question re: finishing red heart

samuraistuart

samuraistuart

Joined
Dec 21, 2006
Messages
3,158
A gentleman requested "redwood" for a chef's knife I am making, so I sourced a bit of "red heart". He wasn't species specific, just wanted a "red" wood. Those of you with experience, how would you recommend going about finishing it? Like purple heart, I imagine that the vibrant color it has right now is going to fade over time/air/light. Would you oil it with a few coats? Just sand and polish?
 
Sand it very high and buff with a CLOTH. Dont use the wheel or any compound. Redheart has a very open grain and gets filled with compound and other junk very easily. The color does fade of course.

Oil will make the color super bright for about a week before taking it to a muddy brown. Use a hard wax finish like my knife handle finish, or if you dont have access to one use a paste wax finish. Given the grain size I would say sand to 1000 grit and then use the shoe polish method to bring a shine to it before waxing.
 
Ben can correct me if I'm wrong but I believe using bloodwood over red heart would give you a longer lasting red color if you haven't already made your handle.
 
Park Swan said:
Ben can correct me if I'm wrong but I believe using bloodwood over red heart would give you a longer lasting red color if you haven't already made your handle.
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You would get the color a little longer. It wouldn't be as vibrant as redheart is, but the real advantage is Bloodwood is a much harder and finer grained wood which can be polished to a much better finish.
 
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"Redhead teen"??? That doesn't sound like any wood I've ever heard of! Warning....do NOT do a google search for "redhead teen wood". :eek: Unfortunately, I had to source the wood ASAP, and the only decent looking "red" colored wood I was able to find locally was this red heart. I'm very happy with it, and I know the customer will be too. I'll be sure to post pics when it's done.
 
use cocobolo its as red as red is with a nice grain and color last a long time.just sand and buff
 
Auto correct and I have a very long and public feud.

If you need any woods in the future, don't hesitate to check my site or shoot me and email. I'm happy to help.
 
Greenberg Woods said:
Use a hard wax finish like my knife handle finish...
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Still curious about this hard wax finish you keep mentioning. Can you elaborate? I only ask because in the other thread you indicated that you buff it on but above you suggest using a cloth (due to the open pores of the red heart) in which case I assume your hard wax would need to be warmed up first. Can you tell us what kind of a wax you use and how best to apply it?

Thanks
 
I use both ways. I said buff it in here because most guys don't have a totally clean buffing wheel to use the wax with. If you are going to apply it via buff you need a totally brand new wheel. That's why I often suggest people buff it in with a cloth, they probably have a Virgin cloth somewhere.

And yes, it must be melted in. When using a hard wax like this the way to apply it is to generate enough fricci on to keep it in a very soft paste form as long as the heat is kept, by moving that hot wax and working it across the surface with either a buffing wheel or a cloth you can give a very tiny coat evenly across the handle before wiping off any excess that is left at the end of the pass with the wheel or cloth where it slowed down and left a small Ridge of wax.
 
Curious about the hard wax myself. Can you give us a formula for it, Ben? Thanks. If it's proprietary to you, then I understand.
 
Im not 100% comfortable sharing all the ingredients, but I will share it is carnauba based.

If you want to shoot me an email, I sell small jars of it for a couple bucks and it should last a good long while.
 
Greenberg Woods said:
Im not 100% comfortable sharing all the ingredients, but I will share it is carnauba based.

If you want to shoot me an email, I sell small jars of it for a couple bucks and it should last a good long while.
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I figured it was gonna be something like that... everyone's always trying to sell something. But before we send you our hard-earned money, will you at least show us all a picture of a knife handle you made with your super duper secret formula, just so we can finally see how great it truly is?
 
Eucalyptus can be quite red, and is pretty easy to finish, just another option.
 
Thanks Warren, I'll keep that in mind for future projects. Here is the Red Heart. 1200 grit, polished with metal polish (yeah, I know....but it worked). No wax.....yet. I'm hoping it will darken just a tad before the due date Friday 15th. I have never made a wood handle that didn't get oiled up in some fashion. Even stabilized woods I like to rub in a few coats of Danish. When it comes to walnut, it's a whole weeks worth of sanding, oiling, pore filling, oiling, oiling oiling....

FullSizeRender_zpsaltbssid.jpg


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Personally, I much prefer more figured woods, like crotch pattern walnut and what not. Koa is awesome looking stuff with the tiger stripe and chatoyance. Mesquite, too. Oh, heck, I like em all, who am I kidding!?!?
 
samuraistuart said:
Thanks Warren, I'll keep that in mind for future projects. Here is the Red Heart. 1200 grit, polished with metal polish (yeah, I know....but it worked). No wax.....yet. I'm hoping it will darken just a tad before the due date Friday 15th. I have never made a wood handle that didn't get oiled up in some fashion. Even stabilized woods I like to rub in a few coats of Danish. When it comes to walnut, it's a whole weeks worth of sanding, oiling, pore filling, oiling, oiling oiling....

FullSizeRender_zpsaltbssid.jpg


FullSizeRender1_zpsgrertnov.jpg


Personally, I much prefer more figured woods, like crotch pattern walnut and what not. Koa is awesome looking stuff with the tiger stripe and chatoyance. Mesquite, too. Oh, heck, I like em all, who am I kidding!?!?
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Looks great!
 
samuraistuart said:
Thanks Warren, I'll keep that in mind for future projects. Here is the Red Heart. 1200 grit, polished with metal polish (yeah, I know....but it worked). No wax.....yet. I'm hoping it will darken just a tad before the due date Friday 15th. I have never made a wood handle that didn't get oiled up in some fashion. Even stabilized woods I like to rub in a few coats of Danish. When it comes to walnut, it's a whole weeks worth of sanding, oiling, pore filling, oiling, oiling oiling....

FullSizeRender_zpsaltbssid.jpg


FullSizeRender1_zpsgrertnov.jpg


Personally, I much prefer more figured woods, like crotch pattern walnut and what not. Koa is awesome looking stuff with the tiger stripe and chatoyance. Mesquite, too. Oh, heck, I like em all, who am I kidding!?!?
Click to expand...

From time to time I get curly red heart in. Curl is on par with a good piece of curly walnut.
 
If you don't want to send it to K & G to have it stabilized try a super glue finish. It will take several days to complete but you can't beat the results.
 
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