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The Newbies Arena Are you new to knife making? Here is all the help you will need.

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  #1  
Old 02-26-2018, 05:54 PM
Jakey Jakey is offline
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searching for black/dark brown woods for handle

I'm working on a project of making 2 uruk-hai swords. The blades are already heat treated made from 440C and are ready for the handles.
I want to make some sort of dark wood handle scales, but I'm kinda bad at knowing the woods,so I'm asking here:
What are simmilar tipes of wood such as ebony? Dark and tough wood, proper for handles?

thx 2 all!
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  #2  
Old 02-26-2018, 09:05 PM
damon damon is offline
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ebony!
african blackwood, and a few others in the rosewood family.

just go with ebony, or if $$ is the issue then something in the synthetics. micarta, ot G10
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  #3  
Old 02-26-2018, 11:33 PM
Doug Lester Doug Lester is offline
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Ebony has a reputation for checking and cracking. African Blackwood, as mentioned above, is a great choice. So is Lignum vitae. One of my favorites. Desert Ironwood and black mesquite are a couple of other choices. You could also take a look at black palm but it, unlike the other woods mentioned, might benefit from stabilization. I don't know what your wood suppliers are like in Slovenia but if you have some who supply turning wood and you have the ability of recutting spindle blanks or bowl blocks you can save yourself a lot of money over ready cut scales and blanks for stick tangs.

Doug


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Last edited by Doug Lester; 02-26-2018 at 11:39 PM.
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  #4  
Old 02-27-2018, 06:20 AM
Jakey Jakey is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by damon View Post
ebony!
african blackwood, and a few others in the rosewood family.

just go with ebony, or if $$ is the issue then something in the synthetics. micarta, ot G10

What's the difference between g10 and micarta?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Doug Lester View Post
Ebony has a reputation for checking and cracking. African Blackwood, as mentioned above, is a great choice. So is Lignum vitae. One of my favorites. Desert Ironwood and black mesquite are a couple of other choices. You could also take a look at black palm but it, unlike the other woods mentioned, might benefit from stabilization. I don't know what your wood suppliers are like in Slovenia but if you have some who supply turning wood and you have the ability of recutting spindle blanks or bowl blocks you can save yourself a lot of money over ready cut scales and blanks for stick tangs.

Doug
The thing is, that, for this project, this isn't a entry for "most beautiful knife" section, but more like a useful machete/movie prop so that's why I'm asking.
The wood was my first thought on doing it.
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  #5  
Old 02-27-2018, 07:17 AM
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Crex Crex is offline
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Stick tang or flat/full tang? On a "working" chopper type blade, I like to use horsemat - hard to beat the grip/texture for control. Easier to install on full tang but a little ingenuity and it can be applied to a stick tang.
For looks and real wood, it'd be hard to beat the African Blackwood. Ebony has it's issues as Doug pointed out.
There are some dark browns out there that will go "black" with oil finishes - wenge comes to mind. Doug's advice on wood turner suppliers is a great idea and they may have some alternative woods that would work just fine.


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  #6  
Old 02-27-2018, 08:37 AM
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Ray Rogers Ray Rogers is offline
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Micarta is paper or cloth soaked in phenolic resin. G-10 is fiberglass ...


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  #7  
Old 02-27-2018, 08:54 AM
Jakey Jakey is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Crex View Post
Stick tang or flat/full tang? On a "working" chopper type blade, I like to use horsemat - hard to beat the grip/texture for control. Easier to install on full tang but a little ingenuity and it can be applied to a stick tang.
For looks and real wood, it'd be hard to beat the African Blackwood. Ebony has it's issues as Doug pointed out.
There are some dark browns out there that will go "black" with oil finishes - wenge comes to mind. Doug's advice on wood turner suppliers is a great idea and they may have some alternative woods that would work just fine.
Full tang this time. I know you haven't asked for this, but I seldom use/work with stick tang. I just don't trust it as much as I do to full tangs.
There was a trench knife I was making once, when I had difficulties even to get the handle onto blade, because the weld was such a disaster while assemly of stick tang. I was just breaking once after another.

Well, in Slovenia, we are rich with beech and walnut, so it's kinda difficult to get any exotic wood (although, there's about 60% of the country covered with woods ).

For African Blackwood I've found on ebay, here's the link: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Handle-Timb...wAAOSwGh5Z2uAy

Is this the proper kind of wood? It's 1" (25mm) thick, I think I could cut it in half to get 1 plate for each side.

What do you think?
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  #8  
Old 02-27-2018, 09:03 AM
argel55 argel55 is offline
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You're forgetting black walnut makes great handles with good figure!
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  #9  
Old 02-27-2018, 10:26 AM
Jakey Jakey is offline
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You're forgetting black walnut makes great handles with good figure!
Yes, but black walnut isn't common here. Just a regular walnut or either walnut's root. That's most you can get from it. (from woodes, that are useful for knife handles)
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  #10  
Old 02-27-2018, 01:37 PM
Doug Lester Doug Lester is offline
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That African Blackwood on Ebay is what you're looking for.

Doug


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  #11  
Old 02-27-2018, 06:54 PM
Jakey Jakey is offline
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That African Blackwood on Ebay is what you're looking for.

Doug
Good.

Although it's comming from china, it's okay?

And the price, is reasonable?
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  #12  
Old 02-27-2018, 10:07 PM
Doug Lester Doug Lester is offline
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It's a little strange that it's coming from China but probably no more than if you bought it from a supplier in the US. It's a species that grows in Africa and the harvest is regulated but I don't believe that it's on the CITES list yet.

Doug


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  #13  
Old 03-01-2018, 07:42 AM
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Crex Crex is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jakey View Post
Yes, but black walnut isn't common here. Just a regular walnut or either walnut's root. That's most you can get from it. (from woodes, that are useful for knife handles)
You can blacken lighter colored walnut, oak, maple, and many other woods containing tannin in their chemical makeup. Just take a ball of steel wool and dissolve in distilled white vinegar. The combination of the dissolved iron and vinegar will react with the residual tannins in the wood and turn it charcoal gray to black depending on amount and species of wood. A lot of the old black handled knives and swords of european origin were just common oak treated this way.
This will also turn veggie tanned leather a nice dark gray to black for the same reason.

If you forge and use white vinegar to loosen/soften scale or etch your blades, it will also serve the same purpose - most of us oldtimers call it "vinergaroon".


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  #14  
Old 03-22-2018, 09:59 AM
Jakey Jakey is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Doug Lester View Post
It's a little strange that it's coming from China but probably no more than if you bought it from a supplier in the US. It's a species that grows in Africa and the harvest is regulated but I don't believe that it's on the CITES list yet.
Doug
Just ordered it, can't wait untill it comes. Will see, what will come in the mail.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Crex View Post
You can blacken lighter colored walnut, oak, maple, and many other woods containing tannin in their chemical makeup. Just take a ball of steel wool and dissolve in distilled white vinegar. The combination of the dissolved iron and vinegar will react with the residual tannins in the wood and turn it charcoal gray to black depending on amount and species of wood. A lot of the old black handled knives and swords of european origin were just common oak treated this way.
This will also turn veggie tanned leather a nice dark gray to black for the same reason.

If you forge and use white vinegar to loosen/soften scale or etch your blades, it will also serve the same purpose - most of us oldtimers call it "vinergaroon".
I tried to blacken the walnut with alcohol dye used for leather dying.

For etching damascus I use strange combination of HCl and H2SO4. Don't ask about it, a friend made it for me and it works just fine.
May also try with the wood!
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  #15  
Old 03-25-2018, 09:45 PM
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Crex Crex is offline
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Try it on a scrap piece first.


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