Will pine work for a knife handle?

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daigman

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Jun 28, 2014
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I have salvaged some pine lumber from an old tree fort (it isn't rotten because it was a shelf on the inside) and was wondering if it could be used in a handle. I know everywhere says to use hardwood, but why won't softwood work for handles? Also, could good hardwood be found at a place like home depot, or is it all pine there too? I am new to knifemaking, sorry if this is a noob question.
 
daigman said:
I have salvaged some pine lumber from an old tree fort (it isn't rotten because it was a shelf on the inside) and was wondering if it could be used in a handle. I know everywhere says to use hardwood, but why won't softwood work for handles? Also, could good hardwood be found at a place like home depot, or is it all pine there too? I am new to knifemaking, sorry if this is a noob question.
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Lowe's carries oak boards in small sizes that would be appropriate for your needs.
 
Home depot sells maple boards

Also look at the hardwood flooring
real hardwood flooring, not laminates

You can buy little samples of nice dense hardwoods
 
Pine will "work" in that it will give you a handle shape that you can hold on to. Pine will not work in that it won't last long, won't hold up to abuse, and looks boring.

Do you have any cabinet or furniture shops in your area? They might let you come by and dig through their scrap bin for some good hardwood. Maple, Walnut, Cherry, all make good handles.

If you dig through the maple boards at Home Depot, you can usually find some with some nice curl in them. Makes a really pretty knife handle.
 
Can you make a handle out of pine? Yes you can.
Can you make a good and durable handle out of pine? No you can't

There's more hardwood on ebay then you can imagin.
And it isn't that expensive.
Try searching for "turning blanks" you can get several handles out of them.
Cocobolo and bocote are two beautifull kinds of wood that are durable and not to expensive.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Cocobolo-Wo...257?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item233c79d729

That one is $9,- and should give you 3 handles
 
As everyones said it just won't last. The 50 cents you save vs using something like maple isn't worth it when you factor in the time to make the knife. If you're dead set on using it for some reason (was this your tree fort as a kid and you want a souviner?) then you'd need to harden it with something like Wood Hardener
 
If in fact this is of sentimental value and you want to use it in spite of the shortcomings, then having it professionally stabilized would be the way to go. I have no idea if pine is a good candidate for stabilization, but if so then it might also be able to be dyed in the process.
 
It depends. It's like asking if a random hunk of beef will make a good steak. Without seeing and feeling the particular pine board, no one can say. "Pine" encompasses many different species and in any one species growing conditions can have a huge effect on the wood of a particular tree. If this board is from one of the species of pine with harder wood or is old growth with many tightly packed growth rings, it might make an OK handle. The test Chuck suggested in the 3rd post is a good start. If you can dent it with a fingernail, and you still want to use it, stabilization is the answer. In general "softwoods" absorb water more readily than "hardwoods", are less dimensionally stable, are less strong, and will dent more easily. None of these are good attributes in a knife handle. But the classification of whether a tree is a "hard" or "soft" wood depends on whether it is a gymnosperm or angiosperm and has nothing to do with the actual hardness of the wood. As a broad sweeping generalization, it mostly works, "hardwood" is hard...but balsa is a hardwood, yew is a softwood...go figure.
 
I had a guy approach us at the shop asking if we wanted to buy a big load of heart pine he had torn out of an antique home. Man I wanted that wood. Not for handles, but I was really sad to see it go. It was hard as a rock, but it was pine, I cut some to check. I never got around to asking if the old hard heart pine would work for handles. Stacey, what about the real hard antique pine?
 
Baltic Birch has been used for centuries as knife handle material. It is soft and easily dents with a fingernail. It worked just fine for the task even before the miracle of stabilization was ever conceived. You can stabilize it, but then you loose the unbelievable aged look it gets over time. I saw stabilized elephant shit at the show once. Its not always the answer.
 
It would be interesting to know which soft woods(pine,hemlock,poplar etc..would take to stabilization the best.
 
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Poplar is a hardwood. Hardwoods have leaves, softwoods have needles. It has nothing to do with the hardness of the wood.
 
I have also wondered if pine would be a good stabilization candidate. There is a lot of pine beetle wood around here, and some of it would look interesting as knife scales.
 
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What about cypress? I have a block of aged cypress I was thinking of using for some custom handles for my BK9. Anybody have any experience with it?
 
As said, the designation hardwood vs softwood isn't about with hardness of the wood. There are hard softwoods, and soft hardwoods.

Most conifers ( softwoods) don't make the best handles because the way the wood grain is formed allows wear and makes it soft. You can do things to the wood to make it harder, but the wood is still a pretty plain wood. Stabilizing or a hard finish worked into the surface will help.

The heart of some of these is much harder, and would last longer, but the heart also is much higher in pitch, and may present problems as a handle.

That said, I have made knife handles out of softwoods from The Ocean View Roller Coaster ( fir), Harrison's Pier ( cypress ), and The Duck Inn ( pine). All were local landmarks, and they are gone now. I had the wood stabilized.

Other softer woods I have used (stabilized) are holly, sycamore, and birch. Some of these are stunning.
 
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