Need advice please - What looks best?

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I need a little help from the forum members because I am having trouble making a decision what looks best.
I was hoping you could tell me which of these you like the best and which you like the least.

I just got an old plank of Zebrano, or Zebra Wood. I never paid much attention to this wood in the past, but at the Oregon knife show a friend used this wood on a couple of his knives and he asked me to get some and have it stabilized.

How I cut the wood makes a really big difference in how it looks.
I will be cutting it up and sending it to K&G on Monday for stabilizing. So before I cut it all into blocks I thought I should find out what all of you like.

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i vote crosscut end or bias. its just a very different look then anything else.
 
I usually will not cut blocks for end grain because that leaves you with the weakest possible piece.
But sometimes it can work.
I cut some 1/4" thick end grain strips and it took more pressure to break than a flat sawn strip of maple burl.
Still I would suggest end grain blocks be used on hidden tang knives for the most strength.

Here I tried a bias cut with the thinner stripes on the face. This way the stripes on the edge are not such a pronounced angle.
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If its strong enough you've just got to show off that end grain. Its my favorite of the cuts by far. Second place for me would be the first bias cut piece. I like the extreme angle on the edge.
I can't be the only one who is curious to see the full piece you're cutting from. Happen to have a picture handy?
 
spketch said:
If its strong enough you've just got to show off that end grain. Its my favorite of the cuts by far. Second place for me would be the first bias cut piece. I like the extreme angle on the edge.
I can't be the only one who is curious to see the full piece you're cutting from. Happen to have a picture handy?
Click to expand...

I already cut it to 12 inch lengths.
It was a 1&3/4" thick by 8" wide by 48" long quartersawn plank. Just long thin parallel stripes.
I got the wood from a small hardwood place that caters to cabinet makers.
The few exotics they carry tend to sit for years.
I bought this and a wenge plank from them. I had looked at the same pieces 3 years ago. Got a decent price and the wood is about 8% mc.
 
I have a whole kitchen made of zebra no. Keep it quarter sawn or it gets unstable fast in natural form. I have thought many times about end grain handles, but was worried about strength. If stabilizing solves this, I am definitely in.
 
bladsmth said:
I would not cut it end grain. That has serious problems in knife handles.
Click to expand...
I agree with you Stacy. I will only be doing a few end grain. When I get them back from stabilizing I will cut some more thin strips and double check them for strength before I make any available. I really cringe whenever I see end grain spalted blocks.
 
On a slab handled knife would the end grain stability still be an issue? I'd think epoxying it to the slab or to g10 liners and then the tang would nullify the effect?
 
End grain can crack much easier than angle grain or side grain. Just because the scales are on a tang or liner won't stop the grain from splitting apart. It may not fall off the knife, but it will still be cracked.
 
This is a crude illustration to show where wood would break if it were to crack.
Think of the length of the white line as the amount of strength to that sort of cut.
Crosscut with end grain faces would be about 10 to 15% of the possible strength of the piece of wood.
Bias cut would be about 60 to 70% depending on the angle.
Flat and quartersawn would be 100%.
This is an oversimplification of how a piece of would will be weakest or strongest.
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Here's my 2c.
I don't care much for flat sawn wood. It reminds me of cheaper furniture.
Bais looks a bit odd to me but it could make interesting stuff, depending on the handle design.
Crosscut end looks stunning and interesting, but I'd have Stacies remarks in the back of my mind.
Maybe for a thorrow tang with a screw-on buttplate?
Quarter sawn is a good way to show the true beauty wood can have. I realy prefer it.

I have a dining room table here of quarter sawn oak. It shows class and beauty IMHO. I love it!
I prefer it so much over flat sawn oak furniture. I don't like the stained like figure. To me it looks like they lovelessly tried to get as much wood out of a log as they could. Quarter sawn says to me: they took the extra effort and accepted more waste, to get the better endresult.
I'd rather pay more and get the better stuff.
But this is just me rambeling on.
 
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