Where should I cut?

Robin Dalman is going to make a knife for me and I am supplying the handle material. It will be a wa handle from a piece of cherry crotch that I have had over 30 years waiting for the right project. Several jobs and many years ago I was turning and selling wooden bowls. A cousin saved this piece of wood for me during that time, but I wanted to do something special with it. A job change and the loss of a shop stopped the turnings. After joining this forumI got the idea of making a knife. Then I thought that I should be able to get at least two great blanks from this piece, and probably a several more. At any rate, I need to cut two great pieces from the below slab. Robin will make a petty for me, and supply a finished drop point hunter for me to handle. I plan on making a knife for the cousin that gave me the wood.

So exactly where would you cut the two most important blanks from this piece of crotch? Be as specific as you would like. If you know how, you can copy the photo and draw the locations on it and repost. Every time I look at this photo I change my mind, so I really could use a bit of help. :scratchhead:

Thanx ~ Ron



Edit to add that I save this file at the max dimensions allowable, but it posted much smaller. How do I get it to post larger, (from my pc)?

No one wants to take a stab at this? :knife:

I have a hard time deciding which end of a block to use...wouldn't know what the hell to do with a slab like that. Beautiful piece of wood though so pretty sure I'd just try to avoid any checks and cut it get the most pieces possible.

Hope you got my cents by email Along the center feather is my advice. And a few checks are almost guaranteed in crotches I think, no biggie to fill.

RDalman said:

Hope you got my cents by email Along the center feather is my advice. And a few checks are almost guaranteed in crotches I think, no biggie to fill.

Click to expand...

Yes I did. As I said, I'm having trouble deciding. My first thought was to cut just to the right of the actual crotch from left to right, (in the photo), and get the two blanks I need from there. Then I got to wondering what they would look like if I cut from top to bottom from the same area.

The reason I posted here is that I thought it would be fun to see what others thought.

get the feathers running along the block so they can open towards the end of the handle.

Here's my first thought.

I like the bottom one better.
Personally, I'd like to leave the main crotch piece bigger than would be used for a knife handle. But if you've been waiting 30 years already, I'd say go for it.

Thanx all for commenting.

toddnmd - If I had access to a shop, I would save this, but I have no idea how long, or if, that will be. BTW - you have marked the blanks where I am leaning to cut them.