Help with Saya wood choice

[Johnsmyname]

Hello,

My father is retired and loves tinkering and making things. He wants to make some sayas for me. In my research I saw magnolia wood is traditional due to its properties, e.g. moisture resistant, no resins to react with carbon steel, etc. I would like to use a dark wood though to help match the handles. Does the type of wood matter? I’d imagine grain structure being important too since he plans to hand chisel them. He mentioned walnut and rosewood to me, they both look nice but I know nothing about properties.

Any thoughts or suggestions? Additionally any tips in construction would be welcomed.

 

[jedy617]

As an end user, I haven't noticed a difference in terms of how my blades have been kept in any of my sayas, and I have had a lot.

List includes: Rosewoods, walnut, magnolia, ironwood, african blackwood, wenge, tasmanian blackwood...probably some more I am forgetting.

 

[birdsfan]

I have made a lot of sayas over the years. Walnut is a great wood to start with. It cuts nicely and in most cases, can be sanded to a fine finish. Some varieties seem to have open grain, but black walnut is particularly nice to work. Maple and cherry are also good woods to start with. You can make a saya out of practically any wood, but some of the exotics can be fairly expensive to source in saya-sized dimensions.

 

[Johnsmyname]

Sounds like pretty much any wood works then and I’m overthinking it. Black walnut sounds good to me. I live in the USA and it will be easy to source, it’s a hard wood, durable easy to work with and darker finish.

Any other tips for construction?

Does a friction fit leave wear marks on the metal?

Do you just oil and wood butter on them or use some type of sealant? If inside is unfinished, I’d assume you want to be able to oil the wood externally?

 

[birdsfan]

Yeah, just about any wood will work. Some are certainly more difficult to use. Really hard woods like ebony or katalox beat the hell out your bits, oak ans mahogany can be a little stringy. They all have their plusses and minusses. Black wanut remains one of my favorites to work with. It cn yield som really beautiful results.

I use the 2 piece method, where you carve out the shape of the knife in one piece of wood, then glue the other side to it. I like the symetric look of book matched sides. I use a trim router to do the gross cutting then clean it up with a chisel, rasp, and sand paper as necessary. Titebond original works well to join the sides. I have heard that the other formulas contain compounds that can cause rusting. I have no empirical experience to confirm this, but no reason to risk it, when the original provides a sufficient bond strength.

Yes, friction fit can cause scratches in soft cladding, depending on how hard the saya wood is, and how tight the fit is.

I use a coat or 2 of tung oil as a finish, then sand to a higher grit and buff with white compound then pink. It doesnt offer a high gloss finish, but it does shine, and it does bring out the features and chatoyance (if there is some) of the wood grain.

My 2 cents anyway. I am certain that other use different technique and finishing strategies.

Have fun!

 

[Johnsmyname]

Thank you for the thoughtful reply!

 

[Johnsmyname]

UPDATE:

We decided on black walnut for this one. He got everything roughed out and glued. Tomorrow he’ll start shaping.

He’s already talking about making more, and handles, and sandwiching brass and other metals, etc.

 

[aporigine]

UPDATE:

We decided on black walnut for this one. He got everything roughed out and glued. Tomorrow he’ll start shaping.

He’s already talking about making more, and handles, and sandwiching brass and other metals, etc.

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What tools did you use to carve out the cavities?

 

[birdsfan]

Looks great so far! Looking forward to seeing the finished project. It is great fun to do them, and you can be as creative as your imagination will allow.

 

[Johnsmyname]

What tools did you use to carve out the cavities?

He used that carving knife and chisels you can see in the pics. He has a router but didn’t want to use it. We decided it would be too difficult to keep the correct distal taper. We want the end product to be as thin as possible while still strong.

 

[Johnsmyname]

UPDATE 2:

Finally found some time to update. My father had fun making the saya and it came out really nice! He sanded down to a 400 grit. Then 2 coats of black walnut Danish-Oil with sanding in between. Lastly, 2 coats of Howard Feed-n-Wax with buffing in between and to finish. I'm stoked with how nicely it came out.

 

[birdsfan]

Beautiful work!

 

[Johnsmyname]

Thanks birdsfan!

 

[Tekkz]

UPDATE 2:

Finally found some time to update. My father had fun making the saya and it came out really nice! He sanded down to a 400 grit. Then 2 coats of black walnut Danish-Oil with sanding in between. Lastly, 2 coats of Howard Feed-n-Wax with buffing in between and to finish. I'm stoked with how nicely it came out.


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Love it! Well done.