How to keep black sawdust from making my holly gray?

A.McPherson

A.McPherson

Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
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Jan 27, 2012
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Title says it all. I'm planning on making a fancy sheath for a Scottish Dirk one day soon, and i'd like to have alternating an black and white "welt" for lack of a better term.

Any advise on how to keep the holly from turning gray?
 
Using stabilized holly and the other wood helps. Holly is a wood with an open grain that does tend to pick up stains.

Here are some tips for working holly and other white woods:
Sanding sealer will greatly reduce the issue. Apply it once the scabbard is rough shaped. Repeat as you sand down if needed.
Sand in strokes parallel to the holly not across it.
Use gentle pressure in sanding and wipe away the sanding swarf frequently.
A vacuum hose positioned close to the sanding pulls the swarf away as it forms. They sell an articulated vacuum arm that can be positioned to put the nozzle right where you want it.
Using a tack cloth helps.
Blow off the dust regularly with an air hose and plenty of pressure.

Alternate idea - consider another white material, like white G-10.

Just my thoughts, but are you sure you want that white stripe on your dirk scabbard? I have seen a lot of dirks, made a few, and made a LOT of skein dubhs, but that just sounds a bit odd looking.

Here is my dress skein dubh in black and white mammoth with silver fittings:
1622890070753.png
 
I have a knife in our kitchen out of unstabilised holly and it turns a behhhhhh kind of dirty grayish colour in use.
I did it to see how it holds up.

Have a look at elvoryn if you want white or natural almost white
 
A.McPherson said:
Title says it all. I'm planning on making a fancy sheath for a Scottish Dirk one day soon, and i'd like to have alternating an black and white "welt" for lack of a better term.

Any advise on how to keep the holly from turning gray?
Click to expand...
When you say "welt" are you talking about the carved knotwork?
 
No, I'm talking about the area that would be the welt on a leather sheath. The area along the edge and spine.
 
Untreated holly will turn gray if not thoroughly sealed. But the finish you use can affect the color as well. Stacy gave good advice when he said to use stabilized. Send it to K&G for stabilizing. It might take on a color like antique ivory but that would still look good in my opinion.
Just my 2 cents.
 
A.McPherson said:
No, I'm talking about the area that would be the welt on a leather sheath. The area along the edge and spine.
Click to expand...
Gotcha. I was trying to envision what you were describing. I’ve not worked with holly so have no advice to offer. But have handled many a dirk and skein dubhs and aye, a fair number of broadswords too, so am interested in your project.
 
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Here's a sketch of what I'm thinking... It's a bad sketch, but you get the idea.
 
My problem with Holly was always that stabilizing it yellows it! I started using white paper Micarta instead to get a nice white.
 
I like the antique ivory color that stabilized holly gets. If you want it white, have Ken at K&G use the ultra thin and clear resin.
 
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