South African Wood

T

tself.us

Joined
Nov 6, 2003
Messages
39
Hi all,

My boss is going to South Africa for about 3 weeks in March and I am wondering if there is a type of wood he could look for, for me to use in knife scales. I'm looking for something that's naturally stable (if there is one) as I don't have the ability to do it myself. Anything else that I can legally use as handle material that he might find for me cheap? Thanks for any input, I am hoping the Dollar goes higher against the Rand so he can get some good deals if they exist.

Thanks, Tom
 
I believe that Pink Ivory(a wood) only grows in South Africa.
African Blackwood also comes to mind. Beyond that.........:confused:
 
They have some of the nicest Olive Wood I have ever seen. I bought some from a SA knifemakers at some show. It's very oily, hence stable.

SA is also a great place for gems...

great place to visit, BTW.
 
Timboti or Tambuti or a few other variations on the spelling. I haven't used it, but seen it on some special pieces that Chris Reeve made a few years ago, had an interesting smell and seemed fairly hard. If I remember the story it is traditional to throw a bit of it into your fire to ward-off mosquitoes and other flying pests. I don't know if that means it is harmful, but I think I'd not to get it too hot when being worked. I thought I had a link to a company that carried it, but I couldn't find it, nor any good pictures of anything made from Tambuti.

Todd Brandel
Wolverine Forge
 
Thanks, that looks about as I remember it, especially the center portion of the pen. I was working from how I remember Chris pronouncing it, I tried about half a dozen different variations and all had at least a few hits. As you got two with the same spelling that must be right, and the woodpens.com link mentions sandalwood, so that may refer to the scent of the wood I recall.

Todd Brandel
Wolverine Forge
 
Not sure I'd be able to sell any knife that smelled like my sandals. :)

That hobbithouse link is worth bookmarking though, great site to find color corrected photos of tons of woods, os you can see what you're really getting(as some of the sites online have some really screwy pictures of what their wood supposedly looks like)
 
South African woods that you can try are:

Tamboti (Tambotie)
Red Ivory (Rooi ivoor)
Rhodesian Teak
Wild Olive (Olienhout)
Red Bush Willow (Rooibos)
Zebra Wood (Zebrahout)
Lead Wood or Iron wood (Hardekool)
Black Ivory (Swart ivoor)
Brown Ivory (Bruin ivoor)
Boekenhout

The names in brackets are Afrikaans that is also one of the reasons there are so many different ways of spelling certain woods. Where in SA is he going to be?
 
Awesome, Thanks to all for the responses!

GavinD,
He's going to the Madikwe game reserve and Sun City for a couple of days I think, I will ask where else he will be. His wife is from South Africa so they will be going several places in the South and East part of the country to see relatives etc....

He will be there for 3 weeks and he's planning to look for art so I figure they may have raw wood also. Any place specific to look for wood?


Thanks again to all,
Tom
 
There are no real places to buy any of the hardwoods as such. I normally get mine from game farms and such. If he is going to be in the Johannesburg-Pretoria area he can give me a call and I can maybe give him some pieces for you to try.
 
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