Organized list of Handlewoods

That's a great writeup. Thanks for doing it.

Now if you could add a picture for each of the different woods that would make the post even better!
 
If someone explains posting pictures on this site will do! i cant get back in the shop cause my pointer is hanging off!
 
hellspawn415 said:
If someone explains posting pictures on this site will do! i cant get back in the shop cause my pointer is hanging off!
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If you find a pic online, right click it and copy URL. Then click on the insert photo button in the menu above your post. Paste the URL.

If you have your own pic, upload to a photo site like photo bucket. Copy the link URL and paste directly into your post.
 
Would the black and white ebony's I have benefit from stabilization, or can they be used as is? What is the best way to finish ebony? Thanks.
 
There has been some Brazilian rosewood imported in the last 10-15 years legally, but it was stump wood as far as i know. There are people who have old growth stuff that has been in the states for like 40 plus years and is not squirreled away in the Martin Guitars custom shop. ;) The last time that I checked prices which was at least 8 or 9 years ago, the cost of getting a guitar builder like Martin, Collings or Santa Cruz to part with some of their precious stash and sell you a guitar with Braxialin sides and back started at like $2500 over the cost of East Indian or Madagascar rosewood. The recent limited run 2013 Martin Custom Shop copy of the 1936 D45, the first 14 fret D45, in Brazilian and Adirondack spruce goes for around $47,000!!!!!!:eek: Honduran Rosewood is #2 in my book, but it is has not been imported with any regularity for a while. A few yeas back, they open up the market for maybe a year or so and some stuff that had ben drying for like 10 years got in. I got some wild dark burl that had been cut to build a road in Belize. My joke is that I bet these old growth trees were cut down to build a road to some ecotourism resort. :D The stuff was ridiculous. Mark at Bur Source got hold of some Honduran burl last year from am old timer. It was just as outrageous. I have a couple of sets of scales that are being saved along with my couple of 1.5x1.5 plainer grain sticks of old growth Brazilian that i got from a custom pool cue builders supply house like 7 years ago.

Bad pics of the Honduran burl wood. Even with my abysmal photography skills, you can get a fair idea of why this stuff is so desirable.

Burl Source stuff.
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Belize road project wood. The guy who imported the wood referred to the dark stuff on the top knife as "Belize black."
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As far as the popular burls go, my experience has been that a good, solid piece of amboyna will do you right even in unstabilized form. This is a very early knife of mine done in stabilized amboyna.
View attachment 521202
On the other hand, Redwood can have soft spots even when stabilized. I had a spot on this handle that I had to hit with super glue and buff again. You can see the color change of the spot on the bottom of the handle between the pin and the butt.
View attachment 521203
 
Great write up! Do you have any experience with leadwood from Africa or leopardwood from brazil(roupala braziliensis?) I am also in Los Angeles and just picked up some handle material from my guy in Torrance(you probably know him if you live in LA and work with exotic hardwoods.)I had not worked with these two before so I thought I would try them out.
 
Bomp said:
Great write up! Do you have any experience with leadwood from Africa or leopardwood from brazil(roupala braziliensis?) I am also in Los Angeles and just picked up some handle material from my guy in Torrance(you probably know him if you live in LA and work with exotic hardwoods.)I had not worked with these two before so I thought I would try them out.
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Leopard wod falls under lacewood. A lot of the time its the same speceis and its only the density of the patten that separates them. Leadwood is a nice handlewood if a little uninspired. As the name implies its heavy as all hell and hard to match.
 
Name me a exotic non stablized wood handle for the arid arizona climate.
 
Thanks for the list. It's a big help for beginners.

By any chance do you know a bit more about Sandalwood?

I didn't know it's so hard to come by since I got a few small sandalwood souvenirs from India the last couple of years.
After reading here its hard to get I tried to see if there are any Indian laws and it seems it's not allowed in some areas, in the south however it's even grown and farmed sustainably and then there can also be restrictions on how big an individual piece can be. It could even be that raw blanks arent up for sale and only artistic work can be purchased (might be some Indian states law to support local artists). Talk about complicated.

The small souvenirs I have look very creamy of a uniform color and smell very good. The surface is very smooth. Grains are probably very small and it looks like it wouldn't crack or shrink and expand much under adverse conditions. (Just guessing)
In case I am able to get a sufficiently big and legal piece (maybe even decorated), this summer when I travel the South, how would you work it into a knife handle.

Thank you.
:)
 
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Lo/Rez said:
Can you identify this wood for me? I'm guessing the two sets of scales with the large piece are ebony (color is a bit off in the pic) but I haven't a clue about the others.
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I'll give it a shot too...

1st photo is a big block of African mahogany. I don't recognize the stripy pieces.

2nd photo left to right: Chines golden walnut (maybe), more African mahog, dunno, dunno, Peruvian walnut (90% sure). The last one doesn't have the right color for faded purple heart, though colors are kind of relative with photos.
 
Buddyleet said:
Name me a exotic non stablized wood handle for the arid arizona climate.
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Desert ironwood, and Texas Ebony do really well. Both are U.S natives and both have very fine and closed pores, so they have next to zero wood movement. They are resistant to cracking, beautiful, hard and take an amazing finish. The thing about their small closed pores is water can only escape so slowly that it cant compromise the structure of the wood and so you dont have to worry about the heat or the arid air pulling it apart.
 
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zhyla said:
I'll give it a shot too...

1st photo is a big block of African mahogany. I don't recognize the stripy pieces.

2nd photo left to right: Chines golden walnut (maybe), more African mahog, dunno, dunno, Peruvian walnut (90% sure). The last one doesn't have the right color for faded purple heart, though colors are kind of relative with photos.
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It looks to me like sun faded purple heart. It has two kinds of color decay, in air "indoors" it turns a pale gray while in the light it gets brown. Im not sure though.
 
Jens Schuetz said:
Thanks for the list. It's a big help for beginners.

By any chance do you know a bit more about Sandalwood?

I didn't know it's so hard to come by since I got a few small sandalwood souvenirs from India the last couple of years.
After reading here its hard to get I tried to see if there are any Indian laws and it seems it's not allowed in some areas, in the south however it's even grown and farmed sustainably and then there can also be restrictions on how big an individual piece can be. It could even be that raw blanks arent up for sale and only artistic work can be purchased (might be some Indian states law to support local artists). Talk about complicated.

The small souvenirs I have look very creamy of a uniform color and smell very good. The surface is very smooth. Grains are probably very small and it looks like it wouldn't crack or shrink and expand much under adverse conditions. (Just guessing)
In case I am able to get a sufficiently big and legal piece (maybe even decorated), this summer when I travel the South, how would you work it into a knife handle.

Thank you.
:)
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Honestly, Sandal wood is so rare there arent many articals written about working it. I have some old books i can look through for you, but given that its a heavy oily tight grained wood i would sand to about 2000 and buff. Its a pretty classic treatment.
 
Lo/Rez said:
Would the black and white ebony's I have benefit from stabilization, or can they be used as is? What is the best way to finish ebony? Thanks.
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I think black and white should ALWAYS be stabilized. The diffrent movment means it can pull itself apart in wet or dry weather. When its unstabalized the white also has a habit of picking up smudges from everything. And which one? gaboon, macassar and the other major ebonies "mun, Ceylon, and malaysian blackwood" all do great with as fine a sanding as you can go "i take them to 5000 then buff". When working black and white i do most of it by hand =, and slowly. There is a real issue with the white sanding away in a heartbeat. It also shows burns easily so use sharp belts.
 
S.Alexander said:
Do you know much about some of the Australian woods like ringed gidgee for example?
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I do in fact! Family friend has been bringing back aussie woods for years. Ringed Gidgee is a weird beast. Its either utterly boring or THE CURLIEST WOOD ON PLANET EARTH. Its nice and hard, but still workable. This is a case where i say stabilize it not because it cracks a lot, but because its to nice to risk cracking!. Jarrah as i mentioned is just hard beyond all belief. I didnt give it credit though, red jarrah can be nice. Australlian black wood and Australlian kingwood are both great woods with a nice dark figure to them and some streaks of lighter purple blues.
 
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