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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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  #16  
Old 05-17-2016, 01:28 PM
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Grayshadow95 Grayshadow95 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Doug Lester View Post
On the handle, see if you can talk your customer out of the Ebony handle scales. All Ebonies will eventually crack or check. African Blackwood would be a good substitute if he wants a solid black handle. If he insists on the Ebony I would tell him in writing that the handle scales cannot be guaranteed and you will not replace them free of charge when they break.
Doug
Just to clarify, my customer didn't actually request ebony for the scales, he just wanted me to use some wood from a block of black I already have. This wood is actually a "mystery" wood. I got it at an estate sale a while back. It wasn't identified as to what type of wood it is, but I knew it was an exotic species because it was completely covered in wax. And a 14 inch long 2x2 block of black exotic wood for 5 bucks is too good a deal to pass up. I cut off one end too be able to see the grain better, then tried to look it up in a wood reference site I use. There are some lighter streaks through it, but it was easy to rule out several species of ebony because there are no red streaks in it. So, it came down likely being either a couple species of ebony or African blackwood. Not many people have heard of African blackwood, so I've just been referring to it as ebony.
However, your comment gave me concern, so I took the slab I had cut off to use on this knife down to our local Woodcraft store and consulted their wood expert. Fortunately he came to the conclusion that it is African blackwood! I say fortunately because I have already used some of it on two other knives!

Thanks very much for your comment!!

AL C
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  #17  
Old 05-17-2016, 10:40 PM
Doug Lester Doug Lester is offline
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African Blackwood can have a little more figure to it than Ebony. I have a handle on a kitchen knife that I made early one and it looks almost like it's from a block of synthetic. African Blackwood and Ebony get confused regularly. If you heat that piece that you cut off and oil starts bubbling out of it I'd bet it's blackwood. I burned in the handle on that kitchen knife that I made and oil oozed out of the wood as it heated up. By the way, 5 bucks is a great score on a 2X2X14" turning block of African Blackwood. I would also clean off the inside face of the scales with acetone before trying to epoxy them onto the the tang.

Doug


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  #18  
Old 05-24-2016, 02:50 PM
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Grayshadow95 Grayshadow95 is offline
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Doug - tried your suggestion on a small piece, and there is definitely a lot of "oil" in the wood!

Yes, I am aware of the need to treat the edges to be glued. This wood has the same greasy feel as rosewood. I planned to use some rubber cement thinner that I have. I've used it before to remove the resin on some rosewood grips I made a while back. I also learned then not to get it on any parts that will show!
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