Which material for this handle?

E

Eriksen

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Sep 18, 2005
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I want to make a knife handle as shown in "this link" and need to know which material will be best for that purpose in order to avoid wear and breakage from the knife later when used over longer time. I have oak, birch, birch burls and whale tooths to choose from and need to know which of these I shall use..
 
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You want to make a handle like that?
That's ambitious!
Please do show here.

The woods you mention won't do.
I don't know about whales tooth. I beleave they get carved, but I'm not sure if all are good
 
Hengelo_77 said:
You want to make a handle like that?
That's ambitious!
Please do show here.

The woods you mention won't do.
I don't know about whales tooth. I beleave they get carved, but I'm not sure if all are good
Click to expand...
It´s not very ambitious if I carve it with a CNC-mill. I have some old and very hard birch burl pieces. Do you think that will work?
 
Can a cnc mill even do that type of fine detailed work without running into major issues along the way? That's usually something you see done by hand, or if mass produced, cast material. I just don't see wood, bone, ivory etc handling cnc process like that with such detail. Blowouts, chipping, etc would in my mind at least ruin any attempts.

Also, is the guard supposed to be the same material(g.g wood or bone) as the rest of the handle? if so, that's a huge flaw right there in making something durable and long lasting as your hoping for.
 
Good luck on CNCing that handle.

The material would almost surely have to be elephant ivory. Whale tooth might work, but it is a differnt type and won't look as good. Walrus wouldn't have thick enough enamel.

Ivory colored paper Micarta would work, is very dirable, and would machine well. It would be much cheaper, too.

I have done some pretty intricate carving and I don't think the woods you listed would work ...especially for machining.
 
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Agreed. Those woods you listed wouldnt hold that detail very well. That level of detail, the only woods I think may be able to would be gaboon ebony, african blackwood and maybe ironwood.
 
Synthetic ivory or synthetic bone would probably be a better choice. YOu can even get it in an aged ivory look.
 
I´m not sure regarding synthetic materials because small sized engraving bits need to rotate with a very high speed and that produce a lot of heat and if the material contain plastic or other substances that melt if heated, it wouldn´t work.
 
I'd try and get ahold of Goes Dune on Face Book. He's a bone and antler carver out of Bali, Indonesia. He does incredible work and is super nice. He may be able to give you some help. FYI: english sin't his first language, but he writes very well. P.S. He may just offer to sell you something! LOL!
 
Eriksen said:
I´m not sure regarding synthetic materials because small sized engraving bits need to rotate with a very high speed and that produce a lot of heat and if the material contain plastic or other substances that melt if heated, it wouldn´t work.
Click to expand...

might be worth a try on a test piece. Corian, for me at least, seems much more resistant to heat issues compared to wood, micarta, phenolic or even G10.
 
Being new to cnc, how would you go about programming the cad/cam to make that 3d design? It would take me years on fusion 360!
 
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