Not many oak handles?

Patrice Lemée

Patrice Lemée

Joined
Aug 13, 2002
Messages
5,703
Is it just me? I don't see that many oak handles. Any reason for this other than aesthetics?

There are some old bookcases made of oak at my Dad and I wonder if I should keep a few planks for knife handles.

Thanks for your input.

Patrice
 
Oak is kind of hard to find, but should make excellent handles. It is a bit coarse to work, but very durable. Keep the planks.
 
oak is just not that pretty unless it has some extremely interesting grain here is one that I did with oak that Katrina nocked over its the second one down the yellow handled one is osage from Katrina also put come from around ruins of old slave quarters on my property

 
Oak has a very "open" grain as another maker pointed out to me. I recently made a handle using oak. I "distressed" it to give the wood an aged look... it turned out rather nicely. I would definately use oak again. Perhaps with a wood hardener to seal the grain after distressing.

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Rick just posted red oak, which looks good on his knife, but I find to be kinda dull usually. If you can get white oak, its nicer, and if you can get quartersawn white oak, its really sweet. I have some white oak crotch wood that is stunning.
 
Yeah... it seems we have become wood snobs of sorts... I was talking with a co-worker the other day about some home improvement projects she's doing and while she got a great deal on her flooring, when she noticed I didn't seem all that impressed, she said "But it's solid oak!" ... in my head I thought..pfffft ... do your floors in desert ironwood and talk to me again. :D Of course the reality is that they will be very nice floors when she's done, but it's hard for me to get excited about oak. The above examples look great, but I have seen a few knives that have been totally muted by a "boring" handle choice.
 
Patrice,

I use some burl oak that I cut some years back quite a bit for handles. Here's a pic if it works.

Tad Lynch


Skinner.jpg
 
Andy is so right about quartersawn white oak. It's been used in many, many Arts and Crafts pieces of furniture and can be beautiful with ray fleck running across the grain.

I think flatsawn red oak has been given a bad rap because it's been done to death in mass produced furniture. Distressed like the one above is very cool for a certain look and I used to have some curly red oak that looked cool.

Not only is oak very open grained which can trap dirt and stuff, but it doesn't often have the detail we might like when used in such a small piece as a knife scale. Find one with tight grain and lots of figure and it might be a good candidate.

One last thing about oak that might be a turnoff is that water and steel and oak can create a black/blue stain that looks like someone spilled ink on your handle. Sealing the wood may make this a non-issue, but it's something to consider.
 
Pat, I think Oak is less used because it's hard to do alot of options with it. Here is a couple of skinners done in Red Oak, the one is natural and the other is pickled.
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Neither pic is that great but, that was before I realized how important that is!
The pickled one when I showed it too my wife when I finished it and she just kind of wrinkled her nose and asked if I had showed it too the customer, which I hadn't.
I hadn't even spoke to him about it. He had ordered his off of the one with the natural handle but had left any options up too me. So now I began to worry he might not like it but, when I brought it too him, I told him I had made a couple of changes from the prototype and handed it too him. He took one look at it and told me he owed me some more money than what we had agreed on.
I told him no but sure was glad he liked it! Both of those were sealed with several coats of tongue oil buffed out and the a final coat of my special lacquer and a light buffing.
 
I'm gonna have to look into quartersawn oak. That handle I posted was from a floorboard. I had to sort through quite a bit to find a grain pattern I liked. You are right about it not having the detail for knife scales... if I hadn't distressed, stained and wrapped it.... I'm sure it would have had all the aethetic beauty of a steak knife..... lol.
 
Magnussen said:
I'm gonna have to look into quartersawn oak. That handle I posted was from a floorboard. I had to sort through quite a bit to find a grain pattern I liked. You are right about it not having the detail for knife scales... if I hadn't distressed, stained and wrapped it.... I'm sure it would have had all the aethetic beauty of a steak knife..... lol.
Click to expand...

Most hardwoods, if you quartersaw them, are prettier than plain sawn. One of my favorites is Osage. I've seen a lot of makers call quartersawn Osage curly, when really, those are rays, and are present in every piece of Osage if you quartersaw it. They're muted a lot more than in White Oak, but they're there. Same with Red oak. Not as pretty as White Oak. But still better than plain sawn Red.
 
Patrice,
Heres some white oak burl blocks I've had laying around for awhile. Need to be trimmed down tho, otherwise, pretty solid and heavy really.

Larry
 

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Here's a pic of an oak burl this guy was trying to sell me but he wants 500 bucks.

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There is oak and there is oak. Bog oak is stunning. Some figured oak is pretty. One of the problems with oak is that it reacts with iron and other things and turns dark. It can actually corrode the tang on a knife.
Stacy
 
This is quarter sawn oak I put on a knife.
I'm not sure if it's white oak or red oak, Andy will probably know. I have a bunch of it.
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The top one in this pic is also quarter sawn oak. Different knife and bad picture taking.
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Later,
Iz
 
If you are going to quarter saw them then stick to white oak. The red/black oaks do not have the "rays" that appear in white oak and add to the esthetics. Also, white oaks have a closed grain while the red/black oaks are open grained. Oak burls readily and the burls should not be that expensive. In my part of the country (southern missouri) they are very common.

Gary
 
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