Red Oak good for knife handle?

blindhogg

blindhogg

Joined
Feb 21, 2001
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Ok I have a neighbor who is making my wife and I a piece of furniture, He is a kind of crazy old man but extremely likable and truly an artist. We get along very well and he mentioned he had some Red oak that he thought would make a great knife handle. So he pulled out a board that was about 2" thick x 7" wide and cut off two foot for me. I thanked him and did not think much of it as I did not think there would be much of a grain but I cut off a 1" chunk and sanded it and threw some tung oil on it and darned if its not too unattractive. I think I might like to make him a knife using this wood as a handle. Now to my question, Is using Oak as a knife handle going to cause me problems down the road??
You wood guys tell me if I am about to make a mistake.

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That is the end grain, will only work if it stabilized. The way it's cut makes it very week. Cut with the grain, will be stronger, but wont look as good.
 
Yeah, same as above. It's pretty that way, but even if you over-drill for the tang hole and fill it with lots of epoxy, and then finish the handle with a good gunstock oil, it could still crack. Even with stabilization. So, to know for sure, make a knife out of it for yourself. If you subject it to different temps and humidity levels throughout the year, you will know for sure what it will do.

Now, if you use some of that oak with the grain oriented "properly," that will be a nice, tough handle for you. Hope this helped a bit.
-M
 
If you cut the oak so the grain runs the length of the handle and the exposed surface is perpendicular to the growth rings you will get some "ray fleck" figure that can be quite attractive. Look at the edge of the board that corresponds to the 8" end of the offcut in your picture, that edge should show some figure. I think the white lines showing in the end grain are rays, in which case your piece of oak has the potential for some very good ray fleck figure if cut properly
 
That looks like white oak (quercus alba), which is one of the preferred woods for Craftsman-style furniture. When quarter-sawn, the rays really light up.

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VaughnT said:
That looks like white oak (quercus alba)...
Click to expand...

Its a bit hard to be certain from the photo (a little higher res/closer up would allow me to be sure), but that looks like red oak; open pores, wide grain spacing etc. Red oak is not waterproof like white oak is, which means that it will get waterlogged and expand, especially end grain.

Also, as others have been saying, the end grain will not be all that strong. Your main trouble is going to be putting rivets through it, as they will push outwards. You may be able to use pieces like that if you soak them in resin and then shape and attach them. They will behave like a very strong plastic that way.
 
D'oh! Totally didn't catch that mention in the OP!

Still, red oak (quercus rubra) isn't that bad a wood. The larger pores can make for a very nice look, and certainly wouldn't be a detraction on a working knife. If you decide to go with end grain like you've shown, I'd definitely invest in having them professionally stabilized, and maybe dyed.
 
Thats why I love this place, you guys have saved me alot of potential problems/issues with this piece. Since I plan to have some Burl professionally stabilized soon, I will ensure to send a few pieces in to get stabilized as well and give that a try. As I really want to make this gentlemen a knife with the wood he gave me. Thanks everyone for highlighting the issues I would have had, had I tried to use it as is.
CW
 
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