Whats best to treat wooden handles

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woodlore

Joined
Jul 16, 2003
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Hi everyobody. I am wondering what would be the best thing to treat wooden handles on knives ,in this case Birds Eye Maple, to keep moisture from damaging the wood. I have heard linseed oil is good but I am really not sure. Of course I dont intend on leaving it out in the rain or anything but a little extra protection never hurts.
Any info would be appreciated....
Woodlore
 
I stopped using linseed oil because my wife didn´t like its smell. Now I use sweet almond oil, rub it on every once in a while or after some use, if the handle gets wet, dry throughly and rub some oil on it.

I find it at just about any local drugstore.

Edited for spelling.
 
Do a google and you can find an internet supplier. If you live in a major metro area, most wordworking stores also carry it.
 
My 'magic potion':

1/3 Filtered Beeswax
1/3 Mineral oil
1/3 Anhydrous Lanolin (drug store has it. Ask Pharmacy guy)

Melt together. Rub in, buff off with a hand towel. Restores a nice deep glow to the wood. Good for the steel too.

Use it on your lips in winter.

Steve
 
Mineral oil every couple of months works well on my wooden canes.

Any gorcery store has it for a few bucks that will last years for the knives handles.

Brownie
 
There are several waxes that work well for finishes on wood. I prefer Carnuba wax.

Before waxing though, you should use a good penetrating oil treatment. Tung oil, Danish oil and teak oil work well. I have been using teak oil a lot lately, as it seems to be the thinnest, penetrating well. They sink into the wood and harden, protecting it.

The wax over this makes a nice finish. Carnuba is a very hard wax and I use a linen buffing wheel to burn it in.
 
Raw linseed oil with gum turpentine (do not use mineral turps) - I normally start with a ratio of 50/50 for the first coat and reduce thereafter. Apply with fine steel wool. If you want to bring out the grain of the wood dampen the wood first with water. The advantage of the gum turps is that it assists in creating a hard finish as well as assisting the oil to penetrate. Keep applying the oil mixture until the wood will not take anymore.
 
Check tobaco store - they have special pipe polish. Carnauba + plus something silicon - this is best I know so far.
See here at the end of the page yellow bottle:
http://playground.sun.com/~nozh2002/tools.html

It is fluid form in this bottle - just dip some fabric in it and polish your handle - in two minutes you are done!

Linen seed also good, but it change wood color - maple will be yellow. Carnauba is best I know.

But better use cocobolo or linguim vitae - they are oily by nature - no treatment needed.

Thanks, Vassili
 
Tung oil works well and seems to resist moisture better than linseed oil. I use it on the Arctic birch handle of my Roselli, ax handles, canoe paddles, shovel handles, etc.
 
Please keep in mind when using Linseed oil that it probably will spontaneously ignite if you just wad up your used oily rags & throw 'em in the trash.
Many people die & much property is burned up every year because of this. Just ask a fireman.

Dispose of the rags in a metal container & fill with water to be safe.

Always read the ingredients in whatever oil you are using, if it contains Linseed, you need to take appropriate measures.
 
Hey thanks to everybody for their input on this. I got some good iformation from all of you.
Woodlore
 
I have always had good luck with Tung oil. I second Ren wax on the handles of non-users. It can make them slick for a user.
 
I 2nd the Rennaisance Wax. You can buy it at kocals knife supply
1-614-855-0777

The only draw back to using it, is it sometimes will give a "satin" finish to a glossed handle. You'll need to test it on a separate piece of wood first to see if you like it. It also works well on protecting blades you keep in a collection for long periods without using/handling them. Ive tried beeswax, tung oil, many other things, but the ren. wax is a good product.
 
I use Farmer's Friend, an off the wall brand of hand cream marketed for gardeners. It comes in a tin and is a mix of lanolin and bee's wax and other smelly stuff. I smear it on and let it sit overnight then wipe off the excess. No high gloss finish, and no cracking or shrinking.
 
I 3rd the ren wax, I use it on all my wood handled knives, I also use it on my damascus blades before storing them, as well as to protect a lot of other items around the house.

Ren wax at Knifeart
 
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