durable and easy to work! :D :rolleyes: :p :cool:

Also like:
Juniper Burl
Australian Ringed Gidgee
Ironwood
Curly Koa
Snakewood
Spalted Alder

Bill
 
Ironwood for me, for durability and good looks, but the stabilized spalteds and burls ARE gorgeous. Our native Texas mesquite is not quite as durable as ironwood, but also makes a good knife handle and has a lot of color variation and figure in the heart/root. It's my sentimental favorite.

Aren't Lignum vitae and desert ironwood in the same family? I've heard that Lignum vitae was used to fashion bushings for ships' propellers before stronger corrosion-resistant metal alloys were invented, because the wood stood up to wear and corrosion better than any of the metals of the day.

-w
 
WILL YORK, You are correct about the use of Lignum Vitae on ships. I did a lot of research about 25 years ago. I ordered a knife from Rick Genovese, a 7 inch "Loveless-Style" fighter. I was trying to decide on a handle material and after looking at what was available, I ended up choosing L.V. because it was reputed to be the toughest and most dense of the tropical woods.

The other characteristic of this wood, and the reason for its name which roughly translated means "Living Wood" is that it has an exceptionally high oil content. It is virtually impossible to dry this wood out. In fact, maintainence of the material consists chiefly of rubbing with a cloth to spread the oil about the surface and remove the excess on a periodic basis.

Too bad I sold that knife in 1985 when I really needed the cash.
 
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