Which handle material?

SolarStorm50

SolarStorm50

Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
Joined
Dec 10, 2020
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Which handle for this dagger? 320 layer 12" dagger. Will have a brass pommel.
Option A: Acrylic black and copper
Option B: Epe Iron wood. Fluted with gold wire
Option C: Acrylic White and black

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Ipe would be much better than acrylic, but I don't like ipe for knife handles.

I'll let Ben chime in his opinion, but here is my info:
Ironwood ( either type) and ipe are different woods. Many woods are nicknamed ironwood, but only two are Ironwood.

ipe ( pronounced E-pay) is one of several varieties of Handroanthus and sometimes called ironwood because it is denser than water, very hard, and rot resistant. It is more commonly called Brazilian Walnut. It isn't a good wood for carving and shaping and doesn't polish well. Like teak, it makes great decking and outside furniture.

The true ironwood tree - Ostrya virginiana - is also called Hop Hornbeam. It is one of the hardest North American woods. It floats in water. It isn't all that pretty, but is used to make tool handles because of its strength.

Desert Ironwood is Southwest/Sonoran bush or small tree - Olneya tesota - and sinks in water. It is hard and lovely. I find it one of the nicest unstabilized handle woods to work with.

Fun fact for wood folks:
The wood planks on the USS Constitution, AKA - Old Ironsides (war of 1812 US ship that still floats today) is made from thick white oak harvested in Indiana. It is not ironwood as often reported in articles. The original grove of trees in Indiana that was used to make the ship is still maintained by the government to harvest wood for repairs of the ship. When I was at Annapolis in 1968, the Midshipmen trained on the ship. It is in Boston Harbor now, but the Midshipmen still sail it for special events. I don't know about now, but in the past, every officer who graduated from the Academy was qualified to skipper a tall sailing ship.
 
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I almost always love wood.......
But you've got some wild lines go my on with that blade.
If you wanted I think acrylic would be Fine.

A's dark color would Ground that knife, and C's lighter color would make it look Faster..... What do you want it to be, where are you going with it?

I'm voting C
 
Crag the Brewer said:
What do you want it to be, where are you going with it?
Click to expand...
lol I wish I knew! This is a blade Im making "In my spare time", with extra material. first blade in a long time I dont have a client. The damascus was from another project (where I way over estimated the steel). The brass is from the scrap pile where I was able to reshape the quillions.
 
My vote goes to B. Me personally, i have had bad experience with acrylic, pain to sand and even tho it is synthetic material, for some reason it shrunk on a clients knife, maybe someone knows why, but it definetly suprised me.
 
The photos aren't clear enough to distinguish the first two on my phone. My eyes are stuck trying to decide if the plunges and ricasso are symmetrical.
 
I agree. I like acrylics but on a knife like this, I think wood would look the best, especially with the brass.
 
On ironwood, I have never found academic reference to the idea that ironwood is a term that can be used to describe a wood dense enough to sink.

Ironwood is a term that gets used for basically any super dense, hard wood that doesn't have a super pretty grain or very dark color. Pretty grain dense woods get called something rosewood, i.e Bolivian rosewood, borneo rosewood, Patagonia rosewood, and dark woods get called something ebony, Brazilian ebony, Mexican royal ebony, so on.

Lots of tropical dense woods will get called ironwood at aome point because its a name that sells better than whatever the local name is. Stacy is correct, classically in the US ironwood refers to hornbeam. For knifemakers however, ironwood will almost always refer to desert ironwood harvested in Arizona and northern Mexico.

Over all, call woods whatever you want, thats what wood dealers have been doing for decades. But if you say ironwood around knife or tool makers, 9 times out of 10 they will assume you mean Desert ironwood.
 
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