Toughest Wood for Scales/Handle?

S

St33L

Joined
Dec 18, 2013
Messages
189
I know that there's a Janka hardness scale to identify which woods are among the hardest.

We've all heard about the hardest hardwoods according to that Janka scale (e.g. Australian Buloke, Lignum Vitae, etc.).

But what about the toughest wood? If there's a scale for it, what is that called?

I acknowledge that it may depend on the activity or its application (i.e. where the force will be applied/felt on the wood).

Let's say it's for an axe, hatchet, khukri, and the likes.

Thanks in advance!


(Aside: is there a standardized ranking of woods according to the combined attributes of hardness and toughness to weight?

I believe there is one such ranking specific to wooden shipbuilding.

However, I don't think this translates into the best wood handles on blades, at least not one to one.)
 
pecan / hickory or ash? make bats axes and such type things that take a beating out of those. have no idea for scales if they wouldnt work well or not. just know they can take a beating without breaking or cracking easily
 
I just noticed some wood worker source online has ironwood pen blanks for free, just have to pay the shipping in weight, so like $10 for every 6 blanks.

Interesting. That site is a good source of wood info as well, as most will at least provide some detail to the industry standards and grades, relevant to market pricing.

For free. Huh.
 
I don't know if it's the "toughest", but ebony or other blackwood is always a good choice. Looks great, and since it's already dark/black, it won't show stains like other woods might. And it's pretty damn tough. Bog oak too, since it's already been stained for hundreds if not thousands of years.
 
Not sure my interpretation is correct... wood toughness is directly related to strength. MOE (Modulus of Elasticity) in GPa unit. Which is a derivative of Young Modulus. I used to think Cumaru (interlocked grain) is the toughest but found Katalox even tougher - chop it across grain = bye bye edge or blade.
 
From the responses, it seems that the hardest woods tend to also be the toughest woods around.

Perhaps the hardness and toughness trade-offs seen with steels doesn't necessarily apply with woods (?).

I've seen some of those old wooden police batons or cudgels and they're all made of extremely hard woods, and they appear to be in great shape even after a hundred years or so.

Then again, even the hardest woods aren't nearly as hard as the "low" hardness steels.

So maybe we get the best of both worlds for wood - high hardness and high toughness with little to no trade-off, unless and until woods theoretically reach metal-level hardness.
 
Last edited:
Ironwood all day. The people that cut the ironwood hate it because of how tough it is on their blades. You can also look into stabilized wood
 
Lignum vitae gets my vote. Amazing stuff. I have a piece that is edge grain and it looks like tiger's eye stone when polished up.

If you want to go budget, ipe is a good choice. Not much figure to it, but is durable. Check with some flooring contractors, they may have some end scraps. I got some at a building materials recycling place.

Ric
 
They used to make bowling balls and wooden bearings out of lignum vitae. How tough do you need it?
 
SoCalEDC said:
I've never seen black walnut scales. That would be nice.
Click to expand...

I've used black walnut before. I have plenty since it is used as root stock grafted onto english walnut trees. Not as hard as ironwood or lignum vitae, but still pretty good.

 
jbmonkey said:
pecan / hickory or ash? make bats axes and such type things that take a beating out of those. have no idea for scales if they wouldnt work well or not. just know they can take a beating without breaking or cracking easily
Click to expand...

Pecan is in the same family as hickory and pretty hard, BUT it tends to be more brittle, i.e., more prone to cracking than hickory, at least in my experience. There are 2 groups of "hickory" - True Hickory and Pecan Hickory. True hickories tend to be more shock resistant and less brittle than pecan hickories. True hickories are generally the preferred source for "shock usage", i.e., hammer/maul/axe/hatchet type tools. The Janka scale numbers for both groups overlap and range from 1290 for Nutmeg Hickory (a Pecan hickory) to 2140 for Pignut Hickory, with Pecan and Shellbark Hickory sharing 1820, but the other values are all over the chart.

There are various numbers used for wood characteristics - Janka Hardness, Modulus of Rupture, Elasticity Modulus, and Crushing Strength. I have never seen a composite chart listing all 4 values for each wood species. One probably exists in one of those scientific publications that I have never paid to have access to. :D

The Wood Database (at wood-database.com ) has the numbers for many types of woods in their database. Each entry has descriptions of the wood, characteristics, best uses, etc. Very useful for woodworking information and a great trivia source. :rolleyes:

It will handle "standard use" but not abuse. We don't have a lot of true hickory here in central Texas, but we have a ton of pecan. My family would use pecan in rehandling knives because that was what we had, and I still like to use it for smaller handles in replacements. It has a nice straight grin to it most of the time. Pecan burl is almost non-existent, so you almost never see it. Some figuring at limb junctions, but wood from those areas are very prone to warping.
 
Lignum Vitae - Ironwood - or my favorite - Greenheart - Nice tight grain, non oily, extremely rot resistant and exceptionally durable. Used for, among other things, building shipways. An excellent knife handle choice. Finishes closely to the color of teak.

Shown here on a very nice JK Rule #9

 
Around our parts it's hickory or bois d'arc, what we call horse apple, but officially named osage orange I think.
 
My vote is also for Lignum Vitae.

A less expensive alternative is verawood (also called Argentine Lignum Vitae). Very similar hardness, toughness, and water resistance to true lignum vitae. Plus it has very interesting feathered grain. Ipe is also a good low cost option. The use of osage orange for mallet heads could mean that it is pretty tough.

Some really hard wood, such as desert ironwood (olneya tesota) may be brutal on cutting tools, but not terribly shock resistant.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top