How do you choose handle material?

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Dec 27, 2013
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Hey guys. I stocking up for the holiday season, and wanted to ask you guys about your handle buying habits. Bringing in more ipe burl and ringed gidgee along with several more boxes of spalted mango and jatoba.

1. When i customer requests a knife, do they pick the handle? Do you just choose what you have in stock?

2. What has been hot this year? What do you expect will be a big seller this holiday season?

3. Do you make knives and then sell them? Make blades and do custom handles? Or do full custom knives?

Thanks a ton guys. I hope i can tailor my stock to exactly what you guys need.

Ben Greenberg
Greenberg woods
 
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I make knives and then sell them, cant stand making som others design, it take the joy of it, and a lot of the stress.

The way i choose handle material is 1 what should the knife be used for, is it tactical, a hunter etc. 2
aesthetics.

I use mostly G 10 and micarta, and if it should be wood i love using desert iron wood.
 
I weigh these questions, roughly weighted by their order:
Function of the knife
Style and material of the blade
Durability for the task
Beauty of the handle material
Uniqueness of the handle material
 
You got me thinking Ben.
The other way to look at it is why don't I buy new wood types?
The unknown. How will it finish? How will it hold up over time?
I tend to venture into new things very slowly. I know what works with the woods I have used.
 
1. When i customer requests a knife, do they pick the handle? Do you just choose what you have in stock? Sometimes the former sometimes the latter. I keep a fairly wide selection on hand to give them the opportunity as the majority of my FTF customers have no idea what they want until they see it. When I have a reasonable selection of materials on hand, I don't continue to stockpile them unless they're my personal favorites, or I believe there's a possibility they'll be less available in the future (or both).

2. What has been hot this year? What do you expect will be a big seller this holiday season? Koa, redwood lace burl, spalted black line maple, curly maple for wood and carbon fiber for synthetic. I'm positive if I had some curly mango or spalted mango it would be popular as well.

3. Do you make knives and then sell them? Make blades and do custom handles? Or do full custom knives? I'm taking fewer and fewer custom orders and moving more towards making what I want to make and then putting it up for sale. But all of my sales at this point are complete, custom knives.
 
A bit of everything.
On custom order knives people will sometimes make a request (or supply material, I took one of my clients to my wood supplier and he bought his own plank of rosewood to use for all future projects) and sometimes they'll give a rough color idea and let me decide.
Other times I'll make whatever I feel like. That decision process usually involves lots of standing around and looking through boxes until I find a piece that grabs me. Depending on the day that could be anything from micarta to ivory.

Natural canvas micarta, Nigerian/Gabon ebony, Lignum Vitae, Stag, and tightly figured burls such as boxwood are the things that most consistently grab my attention.
 
You got me thinking Ben.
The other way to look at it is why don't I buy new wood types?
The unknown. How will it finish? How will it hold up over time?
I tend to venture into new things very slowly. I know what works with the woods I have used.

You should send me an email or a pm. I have some stuff that is gonna open your wood horizons.
 
Oh, any more York Gum Burl in the pipeline?
No more york right now, but ive still got some stashed away.

When you are getting new wood, is it just based on how it looks or does the name matter "koa over gidgee because of name recognition"
 
No, name doesn't matter. Just appearance. People seem to ooh and ahh a bit more for the blonder koa with dark compression curls because of the contrast. I prefer the look of Gidgee. No one I'm generally selling to knows the name of either.
 
Hey guys. I stocking up for the holiday season, and wanted to ask you guys about your handle buying habits. Bringing in more ipe burl and ringed gidgee along with several more boxes of spalted mango and jatoba.

1. When i customer requests a knife, do they pick the handle? Do you just choose what you have in stock?

2. What has been hot this year? What do you expect will be a big seller this holiday season?

3. Do you make knives and then sell them? Make blades and do custom handles? Or do full custom knives?

Thanks a ton guys. I hope i can tailor my stock to exactly what you guys need.

Ben Greenberg
Greenberg woods

1. I typically ask what they like and if I think I have something in stock that they may like, I show them. Otherwise, I let them choose what they want and either have it made by someone or order it from a website.

2. Resin and wood hybrids are my #1 handle lately by far.

3. I usually have a few models to choose from and then the customer can choose a blade finish, handle material, and a couple other options.
 
No, name doesn't matter. Just appearance. People seem to ooh and ahh a bit more for the blonder koa with dark compression curls because of the contrast. I prefer the look of Gidgee. No one I'm generally selling to knows the name of either.
Interesting.
 
I prefer to give my customers vendor websites and have them drop ship to me. The only problem with this is sometimes less experienced wood buyers will choose poorly. They choose a piece that has cracks/ voids/ or something funky on clearance. When I know a customer wants to pick the material I only give them vendors that have all usable high quality blocks.
 
I prefer to give my customers vendor websites and have them drop ship to me. The only problem with this is sometimes less experienced wood buyers will choose poorly. They choose a piece that has cracks/ voids/ or something funky on clearance. When I know a customer wants to pick the material I only give them vendors that have all usable high quality blocks.

:D how are Georges knives going?
 
Finishing it up the end of this month! 250mm K tip blade in 20CV ...just got in some new silicone carbide belts to try per Devin's suggestion. The trizacts just dont do much to this steel.
 
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