Old pine for knife handles

Dav1 said:
As some others have said the pine you'll probably have will be of excellent quality compared to today's pine used (in general). As an ex carpenter older pine used for stairs, floors etc... was/is excellent stuff. It won't need stabilising and pure tung oil would be an excellent finish re creating a durable handle.
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I gotta get me some pure tung oil. Been too many people commenting on it not to try it
 
All the wood behind those battens will be useless. You are just doing work for works sake. BUT - my Brother - suit yourself. Have fun and please don't get hurt.
 
Atmotech said:
By my reckoning, there’s about a hundred nails holding that door together 😕
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Admittedly, I haven't read the entire thread. However, that door and knob assembly look might old. And, back in the day, folks used to use square nails.

Man, if you've never dealt with 'em, they're a booger. After pulling about five of 'em, you might be considering turning the door into firewood instead of knife scales. (*DAMHIK)
 
Alone said:
Admittedly, I haven't read the entire thread. However, that door and knob assembly look might old. And, back in the day, folks used to use square nails.

Man, if you've never dealt with 'em, they're a booger. After pulling about five of 'em, you might be considering turning the door into firewood instead of knife scales. (*DAMHIK)
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Probably just gonna take a saw and rip the battens off of it and salvage the rest.
 
Atmotech said:
Probably just gonna take a saw and rip the battens off of it and salvage the rest.
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Man, if those are square nails, that probably wouldn't be a bad idea. 👍

As a guy who has seen a few 19th Century structures dismantled, I stand by my assertion that those square nails are straight-up boogers. ☹️


"They don't make 'em like they used to." <---Truer words have never been spoken.
 
Ok I didn’t want to post this until I was able to secure pictures! My dad’s old house in Connecticut had original floors that he kept when he and my mom removed them during a renovation of the house in the 70s. He brought the wood down here to Texas when he got transferred and has used it for various woodworking projects over the years. He has always called it southern yellow pine, it is very hard and dense. A few years ago, he asked me about using it to make a new handle on a knife. Here is the result:



It looks shiny because I stabilized it with epoxy so it would hold up better when left wet in the sink. 😡
I made this several years ago, as you can see it is holding up well!!
Yes the wood will have nail holes, but for a knife handle you don’t need a wide piece and I am sure you can get lots of working chunks off the door. Have fun, and feel free to PM me if you have questions (though I am FAR from an expert)!
 
Ernie1980 said:
Ok I didn’t want to post this until I was able to secure pictures! My dad’s old house in Connecticut had original floors that he kept when he and my mom removed them during a renovation of the house in the 70s. He brought the wood down here to Texas when he got transferred and has used it for various woodworking projects over the years. He has always called it southern yellow pine, it is very hard and dense. A few years ago, he asked me about using it to make a new handle on a knife. Here is the result:



It looks shiny because I stabilized it with epoxy so it would hold up better when left wet in the sink. 😡
I made this several years ago, as you can see it is holding up well!!
Yes the wood will have nail holes, but for a knife handle you don’t need a wide piece and I am sure you can get lots of working chunks off the door. Have fun, and feel free to PM me if you have questions (though I am FAR from an expert)!
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Nice looking handle. Looks like it’s holding up great. Did you stabilize it yourself or send the wood off somewhere?
 
I did it myself with thinned epoxy. I didn’t get it stabilized all the way through, but definitely more than just the surface. I used a vacuum sealer.
After all was said and done, it definitely would have been easier to gather up several pieces that needed stabilized and send them off.
 
Coffins used to be made out of pine boxes, I wouldn't think anything bad of it if it was used as a knife handle. After all knife handles rarely break unless abusive force was applied or the scales suffered some form of blunt trauma. O.k in my book
 
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