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JohnnyChance

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One of the coolest things in my eyes about being addicted to kitchen knives is customizing your favorites with something more eye catching than plain factory handles. Here are some links for places where you can score your own wood for DIY rehandles or for your next custom or professional job. Or if you are like Stefan, you can just buy it and hoard it for years and years! It's completely up to you.

Vendors:
Alpha Knife Supply AKS has natural and stabilized wood, and stabilizes wood as well.
Knife & Gun K&G is one of the larger wood stabilizers, and sells just about anything related to knife making.
Texas Knifemaker's Supply Sells wood and many other knife making supplies.
Jantz Supply Another one-stop-shop. Handle material and other knife making supplies.
USA Knife Maker Wood, Metal, Abrasives, Blanks and more.
Amazon Exotic Hardwoods Large specie selection and blanks for many different applications. Can't always see the exact piece you are buying however.
Logs to Lumber Exotics Blocks, Scales, and larger pieces for other applications.
House of Burl Burls and other species. Blanks, Blocks, Scales and more.
Burl Source Also known as It's a Burl. I have bought 2 great pieces from them so far. Good pictures of the exact pieces and uses respected stabilizers.
Wood Stabilizing Specialists, International Usually referred to as WSSI. Another well respected stabilizer and seller of stabilized blocks and scales.
Canadian Knife Maker Supply Supplies for our friends up north, eh?
Craig Stevens Studio Notoriously bad spelling Craig Stevens is from Alaska and sells some of the most unique and sought after pieces you have ever seen. Let the bidding war begin!
Ankrom Exotics Stabilized woods and some really cool pieces made from cactus filled with resin.
Arizona Ironwood More than just Ironwood, some really cool dyed scales and blocks as well.
AJH-Knives Resource Links Tons and tons of links to material information and sellers with that late 90's HTML retro charm we all miss so much.

Other Links:
The Fish n Poi Rehandle Thread The original. If you need inspiration, you will find it here.
Western Rehandle Walk-Through KKF User Kalaeb's rehandle thread.


If you are new to this, and would like a pro to work on your knives, then seek out Marko, Stefan, or Dave Martell for kickass handles. They all have subforums showcasing their work.

If you guys have anymore, let me know and I will add them to the list!
 
My latest piece from Burl Source. Buckeye Burl scales stabilized by either K&G or WSSI (I forget). May go on my DM Western Suji. Buckeye is one of the most varied woods. Sometimes they are plain and boring, and other times they have great figure and color. This one spoke to me so I snatched it up.

IMG_0444.JPG


IMG_0446.JPG
 
"AJH-Knives Resource Links Tons and tons of links to material information and sellers with that late 90's HTML retro charm we all miss so much."
LOL
 
Nice list! I love wood. Let see some more kick ass wood pictures!
 
Here is a crummy cell phone photo of two blocks of Redwood Burl that are currently in Marko's possession. The handle block is stabilized and I also got it from Burl Source. The big block is from Amazon Exotic Hardwoods and is not stabilized.

IMG-20110121-00121.jpg
 
I used Arizona Ironwood for the first time recently and I am very happy with the wood I received. I have also been using Ankrom and their stuff is also top notch.
 
Very nice. I'll have to get some pictures of some of the stuff I have laying around here. Adam has some pretty badass stuff in his possession too...
 
Thank you! Very cool post Johnychance! +1 All the way! There are some surreal alternatives to customize, now to find a unique chunk to make a custom 240mm Gyuto! That buckeye you have would be superb on a suji... what profile are you looking at?

Kind of reminds me of the fantastic wood that Pierre had a while ago!
 
Anyone bidding this week on Craig's auctions? If so...hands off my end grain cocobolo and diamond willow burl!! :headbonk:
 
Great stuff.

Hmm... As a rule, I don't use end grain wood for handles, unless it is stabilized.

M
 
I can't bring myself to spend $75 on a set of scales....Dont get me wrong...I think they are amazing, but i am too poor to do that lol.

P.S. I hope i didn't bid against any of you guys this week lol.
 
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If you are new to this, and would like a pro to work on your knives, then seek out Marko, Stefan, or Dave Martell for kickass handles. They all have subforums showcasing their work.

Does Adam still do handle work too? I thought I saw that he was making handles for Mark's knife, but he definitely has some fabulous handles.

k.
 
If Pierre was smart, he would have seen what I was bidding on and outbid me, just so I would be forced to buy another knife from him to end up with the wood after all. :razz:

I can't bring myself to spend $75 on a set of scales....Dont get me wrong...I think they are amazing, but i am too poor to do that lol.

P.S. I hope i didn't bid against any of you guys this week lol.

Haha, I have never bid that high in any of his auctions either. Even the ones that end $35 or less are cool. Did you win anything?

Does Adam still do handle work too? I thought I saw that he was making handles for Mark's knife, but he definitely has some fabulous handles.

k.

I know he has done handles before, but he has never advertised that he is accepting orders so I left him out. If he (or Mario or anyone else) would like to be added to list I will add them.
 
Last pieces I got from Craig. Scales on left are a little small, but big enough for a damasteel parer from Pierre!

IMG_0538.JPG
 
Some of the stuff from Craig Stevens is so beautiful and when he wasn't all that popular, you could still get some of his work fairly cheaply. Now, though, he has become exceedingly popular and his prices have sky rocketed for most of the really cool stuff. I bid on some, but usually up to the $30 mark and get left far behind. :D Lately, I've caught myself more interested in buying big chunks (usually what are referred to as "Bowl Blanks" of burls and such...cutting them up, letting them dry and then sending them in for stabilization. You end up with some really nice pieces and the costs are far better...but you have to get 20 blocks of spalted maple burl and 16 blocks of buckeye burl instead of the onsie, twosie pieces.

Does Adam still do handle work too? I thought I saw that he was making handles for Mark's knife, but he definitely has some fabulous handles.

k.

Yes, I still do. And yes, I'm accepting orders.
 
Some of the stuff from Craig Stevens is so beautiful and when he wasn't all that popular, you could still get some of his work fairly cheaply. Now, though, he has become exceedingly popular and his prices have sky rocketed for most of the really cool stuff. I bid on some, but usually up to the $30 mark and get left far behind. :D Lately, I've caught myself more interested in buying big chunks (usually what are referred to as "Bowl Blanks" of burls and such...cutting them up, letting them dry and then sending them in for stabilization. You end up with some really nice pieces and the costs are far better...but you have to get 20 blocks of spalted maple burl and 16 blocks of buckeye burl instead of the onsie, twosie pieces.

Same here. I have limited it to a few sellers by now who often precut things for me. Of course, I will never buy any wood again because I have enough until 2027 :D That said, does anybody know why on earth people pay these totally absurd prices for Craig's cedar burl? The wood's not even that pretty IMHO.

Stefan
 
I dont know. It is pretty plain looking. Of all the stuff of his I have seen, it is the cedar burl that looks the most ordinary. Yet it is always the most bid on of the week. For me, his dyed stuff is the coolest, he gets so much color variation and contrasting colored eyes and such. Oh well, glad those are the "cheap" ones and the ones I don't care for go for the real big dollars.

Adam I would add you and a link to the list in the original post but it wont let me edit it anymore. I will see if a mod can help me out.

Also, I have maybe half a dozen unstabilized blocks that I would let to get stabilized. Is this enough to send to WSSI or K&G? Or should I try to lump them together with someone else's order and get them done that way? Never sent anything out to be stabilized before. Thanks.
 
I think WSSI has a minumum fee of $36 or something like that. I don't remember K&G having a minimum, but I usually get over that easily, so I am not sure. Give them a call.

Stefan
 
I will see if a mod can help me out.

No worries...it matters not to me. :)

Also, I have maybe half a dozen unstabilized blocks that I would let to get stabilized. Is this enough to send to WSSI or K&G? Or should I try to lump them together with someone else's order and get them done that way? Never sent anything out to be stabilized before. Thanks.

K&G doesn't have a minimum and might be the best choice for six blocks and they do a good job to boot. WSSI does have a minimum of $36 which amounts to about 3 pounds of product. Do keep in mind that the price per pound from all of them is the stabilized weight. I just got back 9 pounds of material and that equaled 21 blocks and/or pairs of scales. Also, the more that's sent in, the better the price per pound.
 
I have to get myself some more wood. I've used up most of the stuff I sent out to K&G and it's about time for me to rehandle something!
 
I have aquired a few pieces as of late. Here are a few pieces of maple i just got
2011-06-06_14-56-59_144.jpg

Here are some of the blocks i got from Mark at It's A Burl....Super guy and super nice stuff
2011-06-03_00-05-35_670.jpg

Plan on making my first kitchen knife after i finish the sheath for my PIF knife....Might try a Nikiri first...not sure :)...either way...I will have it profiled this weekend
 
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