icanhaschzbrgr
ill-Known Member
Not a long ago I finished a pair of western handles from the same block of dyed Maple.
Show us your sticks (finished handle projects)...
- Thread starter cotedupy
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Not a long ago I finished a pair of western handles from the same block of dyed Maple.
Sometimes wood suppliers deliver scrap pieces of wood that they see as unsellable with an order, so here is a cheap Kiwi together with one of these scrap pieces. Although the total cost of the materials was under 10€, it looks pretty good imo.
Turns it into Le Kiwi.
tostadas
Senior Member
Part of a restoration project for a friend's knife. Decided to experiment a bit more with the burnt oak handles that have become one of my go-to options. This time with a different level of burn. There's more of the brownish colors remaining which looks kinda cool, but the tradeoff is that it doesn't have as pronounced texture as when I torch it more. Not sure I prefer the feel of this medium-well burn compared to the well-done version.
icanhaschzbrgr
ill-Known Member
You might try to torch front part and make a gradual transition to original not torched wood on the back. Would get a good grip where it matters and still show some original wood figure on the back.
tostadas
Senior Member
Might be worth a try for a future iteration
tostadas
Senior Member
Taking some techniques I picked up from firearm and instrument finishing. I have 4 pieces I'm experimenting with to try and get . This is the first one that's been finished. So far quite impressed with the figure that can be shown in this natural maple (unstabilized).
Natural wood moves a lot more than stabilized, but one potential benefit is weight. This 135mm narrow handle weighs in at 30g, so this would put the handle weight right around a typical ho horn handle. Also, being mono, any expansion due to environment is mainly neglected.
Hoping that maybe tweaking some variables can result in an even better final product.
Natural wood moves a lot more than stabilized, but one potential benefit is weight. This 135mm narrow handle weighs in at 30g, so this would put the handle weight right around a typical ho horn handle. Also, being mono, any expansion due to environment is mainly neglected.
Hoping that maybe tweaking some variables can result in an even better final product.
Uncle Danny
Communicating with dolphins
V2 of me trying to make a handle
Uncle Danny
Communicating with dolphins
Grabbed some bits of slightly imperfect handle material from work recently, that were otherwise going in the bin:
The seven kinda chocolate-coloured pieces on the left there are what's called 'Brown Oak', which apparently is quite highly regarded and consequently expensive. It's not a separate species though, it's regular English oak that's been infected by Beefsteak Fungus.
This is also some uncut Brown Oak I grabbed cos it looked like it had some burly/knotty character to it:
Which came up pretty cool:
Went onto an old 270mm Yanagiba I picked up from @refcast recently:
And here with a Takohiki I got from him at the same time, and rehandled already using some olive wood:
The seven kinda chocolate-coloured pieces on the left there are what's called 'Brown Oak', which apparently is quite highly regarded and consequently expensive. It's not a separate species though, it's regular English oak that's been infected by Beefsteak Fungus.
This is also some uncut Brown Oak I grabbed cos it looked like it had some burly/knotty character to it:
Which came up pretty cool:
Went onto an old 270mm Yanagiba I picked up from @refcast recently:
And here with a Takohiki I got from him at the same time, and rehandled already using some olive wood:
Beefsteak Fungus? I'm pretty sure I saw them open for Dio in the 80's.
Gorgeous as always Oli.
I'll have the Takohiki with the Yanagiba handle. Man that's some pretty wood on some sexy steel. Great work Oli
tostadas
Senior Member
Very pleasing tones on those pieces
Uncle Danny
Communicating with dolphins
Beautiful wood (giggles) and looks like nice work too 
tostadas
Senior Member
Decided to make another maple handle. This was one of the first pieces of wood I ever purchased. Pretty boring looking piece, but I wanted to see how much could be revealed. Came out better than I expected from the start.
This is not a dye, but rather an acid based finish so I expect it to be stable.
This is not a dye, but rather an acid based finish so I expect it to be stable.
This year has been very very slow for me as far as knife and knife related projects have gone, but it's nice to get some things finished up and out. There are two "seconds" where I was experimenting with some of the ways that I construct handles and they're off to another KKF member who has some blades waiting for something to hold to get installed. I still need a lot of refinement on how I get the tang slots cut in (I'm still treating these multi-piece constructions as if they're monos) but I'm very happy with the process for both of these and I enjoyed making them.
Spalted softwood (very likely pine) with a black walnut spacer; I was adjusting how I try to turn asymmetry into symmetry on this one:
(Some of the handle blanks going out with these are in the background)
Deer antler and downed oak limb with a live edge section from where a branch formed and repaired; I was practicing the balance of incorporating an organic form into the structure of a handle:
To round it out, I tossed in a votive full of mineral oil/beeswax boardbutter that I used to finish both of these in case they start looking a little thirsty.
I'm still having issues not seeing these for their imperfections, but they're both very comfortable in hand and I'm happy with almost everything about them.
Spalted softwood (very likely pine) with a black walnut spacer; I was adjusting how I try to turn asymmetry into symmetry on this one:
(Some of the handle blanks going out with these are in the background)
Deer antler and downed oak limb with a live edge section from where a branch formed and repaired; I was practicing the balance of incorporating an organic form into the structure of a handle:
To round it out, I tossed in a votive full of mineral oil/beeswax boardbutter that I used to finish both of these in case they start looking a little thirsty.
I'm still having issues not seeing these for their imperfections, but they're both very comfortable in hand and I'm happy with almost everything about them.
Choppin
Senior Member
love the Deer antler + downed oak limb look! they really complement each other
I'm very fond of it as well, probably too much since I keep telling myself to stop making handles with that combo in my head. I do have at least one more to make already in the queue...
Very good efforts.. Nice thinking outside the box to include the damaged oak limb.!
Here’s a few of my latest. Very traditional and boring compared to @deltaplex’s awesome pieces above, but sharing nonetheless!
Horn and Huon pine (not actually a true pine, and despite perhaps not looking particularly interesting at first glance an amazing timber and great to work with: What is so special about Huon Pine?)
Birdseye maple with a horn spacer. Shape sort of evolved on the fly… I find Wa handles on parers hard to hit a sweet spot that feels right.
Tasmanian Blackwood and horn D handle (not attached to anything yet). Definitely the last time I faff around with hand shaping a traditional mortise and tenon… hidden dowel all the way!
Horn and Huon pine (not actually a true pine, and despite perhaps not looking particularly interesting at first glance an amazing timber and great to work with: What is so special about Huon Pine?)
Birdseye maple with a horn spacer. Shape sort of evolved on the fly… I find Wa handles on parers hard to hit a sweet spot that feels right.
Tasmanian Blackwood and horn D handle (not attached to anything yet). Definitely the last time I faff around with hand shaping a traditional mortise and tenon… hidden dowel all the way!
I think all of these look really nice, and well suited to the blades. I at least know about Huon Pine because one of @Kippington's handles had a completely insane piece of it used on a petty handle for @McMan that has some translucency:
Those all look great! I really like the pine/horn. Simple and can be very appealing.
Nice work for sure.
tostadas
Senior Member
A pair of maple handles for a couple of my personal blades.
Alpine.knifeworks
Wood luvr
Very nice
Alpine.knifeworks
Wood luvr
Ty!
Single piece Saya!?
I love first one. Less is more !
Thanks!
