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  #1  
Old 10-10-2017, 05:07 PM
Naphtali Naphtali is offline
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Cocobolo as fixed-blade knife handle?

Comparing cocobolo with Diamondwood? and/or Pakkawood? fixed-blade knife handles, how "use resistant" is the wood? I guess a similar question is: How much routine maintenance does cocobolo require per year, and what does "routine maintenance" include for cocobolo knife handles?


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Old 10-10-2017, 05:23 PM
epicfail48 epicfail48 is offline
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Well, cocobolo is pretty much the wood of choice for kitchen knives, if that tells you anything.

Seriously, it's amazing stuff. Dense, naturally oily so it resistance rot extremely well, and looks bloody amazing. Try some, you'll like it
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Old 10-10-2017, 06:31 PM
Naphtali Naphtali is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by epicfail48 View Post
Well, cocobolo is pretty much the wood of choice for kitchen knives, if that tells you anything.

Seriously, it's amazing stuff. Dense, naturally oily so it resistance rot extremely well, and looks bloody amazing. Try some, you'll like it
Many thanks.


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Old 10-10-2017, 06:36 PM
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Ray Rogers Ray Rogers is offline
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Wear your respirator and long sleeve shirts with cocobolo, the dust is highly toxic. Although many people work with cocobolo for years with no obvious reaction others react to it and other tropical woods very quickly. The effect is cumulative, it took me about 10 years of occasional use to become sensitized to it. Once it happened I found I could no longer even stand to be in the same room with a vintage rosewood guitar that I owned. Hopefully, you won't experience this sort of thing but don't take chances with it....


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Old 10-10-2017, 08:53 PM
jimmontg jimmontg is offline
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Lance, I wanted to do your Morseth with cocobolo, it is a beautiful wood and after it has been sealed it's practically as good as stabilized for the reasons stated above. It is my wood of choice, it and ironwood. A simple seal with thinned down epoxy will seal both and they will soak into any pores that are left. I have to add a spacer to your Morseth by the way as the short threads won't quite let the threaded brass plug seat below the back of the knife.
I have made more than a few kitchen Chef's Knives from cocobolo. It is an aggravating wood to some, but it doesn't bother me, but with all woods I wear a HEPA filter respirator. I learned a long time ago it is unhealthy to breath the dust from the belt and from the material being ground. My brother can't tolerate cocobolo or quite a few woods, he's a metal worker.LOL
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Old 10-11-2017, 03:08 AM
epicfail48 epicfail48 is offline
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Originally Posted by Ray Rogers View Post
Wear your respirator and long sleeve shirts with cocobolo, the dust is highly toxic. Although many people work with cocobolo for years with no obvious reaction others react to it and other tropical woods very quickly. The effect is cumulative, it took me about 10 years of occasional use to become sensitized to it. Once it happened I found I could no longer even stand to be in the same room with a vintage rosewood guitar that I owned. Hopefully, you won't experience this sort of thing but don't take chances with it....
A very, very important thing to remember, but this advise is in no way limited to cocobolo. Really you should be wearing a respirator when working any wood, wood dust isn't something that belongs in your lungs, but most oily or tropical woods are known as sensitizers, even if they aren't flat out toxic. With repeated exposure your body starts to develop a reaction to them, and it gets worse.
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Old 10-11-2017, 05:29 AM
dtec1 dtec1 is offline
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EVEN BETTER WEAR YOUR MASK ALL THE TIME!!! You don't want to breath any of that stuff in wether its steel, titanium, brass, wood , carbon fiber ect.... The only time I don't put my mask on is if it is something super quick like shortening a pair of screw that takes 10 seconds so I don't bother always wear it ...some materials can effect you very very quickly of just breathing it in for a short amount of time other materials take 10+ years to do its thing but you don't want to find out 10 years from now that you have lung cancer from not using a mask .....it only takes 10 seconds to put on.........On the topic Ray in one of your videos you showed your mask that you said they don't make any more it had a clip in the front to drop the mask down. Well 3m is making them again saw it in home depot and grabed it and love it makes things like talking to people when they interrupt me much easier....

That being said cocobolo is the only NON stabilized wood I have ever used....I only use wood 20% of the time so I aint a expert but I think it is to oily to stabilize (again could be wrong on that) I do like the look its a real good looking wood and honestly I used it twice on knives that I did very early on in my knife making and they just sit in a draw (one isn't even sharpened or even a secondary bevel for that) I do think if I did it again and it would be used a lot I would seal it like jim had said either thinned out epoxy or even a CA glue and just spread it around let it dry and hit it lightly with a high grit sand paper....
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Old 10-12-2017, 01:56 PM
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Just to tag in that getting the dust cleaned from your shop will be good too. The Mrs. has a host of typical allergies and one visit to a makers shop he'd worked one of the rosewood family a few days earlier. He'd "cleaned" anticipating our visit too. He had not worked at all that day so the air was basically still/settled. She had been in there maybe 5 minutes tops and she felt her allergies coming on, itchy eyes, coughing, etc. Took lots of antihistamine to level her reactions off.

My suggestion would be a cartridge respirator for the improved facial seal. At times I double up with an organic vapor cartridge and P100 pre-filter.

Over the years I've known many that have developed a severe reaction and at the onset this is a trip to the ER room. Be safe.


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Old 10-14-2017, 07:51 AM
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Crex Crex is offline
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To answer the original question....if the knife is treated as a knife should be, you will not live long enough to know how well the coccobolo handle will hold up. This can actually be said about a lot of totally natural handle materials that have not been stabilized. Never could understand the actual need for a handle to outlast a blade.
That being said, I do understand why many prefer to use synthetics and stabilized material. It's ok for them, I just prefer not to unless a customer requests such. Just doesn't go with my preferred styling.


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Old 10-17-2017, 08:45 AM
WNC Goater WNC Goater is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Crex View Post
To answer the original question....if the knife is treated as a knife should be, you will not live long enough to know how well the coccobolo handle will hold up. This can actually be said about a lot of totally natural handle materials that have not been stabilized. Never could understand the actual need for a handle to outlast a blade.
That being said, I do understand why many prefer to use synthetics and stabilized material. It's ok for them, I just prefer not to unless a customer requests such. Just doesn't go with my preferred styling.

+1 Thank you!


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