Tassie Knife scale haul follow up

T

Tinbasher

Joined
Jan 24, 2007
Messages
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Well I made a knife with wood I bought in Tassie ,I also bought a basic leather stamp set and a piece of leather to make a sheath .
Blade 1/8" X 4.5"
Handle Blackheart Sassafras 4.5"
The camera picked up a few scratches I missed on the butt.

Had to have a cap lifter to keep up with Aussie tradition.
Let me know what you think + or -

Blackheart3.jpg


Blackheart4.jpg


BlackheartSheath.jpg


Thanks for looking
Richard
 
Blackheart Sassafras has one of the sweetest patterns of any wood I've seen and I have long thought of putting it on a knife handle. Glad to see someone finally do it.

I did speak to some wood guys in Tassie and they were saying that it is a semi-hard wood. Let us know how it stands up to use..

Oh... you must have had a fragrant time while working the wood. It has a most alluring and rich fragrance. Am actually looking for Blackheart Sassafras oil. U know where I can get some??
 
Tetsusaiga said:
Blackheart Sassafras has one of the sweetest patterns of any wood I've seen and I have long thought of putting it on a knife handle. Glad to see someone finally do it.

I did speak to some wood guys in Tassie and they were saying that it is a semi-hard wood. Let us know how it stands up to use..

Oh... you must have had a fragrant time while working the wood. It has a most alluring and rich fragrance. Am actually looking for Blackheart Sassafras oil. U know where I can get some??
Click to expand...

It did smell quite nice when I was grinding it ,but didn`t know you could get the oil my family in Tassie may be able to locate some.
The colours in the wood are great ,I couldn`t book end the scales except right at the butt because it was already cut into planks when I got it.
I found that the lighter the colour the softer the wood so what I did was get the scales almost to size then put them in a plastic bag with diluted wood glue and put 5lb of negative pressure on them with a small vacuum pump for about 5 min,after it was dry I gave it the finger nail test and it seems to have penetrated quite a bit into the softer wood.
Richard
 
Wow, the wood glue thing is a great idea.. I may want to consider that if and when I get round to ever doing something like what you did.

If you have family in Tassie, the other wood that you might want to try is Tasmanian Blackwood. It gives a shimmering irridescent effect when you buff it to a satin finish and unlike Sassafras, it is a hardwood.

Salamanca market in Hobart is a good place to look for odd sized pieces that the wood turners cannot use for their works or large blocks that they put out for sale. The other place to look for larger blocks is this woodwork shop in Huonville. Can't remeber the name of the place though, but you can't miss it in Huonville.
 
Tetsusaiga ,I did pick up one piece of Black wood and one piece of curly maple I am going to use on a hidden tang knife ,I think I bought a bit to much of the sassafras its going to last for ever.
Richard
 
Hey tinbasher the blade looks great, (as is the sheath),that Sassafras came up a treat. What's the steel if I may ask. I'm about to start my first and I'm using a power hack saw blade, the blank cut out easy enough, I haven't started to grind yet, I have a feeling the blades might be too brittle, but we'll see.
 
southern bigfoot said:
Hey tinbasher the blade looks great, (as is the sheath),that Sassafras came up a treat. What's the steel if I may ask. I'm about to start my first and I'm using a power hack saw blade, the blank cut out easy enough, I haven't started to grind yet, I have a feeling the blades might be too brittle, but we'll see.
Click to expand...

Not quite sure on the steel ,its a circular saw blade ,in the raw its quite drillable and files well but after I heat treat it it quite tough.
A lot of power hack saw blades are made from two types of steel fuse welded together when you take the paint off you may see a line along the saw tooth side , if yours is like that then the main blade is not as tough as the saw side and should make a blade that won`t break to easy. If its all one piece then it may need to be tempered a little ,but then if you are only going to cut things and not pry open wooden boxes it should be ok.
Richard
 
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