Sources for inexpensive handle material and woods that do not need to be stabilized

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skillgannon

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Apr 27, 2009
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Right now in my goal of fine kitchen cutlery I'm making a lot of mules and loaners still. I was using a lot of Micarta for handles but after buying some inexpensive wood from Texas knife makers I got a lot of positive feedback about the real wood handles. The Blackwood and the Cocobollo worked great but the olive wood was a huge fail. I'm looking for hard oily woods that take a good polish and are colorful but do not need to be fantastic pieces.

I found out about a hardwood store near me and maybe next week can look there as well.
 
Why was the Olive wood a big fail?

American Black Walnut is one wood that will work pretty good. Rosewood - not the expensive burl, but a piece with straight grain will look nice and last a long time.
 
check at hard wood store. the one I go to has many kinds of wood already cut and sanded to 1/2" or 3/8" thickness. look for black walnut, purple heart, orange heart, black or honey locust, dogwood
 
The wood place near me carries a few that I have used, cocobolo, Purple Heart, rosewood, bubinga, bocote, Ironwood, and wenge are all decent.
 
Ken H> said:
Why was the Olive wood a big fail?

American Black Walnut is one wood that will work pretty good. Rosewood - not the expensive burl, but a piece with straight grain will look nice and last a long time.
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The olive that I got was super soft. I loved the look but I will stabilize the rest. I was working it late and wasn't paying enough attention (I'm sure the martinis and 4 AM had nothing to do with my laps in attention)I went through the grits and lost more material than expected but the real killer was when I tried to buff on a worn scotchbrite with compound. It drove the compound in deep and it wouldn't hardly come clean. I scrapped the handle. When I was messing around with it after it carved soft as well. Is that normal for olive?
 
I've had good luck with Bell Forest Products ( buy when on sale), for plain hardwoods. I buy maple and Walnut in bulk from Northland Forest Products as they have a facility near by me.
Woodcraft has some of the not-so-exotics for decent prices also.
 
DanF beat me to it. Our local Woodcraft in San Antonio has decent "not-so-exotics" for good prices. Every now and again, they'll have a pallet of 1x6 black walnut for something like $7 a board foot. Sometimes those boards have great figure. They haven't had any with good figure lately, but if you have access to a local Woodcraft, try them out. Last time I went, they had the same set up, but with mesquite instead of walnut. I managed to grab a 6" long board with great grain and figure throughout it's length.
 
I was looking at woodcraft this morning. I actually have a bunch of a bunch of walnut . I'm not sure if walnut takes a buffed finish. The only handle I did, I oiled.
I'm trying come up with some nice but budget kitchen knives with machine finishes. I'm hoping once work starts back up I could complete any orders during a weekend.

Does anyone know of places to buy fancy hardwood in the Hudson valley or Northern New Jersey
 
IMO, you need to put a finish on walnut. I use an old Brownells sourced London style gun stock finishing kit that is no longer available.
 
I agree, Black Walnut and "most" (not all) unstabilized woods need a bit of a finish like Tru-Oil or something along those lines. I didn't mention that.

On the Olive wood - I've got some that's heartwood and seems pretty hard and small pores so it polishes up pretty good. I still use Tru-Oil as a finish. Most of the really good woods for use not stabilized will be heartwood.
 
In the past, I
Ken H> said:
I agree, Black Walnut and "most" (not all) unstabilized woods need a bit of a finish like Tru-Oil or something along those lines. I didn't mention that.

On the Olive wood - I've got some that's heartwood and seems pretty hard and small pores so it polishes up pretty good. I still use Tru-Oil as a finish. Most of the really good woods for use not stabilized will be heartwood.
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have read that olive wood may need to be dried for even longer than other woods.
 
Check with ben Greenberg Woods Greenberg Woods he has cocobola kingwood and what not at very reasonable prices. Check ebay also, the kith knife you got from me the walnut on there was from some i got on ebay.
 
I've use Paduak, Katalox, cocobolo, Wenge, leopard wood and osage from bell and have been very pleased. All of these I have finished with wax, except the wenge and leopard wood, those got truoil.
KataloxIMG_20180224_225814679.jpg
Leopard wood / wenge
IMG_20171219_112233755.jpg
 
I sell cocobolo, kingwood and African blackwood for 15-17 dollars each. While it is more than you will pay if you buy walnut or oak or something, rosewoods like these polish up like glass, are completly water and grime resistant so you won't get the swelling and cracking of other woods, and they are just beautiful. Rosewood on culinary knives are a classic look. Send me a pm or an email to the address in my sig line. Im sure i can set you up with something.


skillgannon said:
Right now in my goal of fine kitchen cutlery I'm making a lot of mules and loaners still. I was using a lot of Micarta for handles but after buying some inexpensive wood from Texas knife makers I got a lot of positive feedback about the real wood handles. The Blackwood and the Cocobollo worked great but the olive wood was a huge fail. I'm looking for hard oily woods that take a good polish and are colorful but do not need to be fantastic pieces.

I found out about a hardwood store near me and maybe next week can look there as well.
Click to expand...
 
AND, the really good news is that rosewoods like cocobolo and kingwood can look REALLY good even with straight grain pieces IF you know how to cut them properly.
 
I agree with others’ posts. Padauk is one of my favourites. Cocobolo is nice but a sensitized. Bocote and tulipwood are nice. I’ve even found some nice curly maple locally. It really pops with an amber dye.
 
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