Northwest Hardwood handle material?

Metalhead0483

Metalhead0483

Joined
Jan 17, 2008
Messages
539
Can anyone tell me if there are any hardwoods native to the Pacific Northwest, specifically alaska, which make good knife handles? I've just moved here from Maine, and I like to use native materials when possible.

Thanks :)
~Nate
 
One I can think of is Big Leaf Maple growing along the NW coast. Technically a soft maple I don't know just how hard it is as I've never worked it. You can find some with very beautiful figure. Check to see if it's available stabilized.
 
I live North of Seattle and yes there is lots of Broad leaf maple. Look for wrinkly skin and burls for great figure. Fiddle back and birds eye etc. Go met some sawmill guys or loggers. There is a place a ways from here that saws and mills musical instrument woods and I sometimes go and pick thru there scrap by their saw mill. There is also Madrone here but, I don't remember it in SE Alaska. It grows near the salt water and looks kind of orangw and like the bark is falling off. Very hard and light colored and as it branches often can have lots of figure, If you get to know some natives and fishermen, walrus ivory is around as well as mammoth. AK has many friendly open people if approached in a friendly open manner. The word gets around fast. I have also seen whale baleen for sale legally up there and wonder now how the thick plate sections would work. There is tons of true cedar and it is usually as straight grained as it gets, but I wonder about the burls. All the woods mentioned need stabilizing, but can be fantastic looking. I have some maple and its great especially a piece that had a bit od dye added.
 
So the broad leaf maple needs to be stablized? Hmmm, that's unfortunate. I guess I'll give K&G a call then. unless you can think of a better source?

Any thoughts on Cottonwood? That is by far the most prevelant hardwood up here, but i have no idea on how it looks, and I'd immagine it's pretty soft.

The baline idea definitly sounds like a cool project. I've seen some of the stuff around here, pretty sure I can find someone who has some. I'll have to give it a try. Too bad I can't use what we confiscate from the tourists who try to bring it across the border ;)
~Nate
 
I've often wondered if plain old alder, although only medium hard, would make a good knife handle if stabilized. Alder burls are kind of rare, but could be beautiful wilth reds and light oranges. Anyone use alder?


Phil Millam
Winthrop WA
 
I have a cotton wood burl laying around somewhere and am going to try to stabilize a use it. But, I really don't know about it yet. Hey Phil, maybe next time I go over the hump and thru Withrop I will stop by if it fits your time and is OK with you and we can BS knives and what not. Ever over around Mt Vernon and bored or need something Shout. I work at one of the refineries and have access to the scrap metal bins. Jim
 
Alpha Knife Supply has some good looking stabilized Cottonwood burl on their site so I suspect that it works just fine. I've had some big leaf Maple stabilized by K&G with great results.

The Alder idea sounds interesting. Chuck Bybee lists it as taking stabilizing well in his recent post.
 
Ok, everybody's talking about using stabalized woods. That stuff's pretty pricy for a hobbyist like me. What if I just used well dried/seasoned woods? Is that a no no or what?

~Nate
 
Well some woods will stay fine without the stabilizing but, stuff like maple will shrink and swell. You are about to find out what humid is if you are in SE Alaska. LOL. Liquid sunshine they call it. You can do a water quench many days by waving the hot blade in the air. Seriously, You may want to look at some of the simple methods for doing your own stabilizing, but, I got some killer white ash burl off a member for $14 bucks. But, if you are looking for economy and good wood go to http://www.exoticwoodgroup.com/order_pool_cue_blanks.htm
and get some cocobolo or rosewood and for less than $10 plus shipping you can have enough good stable wood to go to work on several knives. Some of the others don't need stabilized either. You don't want to put time and money on supplies into a knife and have a handle shrink or crack for a few bucks.
 
Sweet, thanks for clearing that up for me Jim.

That's a good link by the way, looks like they've got a pretty nice selection. My anvil's hasn't arrived yet (I hate shipping in Alaska already :barf:) so I can't forge any new blades yet, but I've got a couple of pieces I made before I moved here that need handles.

~Nate
 
correction, it would have been a nice link, except they only deliver UPS ground, which doesn't deliver here :mad:

Any other ideas for good source of wood? :)
~Nate
 
Knife and Gun finishing supply. Ken is great to work with. About the price of stabilized wood, after you have a non stabilized piece move around and even check on you the price of a piece of stabilized is not that much. You can get a really nice piece for $25. well worth the price for better figure an quality. Were is Haines, I lived on Adak for 3 yrs. Talk about a delivery nightmare.

http://www.knifeandgun.com/

Chuck
 
Thanks for that link scott, not being able to search the forums is going to kill me.

Chuck, Haines is on the Lynn Canal about a four hour ferry ride out of Juneau in Southeast Alaska, and I work on the Canadian border about 45 miles north of the town. UPS and FedEx both go to Anchorage and Fairbanks and then pass the package off to USPS to be trucked down, which tacks on an extra 1,000+ miles, so not only does it take at least an extra three or four days to get here, but they charge about three times more than they do for shipping to the lower 48. Not cool... Adak huh? Better you than me :)
 
I absolutely LOVED ADAK. Weather was not too bad, the first weekend we were there we only 125mp winds. Seriously though I had more fun out there than just about anyplace else. Hunting Fishing Hiking and Camping. If we wanted anything shipped it had to go thru APO/FPO. If they would not send it via USPS then we had to ship next day air. At least they would do that. Only cost about $100.

Chuck
 
OK... Give Larry Davis an email. mailto:sales@galleryhardwoods.com. Has some really nice woods (ask for the select amboyna burl) :and may even have some non-stabilized material. Plus he is a northwesterner:confused::confused: Oh yeh he is moving to Atlanta.. Larry I guess it takes an email eh. :D:D

Chuck
 
Adak isn't the end of the world but, you can look out to the North and just about see it. I have be considerably north of St Paul and St Mathews and that is the end of the world. I love SE Alaska and have a spot out of Ketchican bought and paid for to retire to.
 
Metalhead, you really are in the best place on earth for fossilized Mamoth ivory, walrus, whales teeth, oosic, horn of many species, Dahl sheep is my favorite.
Look around, you will be surprized what you find. I have 2 close friends in Haines.
 
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