Help me find the right wood for custom knife handle

I am a bit lost ... getting my first custom, and I've been browsing TONS and TONS of images online and have difficulties to narrow it down.

What I am looking for:

- medium brown(ish) color

- rather simple = no super fancy burls. I like them clean, rather subtle

- I prefer a matte finish. Not sure if that can be done with all woods, but if some are better than others for this ... please take that into consideration.

- Should work well with thin silver colored spacer (no endcap) and a wood ferrule in a contrasting color (but not black), preferably a lighter color ...

Cheers

Would you spoil the surprise and share with us what custom you are getting? =D

How do you feel about non-figured normal wood grain, say in something like Goncalo Alves or Rosewood (non-figured/non-burled?).

Through the process of getting my custom made it sounds like matte vs. shiny is mostly due to the grit level of polish as well as the amount/type of oiling done, though I'm sure someone else can chime in.

Off the top of my head woods that come to mind:
Walnut - for the brown
Maple - for the light ferrule

Cheers

mikedtran said:

Would you spoil the surprise and share with us what custom you are getting? =D

How do you feel about non-figured normal wood grain, say in something like Goncalo Alves or Rosewood (non-figured/non-burled?).

Through the process of getting my custom made it sounds like matte vs. shiny is mostly due to the grit level of polish as well as the amount/type of oiling done, though I'm sure someone else can chime in.

Off the top of my head woods that come to mind:
Walnut - for the brown
Maple - for the light ferrule

Cheers

Click to expand...

Hmmm ... I'm actually getting three. One made in NY, one in Germany and one in Catalonia. I think I shared the story here before some time ago. My son was born in NY, has a Catalan mom (from Barcelona) and a German dad (well, me), and I wanted to have knives from these three origins that I will use (hehe) and hand down to him when he turns 18 (or whenever he's interested in them... If ever).

I guess you can guess two of the three makers (the Catalan one was hard, it's a small company that will make a Jamon knife with a nice Olive wood handle and Sandvik steel that I'll provide ...)

Desert Ironwood is a good choice. It varies from blond to almost black in color. It works as a matte finish. Check out http://shop.arizonaironwood.com/