- Joined
- Oct 20, 2008
- Messages
- 5,547
I used Warwood handle material for the first time on a knife the other day, and took mental notes while working with it. Now I'm typing them up to add to the body of knowledge about it, in the community- hopefully it helps someone out now and then.
First of all, I found dealing with Jeff to be no problem, and the communication and customer service at Jephco were great. I ordered a few sets of scales, and some blocks.
When they got here, the first order was to do a little destruction testing. I hoped to use this stuff for the handle on my "line chef" series, a low-cost low-maintenance high-performance group of knives; but not without testing hard first.
So, I dropped a scale onto the concrete floor from many angles, and then began throwing it at the floor from all angles. I observed little to no damage on the flats, and the corners blunted but not chipped from impact. No serious damage occurred. Micarta would have survived just fine too, but IME Corian would have chipped or broken. The funny thing was this stuff actually bounced quite a lot...
I took the scale over to the anvil and started beating on the flats. Even a stout blow with the corner of the hammer did not leave a lasting dent, just a light surface marring. Beating a piece edgewise led to destruction with strong blows, but certainly I wouldn't call the material weak. When hammering it flat, again, it showed a rubbery quality, rebounding the hammer quite a bit.
I took a scale over to the post vise, and cranked down on it. I hit it fairly hard with a hammer, using a shearing blow, and it snapped- a bit easier than canvas micarta would have, maybe more like paper phenolic. Still tough enough. The edges of the break showed a random, mostly non-fibrous rough texture.
I then burnt a piece just to see what would happen... it began to char, rather than melt, for what it's worth. It took several seconds for anything to noticeably occur with a flame applied.
After this testing, I was satisfied that it was more than tough enough to take reasonable abuse, including being dropped on a hard floor from a good height. So, I began working it into a funayuki handle.
It's not hard to bandsaw, although I didn't try the wood blade- I only have one left, didn't want to take the risk of dulling it.
It's not hard to mill with a sharp cutter, although I recommend climb cutting near edges, as it seems to be able to pressure-flake in a small way near the cutter if milled without much care. No big deal, worse than G10, much better than wood.
It drills just fine, and didn't seem to prone to blow out when the bit breaks through- I counterbored for Corbys, which went fine as well. I did notice that the "rubbery" sort of quality it displayed in destruction testing manifested here, in that similar to micarta but even a bit more pronounced, the hole would flex smaller after removal of the bit. Probably by just a few thou, but enough that it's grabby. No big deal, I reamed the counter bores out by hand with an endmill in a chuck, corbys fit great.
Next day after glue-up, grinding to shape went fine. It's more abrasion resistant than G10, which I actually like, seems to clog the belt up less than canvas micarta, and doesn't smell terrible, so all in all I give it full marks for shapeability.
Sanding with j-flex alox belts, same story. Hand sanding with rhynowet paper, about like linen micarta. No problem, sands fine.
I took the finish to 600 by hand, then buffed with pink rouge. The buffer put a nice shine on, not super high-gloss, but I wasn't going for that- I can't yet speak to how it would respond to efforts at making it gleam.
"Feel" is pretty subjective, but I think I felt it to be a bit "warmer" than G10, something that I like about micarta too. This corroborates someone's observation that I read elsewhere...
There were a couple tiny flecks here and there in the otherwise pretty, slightly marbled surface, that seemed like actual particles of processed corn, at least in color- perhaps I'm just projecting that since I know what the material is made of. I didn't mind, to me that underscores the fact that these are made of processed organic material, which is a definite plus to me.
Bottom line: I like working with it, and will continue to, barring some future development causing me to reconsider.
Here are some bad pics of the handle in question.
First of all, I found dealing with Jeff to be no problem, and the communication and customer service at Jephco were great. I ordered a few sets of scales, and some blocks.
When they got here, the first order was to do a little destruction testing. I hoped to use this stuff for the handle on my "line chef" series, a low-cost low-maintenance high-performance group of knives; but not without testing hard first.
So, I dropped a scale onto the concrete floor from many angles, and then began throwing it at the floor from all angles. I observed little to no damage on the flats, and the corners blunted but not chipped from impact. No serious damage occurred. Micarta would have survived just fine too, but IME Corian would have chipped or broken. The funny thing was this stuff actually bounced quite a lot...
I took the scale over to the anvil and started beating on the flats. Even a stout blow with the corner of the hammer did not leave a lasting dent, just a light surface marring. Beating a piece edgewise led to destruction with strong blows, but certainly I wouldn't call the material weak. When hammering it flat, again, it showed a rubbery quality, rebounding the hammer quite a bit.
I took a scale over to the post vise, and cranked down on it. I hit it fairly hard with a hammer, using a shearing blow, and it snapped- a bit easier than canvas micarta would have, maybe more like paper phenolic. Still tough enough. The edges of the break showed a random, mostly non-fibrous rough texture.
I then burnt a piece just to see what would happen... it began to char, rather than melt, for what it's worth. It took several seconds for anything to noticeably occur with a flame applied.
After this testing, I was satisfied that it was more than tough enough to take reasonable abuse, including being dropped on a hard floor from a good height. So, I began working it into a funayuki handle.
It's not hard to bandsaw, although I didn't try the wood blade- I only have one left, didn't want to take the risk of dulling it.
It's not hard to mill with a sharp cutter, although I recommend climb cutting near edges, as it seems to be able to pressure-flake in a small way near the cutter if milled without much care. No big deal, worse than G10, much better than wood.
It drills just fine, and didn't seem to prone to blow out when the bit breaks through- I counterbored for Corbys, which went fine as well. I did notice that the "rubbery" sort of quality it displayed in destruction testing manifested here, in that similar to micarta but even a bit more pronounced, the hole would flex smaller after removal of the bit. Probably by just a few thou, but enough that it's grabby. No big deal, I reamed the counter bores out by hand with an endmill in a chuck, corbys fit great.
Next day after glue-up, grinding to shape went fine. It's more abrasion resistant than G10, which I actually like, seems to clog the belt up less than canvas micarta, and doesn't smell terrible, so all in all I give it full marks for shapeability.
Sanding with j-flex alox belts, same story. Hand sanding with rhynowet paper, about like linen micarta. No problem, sands fine.
I took the finish to 600 by hand, then buffed with pink rouge. The buffer put a nice shine on, not super high-gloss, but I wasn't going for that- I can't yet speak to how it would respond to efforts at making it gleam.
"Feel" is pretty subjective, but I think I felt it to be a bit "warmer" than G10, something that I like about micarta too. This corroborates someone's observation that I read elsewhere...
There were a couple tiny flecks here and there in the otherwise pretty, slightly marbled surface, that seemed like actual particles of processed corn, at least in color- perhaps I'm just projecting that since I know what the material is made of. I didn't mind, to me that underscores the fact that these are made of processed organic material, which is a definite plus to me.
Bottom line: I like working with it, and will continue to, barring some future development causing me to reconsider.
Here are some bad pics of the handle in question.
