Like? or Dislike? opinions needed

I got some wood from a small mill in Hawaii and there were a couple chunks of this in the batch.
Before I cut it up I wanted to see what all of you think.

I am leaning against cutting this into handle blocks.
If it doesn't get used as handle material I will use it for other woodworking projects.
It is nice wood, I just don't know if people would want it as knife handle material.
The wood is one of the varieties of Eucalyptus that originated in Australia and was planted extensively in Hawaii.
The furniture guys call this type of figure "bee's wing".

So.....what do use say; handle material or not?

Do you know the Hawaiian name for it? Doesn't look overly exciting to me, but people also like walnut which I find boring

Stefan

Have to agree with Stefan, not excited. Could see using it if I was just looking for the color though. Have also heard it's hard on tools, but can't back that up with 1st hand experience.

I like it Mark , I do not know what the price is on the wood it is a nice figured wood that could be used to re handle some lower end kitchen knives for home use I have a few folks that would not mind getting their kitchen knives to all look like they are a set and this wood would do just that . Price is every thing also with a quite of a few newbies that are trying their hand a knife making around me this could be PIF to them from me so they get a chance to use some nice Handle material .

apicius9 said:

Do you know the Hawaiian name for it? Doesn't look overly exciting to me, but people also like walnut which I find boring
Stefan

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I think he said it was Eucalyptus Robusta

doesn't do much for me. Maybe as accent ferrule, maybe

No likee

Yea it looks kind of boring to me. Hard to say for sure till it's on a handle tho.

Honestly, I'd like it better if it did not have the figure. It has too much going on to be understated, and not enough to be cool-looking.

It ain't knocking my socks off

I think it is ok for first rehandling projects or maybe on a entry level kuro uchi or a workhorse knife than your higher quality blades

I agree that it is not really that great for high-end handles or the "pros" but it would be outstanding for beginners or lower price knives. I can think of 1000 things I would use a low price stabilized block of wood for.

If you put out $10 or $15 maybe even $20 stabilized blocks of wood there could be a huge market for them. I don't care if they were originally 2x4's. When the cooks I work with want their fish spats or crap knives rehandled because they don't want to get new ones I could use that since they think paying $40+ dollars for wood is stupid. There are also inumeral projects I could use it for and of course trying things I've never done before.

In short. It is not very pretty but there is a large market and variety of uses for not-incredibly beautiful stabilized wood. Just remember keep it affordable. For this you will make your money through volume.

I agree with having a potential market for it


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Dislike.

WildBoar said:

Honestly, I'd like it better if it did not have the figure. It has too much going on to be understated, and not enough to be cool-looking.

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This is how I feel.

Mark, can you cut it in size suitable for making sayas? I want to try my hands making saya and this wood looks perfect for the task

icanhaschzbrgr said:

Mark, can you cut it in size suitable for making sayas? I want to try my hands making saya and this wood looks perfect for the task

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I was considering it as saya material as well. If I do, I will let you know.
The figure looks a lot better over a larger area.