Buck's Macassar Ebony Dymondwood?

PocketKnifeJimmy

PocketKnifeJimmy

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I understand that Dymondwood involves using thin sheets of wood veneer fused together with phenolic resins under heat and pressure. My question is the following... Is Buck's Dymondwood actually made using veneers from Maccasar Ebony wood, or is it made using other wood veneers and only made to resemble the Ebony Macassar? I have read that the veneers used are Birch, but the grain looks nothing like Birch to me, but does look like pics I have seen of Macassar Ebony wood grain I've seen on the internet. A little insight on this material used by Buck would be appreciated... and thank you in advance :-)
 
Welcome Jimmy. It is not Macassar Ebony. It is stated as obeechee wood from a reliable author. Yes, it is a laminate and stronger than most woods and comes with less warping. Plus, I've seen it made from different woods of various colors. DM
 
Dymondwood is a registered tradename and product of the Rutland Plywood Corporation. It is a resin impregnated and highly compressed laminated Birch plywood, about 29 layers per inch. Bucks different names like Cocobola and Rosewood are really just names for the different color dyes.

Product Overview
Sometimes refererred to by the generic name of COMPREG, DymondWood® is a highly engineered wood/plastic composite, that has the physical and mechanical properties of high density hardwood, acrylic, polycarbonate plastics and brass. Here, brightly dyed northern hardwood veneers are combined with engineering grade resins, heat and pressure to create a product that has the best characteristics of each. DymondWood® is distinguished by its unique strength, durability, dimensional stability, and weather and moisture resistance as compared to regular wood.

I do not know what "obeechee" wood is and can't find any reference using Google. Obeche wood is African Maple.
 
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Thanks, guys :-) I too heard it was made with Birch wood, but the grain sure does not look like it. I wonder if someone from Buck could chime in with their words on this subject (gotta love the horses mouth) ;-)
 
Many of the "decorative plywoods" over here might have the top layer in a highly figured veneer of whatever the desired timber and then the other layers in a beech ply. I suspect that the dymondwood is similar, so macassar ebony on the top and bottom layers and then dyed birchwood in between.
 
parbajtor said:
Many of the "decorative plywoods" over here might have the top layer in a highly figured veneer of whatever the desired timber and then the other layers in a beech ply. I suspect that the dymondwood is similar, so macassar ebony on the top and bottom layers and then dyed birchwood in between.
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I don't think that's the case, it all looks pretty homogeneous on my 110.
 
Ok, I'm really confused now. Speaking strictly of 110's (and others if it applies), I thought macassar ebony is what was used on older version production 110's (1994 and beyond) and that obeechee has been used from then until the present and is a laminate. So if it is a birch laminate that's used presently is it an obeechee layer, or is it all obeechee and not birch at all? :confused:
 
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Though I may not know for sure what wood(s) are used for making these handles, I know with a certainty that both my recently purchased 110 & 112 are made using a laminate.
 
PocketKnifeJimmy said:
Though I may not know for sure what wood(s) are used for making these handles, I know with a certainty that both my recently purchased 110 & 112 are made using a laminate.
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Yes, definitely laminate since Buck stopped using Macassar ebony, but from the other posts, I'm now wondering whether it is obeche as I always thought it was, or birch.
 
Ok! Can't get anymore succinct than this and from the ultimate source as well. I'm assuming the top layer C.J. speaks of for the 110 is the obeche/obeechee.


This is a long story that begins with the visual of cockroaches longer then your fingers...a strange beginning you might say but when the shipments of maccassar ebony strips would come in they would be crawling with the huge insects. There were two reasons we switched away from the ebony...one was that we were moving away from the degreasing chemicals and into a waterwash system. It used sonic agitation and heat which was not good for natural woods. Also we had been using the laminate wood for a while on collectibles and it really held up well. I do not remember the year we switched.

On the lamination they take birch logs, soak them in a steam bath and put them on a giant lathe. A planing blade then extends to the spinning log (and I mean a big blade and a big log) and a continous sheet (like unrolling a roll of paper towels) of birch veneer (check spelling there) which they cut into squares, dry, place in a vaccum tank, draw a vaccum, flood the tank with resin dyed with a color, and let the resin get sucked into the pores of the wood.

they then take these resin impregnated sheets and press then together under high heat and high pressure. The resin melts enough to bond the sheets together and you get a resin impregnated birch plywood. Based on how many layers you can make anything from a rifle stock to a knife handle.

There is enought natural variation in the wood that it appears natural looking.

On the folding hunters...we then had the company make the top layer out of a different material that is even more natural looking. Most felt it was a big looks improvement over the natural ebony which could look more like plastic then plastic if a piece had no color variation in it.

We do checker the laminate material.


CJ Buck
Buck Knives, Inc.
AKTI Member #PR00003
 
Yes, I've heard this same story. Plus, the source for the macassar was not reliable so a switch was in order. Solid Macassar left in 94 as this laminate came on the scene. DM
 
I worked for a major Northeastern wood restoration/refinishing business when I was in my early to late twenties (my now being 47). Anyhow, the Birch was throwing me off, because these Buck knives have a grain pattern that was unlike any Birch I'd ever seen. The top layer being a different wood on this laminate, makes all the sense in the world now. Of course Mr. Buck's explaination makes me wonder how not using any Macassar Ebony still earned the new laminate replacement that name. I mean, maybe naming this dymondwood by the name of the top layer of wood used, would have been a bit more accurate :-) The cockaroach thing is a bit scary to think of... but since they were making that long trip to America, maybe they could have been harvested and placed in suspension within clear resin blocks that could then be cut and shaped to fit the Buck knives handles... and could have been sold at a premium. This would have offset the roach' voyage to the great USA... lol! ;-)
 
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So is the dymondwood water proof because it is resin impregnated? I was thinking about geting a buck vantage avid because of the 13c, but now i dont know. could the dymondwood withstand let's say a rainy day or a wet canoe trip?
 
It can easily with stand much more than that. Read the thread, '110 found laying in a river', ( for a few years). DM
 
Has any one ever personaly used dymondwood wood in wet conditions( more specificly the buck vantage series)? How did it hold up? Was it slippery or did it have decent grip? I know these are extream questions but my curiosity has the better of me!
 
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Has any one ever personaly used dymondwood wood in wet conditions( more specificly the buck vantage series)? How did it hold up? Was it slippery or did it have decent grip? I know these are extream questions but my curiosity has the better of me!
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- Metalizer

First,let's have some definitions:
Laminated wood is a structural wood product composed of wood layers glued together.
Plywood is a laminated wood product composed of wood layers glued together with alternate layers having the grain at right angles to the preceding layers. Plywood always has an odd number of layers.
Laminated wood is dimensionally more stable than solid wood. It has little expansion or contraction with changes in wood moisture content.
The veneer layers in "Dymondwood" are all oriented in the same direction. "Dymondwood" is a laminated wood product but it is not plywood.

For many applications, laminated wood is stronger and better than solid wood.

Whether the handle is slippery or has a decent grip when wet has nothing to do with whether it is solid wood or laminate; that is a function of the finish used on the wood.

Bert
 
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