Handle Material Suppliers?

[HumbleHomeCook]

KKF handle makers, who are your preferred suppliers of wood blocks, etc?

 

[MSicardCutlery]

AAOCustoms for anything with resin, but mostly, I tend to get my stabilized woods out of Europe.....well Russia and Ukraine, or did. The quality was great and the shipping was reasonable, unlike when buying wood from the U.S, where oftentimes the price of the wood was matched by the shipping costs. Ebay and Esty too, for unstabilzed exotic woods.

 

[M1k3]

@Carl Kotte has been known to use old chair legs.

 

[tostadas]

@Carl Kotte has been known to use old chair legs.

And shop in the bread aisle

 

[Carl Kotte]

Yes yes, it’s ALL good

 

[deltaplex]

KKF handle makers, who are your preferred suppliers of wood blocks, etc?

My back yard, only problem is how long you have to wait after harvesting before you can start working with it.

 

[crockerculinary]

Jamison Chopp usually keeps a small but nice (and fair priced) collection of stabilized blocks on his website.

 

[Hockey3081]

Xoticblanks on IG

 

[valdim]

I have purchased from Mercorne - Matériaux pour la coutellerie d'art. No issues with the french.
Hope the info is helpful.

 

[zizirex]

Local hardwood store.
sometimes I got some from back home for some quality Ebony and Rosewood and Amboyna

 

[Blank Blades.]

For it it's a bit of a mix, I get some of the synthetic stuff from alpha knife supply, I believe I've gotten stuff from truegrit, and don't tell anyone this, but Amazon has some decent stuff if you're careful.

Jantz has some nice stabilized burls, and various things.

 

[tostadas]

Is there a particular type of wood you're looking for? Stabilized, unstabilized, curly, burls, exotic, dyed, resin hybrid etc? arizonaironwood, greenbergwoods to name a couple you could start with who stock a decent variety.

 

[HumbleHomeCook]

Is there a particular type of wood you're looking for? Stabilized, unstabilized, curly, burls, exotic, dyed, resin hybrid etc? arizonaironwood, greenbergwoods to name a couple you could start with who stock a decent variety.

Just doing research right now. I'm slowly gathering up the tools I want and will then start getting more serious about the wood. Reckon it would be wise to start with simpler stuff until I find my legs.

 

[Troopah_Knives]

I get all my stuff from Greenberg woods. His stuff costs a bit more but he's very meticulous about drying and I haven't had any issues.

 

[tostadas]

Just doing research right now. I'm slowly gathering up the tools I want and will then start getting more serious about the wood. Reckon it would be wise to start with simpler stuff until I find my legs.

Assuming PNW in your signature means north west US, some nice domestic woods that are native to the west coast include bigleaf maple, claro walnut, and white oak. They're inexpensive and easy to work with in non-stabilized form. Maple and walnut also can have burl woods too which have interesting look, but I'd recommend using stabilized versions of those if you go that route. I think all of these have more or less similar workability. Be aware that some of the denser woods can be more challenging to work with due to their hardness (such as ironwood, rosewoods and ebony).

 

[Tim Rowland]

I usually buy whole boards and cut up to dry and stabilize myself, while it is more time consuming I have more control over the final product.
One place I buy whole boards of exotics is up in the PNW. Gilmer wood.

 

[Blank Blades.]

That reminds me. I cant remember the company's name, but theres a company that basically everyone on bladeforums swears by for having stabilized wood made. Basically you just send the wood to them, and they stabilize and send it back. From the talks there, the quality of the stabilization is pretty much unobtainable for someone in a home shop, that doesn't have the specialized equipment they do. (Basically much better vacuum chambers, and a bunch of other stuff).

I've never tried their wood, or have nearly as much experience with stabilized wood. As the guys that were talking about this, so I just took their word for it.

 

[tostadas]

That reminds me. I cant remember the company's name, but theres a company that basically everyone on bladeforums swears by for having stabilized wood made. Basically you just send the wood to them, and they stabilize and send it back. From the talks there, the quality of the stabilization is pretty much unobtainable for someone in a home shop, that doesn't have the specialized equipment they do. (Basically much better vacuum chambers, and a bunch of other stuff).

I've never tried their wood, or have nearly as much experience with stabilized wood. As the guys that were talking about this, so I just took their word for it.

K&G and Wood Dynamics do good work

 

[Matus]

As already said - especially when it comes to stabilized wood there is lot of poor quality products out there, as every other hobbyist with a basic vacuum pump think that they can do it. I only worked with one or two blocks from K&G and their quality blew my mind. Also Raffir (in Europe if I am not mistaken) seems to be doing a good job.

 

[HumbleHomeCook]

Thanks for the Greenberg Woods recommendations. I ordered a couple blocks from Ben and am very pleased.

My wife also ordered me some turning blanks from Barrington Hardwoods and they are real nice.

 

[Troopah_Knives]

Thanks for the Greenberg Woods recommendations. I ordered a couple blocks from Ben and am very pleased.

My wife also ordered me some turning blanks from Barrington Hardwoods and they are real nice.

ya Bens stuff is top-notch!

 

[Dominick Maone]

If you are searching for woods that don’t need stabilization atlas billiards supply has very cheap 18”x1.5”x1.5” blocks of wood. Easily enough for 3 handles, for $15 and up. I was in search of some practice wood for making wa handles and found their prices to be excellent.

https://www.cuestik.com/black-mesquite-prosopis/black-mesquite-prosopis/ew-bme4/4/

 

[HumbleHomeCook]

Thank you @Dominick Maone.

 

[KnightKnightForever]

Shameless plug: I am a professional handle material stabilizer. My IG: @upscales_ and my website is upscal.es: Upscale, unique, professionally-stabilized handle materials

I just added a discount code for y'all - Use KKF10 to get 10% off your entire purchase price.

- Chris

 

[daveb]

Is Burl Source (Oregon) still in the business? He was a forum favorite a few years ago.

 

[RRLOVER]

Arizonaironwood.com is a good place for someone new to handle making.

 

[fvaz]

AAOCustoms for anything with resin, but mostly, I tend to get my stabilized woods out of Europe.....well Russia and Ukraine, or did. The quality was great and the shipping was reasonable, unlike when buying wood from the U.S, where oftentimes the price of the wood was matched by the shipping costs. Ebay and Esty too, for unstabilzed exotic woods.

This 1000x! Russians and ukraine for some reason in my opinion supplies the best quality of handle materials worldwide. Stabilized woods, mammoth fossils and such... there are some supplierst here making outstanding maple blocks

 

[tostadas]

Just wanted to point out the obvious, but there's lots of sellers on IG and the 'bay. Very hit and miss. I recently made my first purchase from a popular IG blank seller that had the wrong dimensions listed and the piece also had some chunks of material falling out when I received it. The stabilization quality is questionable at best. I reached out and the response was along the lines of oops, do you want to return it? Seems like I now gotta decide if I want to pay to ship it back.

If you're unsure, it may be worth the piece of mind to pay a little extra and get from a source where you can be more assured of quality.

 

[fvaz]

Just wanted to point out the obvious, but there's lots of sellers on IG and the 'bay. Very hit and miss. I recently made my first purchase from a popular IG blank seller that had the wrong dimensions listed and the piece also had some chunks of material falling out when I received it. The stabilization quality is questionable at best. I reached out and the response was along the lines of oops, do you want to return it? Seems like I now gotta decide if I want to pay to ship it back.

If you're unsure, it may be worth the piece of mind to pay a little extra and get from a source where you can be more assured of quality.

Have you had problems with the material warping? Ive used a stabilized block recently that 2 days after finishing the handle it was looking like a banana. Didnt event took any sun exposure.

 

[HumbleHomeCook]

Just wanted to point out the obvious, but there's lots of sellers on IG and the 'bay. Very hit and miss. I recently made my first purchase from a popular IG blank seller that had the wrong dimensions listed and the piece also had some chunks of material falling out when I received it. The stabilization quality is questionable at best. I reached out and the response was along the lines of oops, do you want to return it? Seems like I now gotta decide if I want to pay to ship it back.

If you're unsure, it may be worth the piece of mind to pay a little extra and get from a source where you can be more assured of quality.

There's a lady on IG in Lithuania I think it is, Karelian Birch. She has some cool looking stuff and I was tempted a couple times but the prices seemed quite low and she only accepts Paypal F&F.

Anyone ever dealt with her I wonder?