wood for a handle. "question"

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DaQo'tah Forge

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Hi this is DaQo'tah

up to now, all my early knives have always been made out of oak.

There were many reasons why I picked oak, but mostly its due to the fact that the oak I used was free or very cheap.

But now I need to get your ideas as to a better type of wood, and more importantly, where this wood can be found?

I make Hidden tang knives only, so I need the wood in blocks not scales...
 
Hey, if you are still interested in being as cheap as possible and don't mind scrounging here are some ideas. Broken stocks from rifles and shotgums would be a good source of walnut. Check with your local gunsmith shops maybe.

Cabinet/woodworking shops often throw out unuseable end pieces in their dumptsers and they often cut out the pieces that have really nice knots and such in them because the knots chip out when they are run through planers and shapers. I have found some beautiful figured cherry and figured maple this way. I have also found walnut and mahogany thrown out like this. If you have any furniture manufacturers near you they often throw out all kinds of hardwoods, epecially turnings that didn't work out.

Shipping pallets are a good source of tropical wood. They often come from countries where the wood is common but is rare and exotic here. I've seen pallets made from cherry before also. Check garage sales and flea markets for cheap desert ironwood carvings from Mexico. You might be able to salvage enough for scales or get a piece large enough for an entire handle. Any fruit or nut tree has nice wood so keep an eye out for prunings.

Finally, just like steel, most wood isn't that expensive if you shop around for it, unless it's beautiful burl wood or nicely figured stabilized wood. Even then you just add the value of the wood to the value of the knife. Don't forget to watch eBay, all kinds of beautiful woods go up for acution all of the time. Just be careful, most of the wood on eBay is still green and needs lots of time thoroughly dry out (one year per inch).

Well that pretty much exhausts my suggestions!
 
Hey, nothing wrong with a little salvaging.
I hate seeing anything useful go to waste.
You can tell that by how junked up my shop is, lol.
 
Hi L6steel, this is DaQo'tah

why do I always introduce myself when I post something?

I dont know,.,,I guess so its just the way I was raised ...

Whenever I say or write something, I let people know who I am first,

Perhaps it helps me think that when my words and stories are posted and read, that my readers understand that I'm a real person, and not just a bunch of connected words on your computer screen.

It also seems to be a way for me to get a start on writeing something down. The introduction gets my fingers to start typeing, and then the body of my story or posting just seems to flow from it.

what I would like to have happen is,,,that down the line in the future, whenever you see my name on a topic ,you think to yourself - "DaQo'tah wrote something new? Well I bet this is going to be good!"
 
Guy,
Man after my own heart! I haven't bought a piece of wood in several years (well, not many). I scavenge at least 90 percent of my handle material. Your sources are great and familiar. I've also picked up some good exotic rounds of rosewood, cocobola, ebony, etc. in discarded poolques. Some at thrift stores but most from a local pool hall that caters to a redneck clientel. A lot seem to get broken there!
Pallets are my favorite, just have to work around the nails. I used to get good exotic stuff from the Kawasaki place, but they seem to have gone to steel and foam now. It sure is worth checking round.
I also scout out road projects and building projects for good raw wood in the form of trees that will be removed. I have gotten osage, cherry, figured maple and pear, walnut, etc. just for the asking and a few phone calls. You just need to be handy with a chainsaw.
DahQo'Tah - If your trying to stay on the cheap, Guy's got the plan.

Good luck in your search.

Carl Rx
 
Dang Carl, you are more inventive than I am! I had never considered poolques! I'm going to be checking out Goodwill soon as well as the big pool hall nearby! I've brought birch, hickory, dogwood, cherry and magnolia home from construction sites but lack of milling equipment pretty much assures these large chunks of raw wood go unused. Traveling with a chainsaw in the trunk sounds like my kind of idea. I usually have a kukri and a bowsaw in there. (Yes, to answer your question I don't have a truck yet, something I hope to remedy in a few years. Raising a family and buying a reliable car for my wife has taken priority. Boy though, I dream of having a pickup! All the other blacksmiths and knifemakers make fun of my little Nissan when I go to the local meetings!)

Those pallet nails are a royal pain aren't they! What I'd really like to find is some darker figured pecan. After a big storm (hurricanes down here on the Gulf coast) you can often get wood for free from all kinds of orchards. The owners get a free clean up that way.
 
Pool cues! Now there's a source I never woulda thunk about.
My brother is a welder who works at a trailer maker and repair shop. They had a repair job come in recently and they had to replace some of the floor planking. He took some of the better stuff and gave it to me to see what I thought. I sanded the accrued crud and oxidation off the surface and there was some gorgeous Purpleheart underneath. It slays me to think of all the beautiful wood being used in applications like that. OH! and last month we had a trailer come into my day job and I couldn't believe my eyes as it was unloaded. The planking on the floor at the front and the kickplate at the front of the trailer was some of the most beautifully figured maple I've seen to date. I was SICK. There was enough quilted maple there to do up dozens of knives.:eek: Oh well...

Silent,
Is Magnolia a grade of wood suitable for knife handles?:confused: The stuff is nearly a weed tree in this part of Florida.


All the best,
Mike U.
 
Guy and Mike,
Gotta be vigilant or the good stuff gets by. I couldn't live down there in Fla. My wife can't stand the heat and I wouldn't get any bladesmithing done. There are just to many big fish waiting to test my abilities. I try to limit my trips to twice a year but it's hard.
Skinny salt water and a fly rod, oooooh yeeaah! Guy, I usually fish in your backyard - Panacea on the Ochlocknee Bay, 32#+ Red on a foam and feather fiddler imitation, last Oct. We jumped a huge tarpon the year before but couldn't keep him tied on. Also caught(?) a 6.5' gator (he had a sweettooth for a 3# red, swallowed him down to the end of a 3' shock tippet!) I did manage to raise him for a photo twice.
Guy, find a buddy with a chain saw and make him a knife then ask if he can do you a favor sometime. You'd be suprised what some will do for a good handmade. I have scrounged some beautiful live oak burl of beaches and backwater sloughs. Really tough stuff! If you can get it bulked down and in your trunk or on a trailer, you'd be suprised what you can manage with a skill saw, wood wedges, and a hammer. You can at least get it down to rough dimensions for curing out.
Another place to watch is when they start to remodel malls and large offices. Lot of good wood has been wasted there. I recently retired from County water system and had access to a tremendous amount of scrap from construction, expansions, rehabs, etc. (Not totally retired though, took a parttime position with a local Engineering firm as a consultant; good pay, short flexible hours, and benefits)
Got a message from a contractor friend just last friday a.m., about another clarifier drive being taken out. He's pulling the bearing races out and saving them for me .... let's see .... that's roughly 16 - 3 ft sections of 52100, 5/8" x 3/4". I just have to make him another knife. He said three more had to come out by the end of the contract. Life is great!

Happy hunting,

Carl Rx
 
Het Craig, sounds like you've hit on the right reasons and time of year to visit. The "cool" months, though October can be just as nasty as August as often as not. The "Big Bend" does have fantastic fishing, though if you don't have a boat much of it is out of reach. The shallow flats attract lots of speckled trout and redfish and the bayous and rivers afford lots of deep holes for them when the weather gets cooler. I haven't had the chance to take advantage of the fishing locally as much as I'd like. I prefer light line and spinning reel combination. I have to say fishing isn't the passion for me that it is for my Dad. I grew up in Pensacola and dreamed of all the girls in bikinis on Pensacola Beach as we were trolling past trying to hook up king mackerel. I practically spent every weekend when I was a teen out in the Gulf, which was great, but man I hardly knew what a girl looked like and I often found bait fish scales stuck on me even in the middle of the week in class! I'll have to say there is nothing better than freshly caught saltwater fish fried up with hushpuppies, baked beans and cole slaw to set the world right!

I'm always on the lookout for burls on trees down here but you hardly ever find them. I'll have to keep am eye out. A chain saw has been on my tool buying list for a while but I've been concentrating on actual knifemaking equipment. My main problem with raw wood is never actually getting around to cutting it up after dragging it home!

Mike, off hand I don't like light colored woods of any kind for handles because they show dirt so readily and magnolia is about as white as you can get. There are certain applications where its perfect straight grain would be an asset and where a similar wood is often used and that would be for the scabbard and hilt of Japanese style blades. I've brought magnolia home because it is my wife's favorite tree and she wanted a knife with magnolia handle. Alas, I never got around to cutting up that small log, which is a shame because I could have just split it into manageable sized pieces.
 
check the yellow places for any hardwood suppliers. We have a hardwood floor shop in town that has a whole rack of odds and ends and cutoffs of exotic woods that they sell by the pound. I get all my ebony and lignum for next to nothing.
 
Thanks Guy.
I'm with you about not using light colored woods on handles.

You know, I don't see many burls down here either. Occasionally a smallish one on an oak(always on someone's fenced in property it seems), but other than that, nil, nada and nuthin'.
 
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