Working with ironwood

t1mpani

t1mpani

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Jun 6, 2002
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So,
Basically seeing if I’m the only one who has a hell of a time with this:

I usually use micarta because I love the predictability and consistency of working with it, but the current request is for ironwood. As I’m doing a full exposed tang, I’m having to do scales. The scales which arrived were, predictably, not perfectly flat and gapped noticeably, so I began the process of trying to flatten them. The problem is that the damned stuff doesn’t grind/sand consistently. I spent almost two hours sanding with sandpaper laying flat on a +\- 0.0003” flat granite work surface, and they got progressively WORSE as the different areas wore at different rates due to the variance in hardness. How do people work with this stuff? I mean, I’m willing to assume the blame but moving a piece of wood back and forth across sandpaper doesn’t really involve a lot of technique.
 
I was doing kind of larger circles and changing the direction every twenty rotations or so. I may try figure eights, though I think I'll have to try them tomorrow, as the overpowering feeling that has taken hold is frustration, and a ball pein hammer may become involved if I don't put them down for awhile. Phenolics never make me despise knife making. :D

The lighter areas were sanding away notably faster than the darker areas.
 
The stuff eats belts. If the belt is sharp I don’t have a problem with flattening. When I do several different materials in a batch, the Ironwood always gets finished first, when the belts are fresh. Filthy also.
 
Also it only needs to be flat at the edges of the scales, you can hollow them out towards the middle. That saves a lot of time
 
Hengelo_77 said:
Also it only needs to be flat at the edges of the scales, you can hollow them out towards the middle. That saves a lot of time
Click to expand...

A good point—I hadn’t actually cut the handle shape out yet, was just flatteningbthe entire scale, but I’ll give this a try.
Thanks guys :)
 
I haven't had this problem with Ironwood yet. But I did have hell with buffalo horn one time. I ended up putting them in a mill with a fly cutter and milling them flat.

I tried three different grits on the belt sander and I also tried flat sanding on a granite plate. Never could get them flat. The fly cutter on the mill did the trick though.
 
It almost sounds like you have heart wood and sap wood in the same scale. If so, that's not good.
 
Yeah, I just ordered new scales, see if a new pair is either easier to work with or flatter to begin with.

I WISH is still had access to a mill—I’d thought of that too. :)
 
I just got a big ebay box of iron wood. How big of deal is it if I want to put it on a kitchen knife unstableized?
 
I have used many hundreds of pounds of iron wood over the years. Always on full tang knives. I flatten on a flat disc using a 60 grit psa. I've never had the problem described. No ironwood doesn't need and or can't be stabilized and yes it works as a kitchen knife handle. I think Mark probably hit it on the head.
 
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