Most of the wood I use (currently) I acquired in a lumbar yard in Ecuador when we were living there. I was able to buy a 1/2 plank of Ipe (the variety I got they called Guayacan Verde locally) for $30.

Has anyone ever tried getting ipe stabilized? I would think that it is too non-porous for that.

I've purchased wood from Amazon Exotic Hardwoods, but I went cheap so I ended up with quarter sawn blocks. Which is fine for scales and mortise handles, but not very useful for blocks.

Looking forward to what folks share.

Steve

First I'm gona rant a bit, then will give my input on my favorites, and why.

Whenever the subject of natural handle materials comes up, I always have to bite my lip to keep from spouting off...... about prices. When I see TINY blocks of stabilized maple burl selling for $45+...and people actually paying that for it, I just shake my head. I've been around long enough to remember PREMIUM blocks (like 2" square) of many exotic hardwoods, including Desert Ironwood burl, for $15-$20 each.....now the blocks are lucky to be 3/4" X 1 1/4"....and sellers are asking stupid money for it. I can only surmise that the stupid high prices are due to sellers pricing at those crazy high prices....and the less educated individuals actually buy it.... then every seller jacks up their prices because they know they can get it from somebody.

OK, rant over. <img src=' http://www.americanbladesmith.com/ipboard/public/style_emoticons//smile.gi f' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' />

Now, on to my favorites..... #1 for me is African Blackwood. It's fine grained, fairly easy to work, and once cured is as stable as any natural handle material can be. It carves and textures well, and unlike Ebony, it does not check/crack over times. (Ebony is like concrete...it's not a matter of IF it will crack...it's simply a matter of WHEN.)

#2 for me is Desert Ironwood.... for a lot of the same reason as Blackwood. See a theme here? My choice of handle materials has as much to do with how they work, and how durable over time they are, as it does with the beauty of the material.

In my experience, every variety of wood used for handle material has it's own "kinks", and each requires slightly different methodologies to achieve the best results.

Stabilizing was a big boon for knifemakers....it allows for otherwise unsuitable materials to be used for handle material.... soft or even rotten ("spalted" is just another word for "rotten") woods that once would have been destined for the trash or fire, can now be transformed into some of the most sought after knife handle materials. But here's the hitch..... many newer knifemakers, and even some seasoned ones take "stabilized" to mean the material is completely stable, and will not expand, shrink, or absorb moisture.....not true. The best that stabilizing will do for any natural material is MINIMIZE the "movement", but as long as an individual knows and considers that, they will be fine.

Another unique material that many newer makers always seem to want to use is horn....specifically water buffalo horn. (Don't confuse "horn" with "antler"...totally different materials and characteristics) Using any horn material as a new maker is akin to a guitar player cutting off his index finger....makes your life VERY difficult.

The way I often explain it is...... horn is nothing more then compressed hair. Anything you've ever heard or seen your wife, girlfriend, or sister's hair do when they say "I'm having a bad hair day".... horn handle material will do the same thing(s). There's a reason that many ladies spend HOURS getting their hair just right.....because that's how tough it can be.....just like using horn for handle material. <img src=' http://www.americanbladesmith.com/ipboard/public/style_emoticons//smile.gi f' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' />

When it comes to purchasing woods, I personally will not buy any natural handle material sight unseen.....that's just asking to be sent the "bottom of the barrel" pieces. Even pictures are misleading...mainly because many sellers will wet down the material, so the grain looks fantastic, and use that pic for advertising....not only will the wood have to sit around for a number of months afterward to dry out, but it will never again look like it did in the pics (when it was wet). About the only way I will buy sight unseen is from sources I have cultivated for years, and whom I trust completely to know the type of wood I demand, and who has a proven track record of providing me just that. I can't remember the last time I purchased any natural handle material from the knife supply outfits. For the most part I prefer to purchase larger chunks of wood, and do the cutting myself....I find that I get exactly what I want that way.

I'm sure this topic will go many different directions, so I'll conclude for now, and keep my eye on it during October!

I will agree with Ed on his first two choices as I use a lot of blackwood and ironwood. Another that I will add to the list would be black walnut burl. This is a very stable wood that wears quite well. For whatever reason, the dark colored woods have always sold much better for me than any lighter colored woods and these three are my favorites.

Gary

I got started early in my knife making adventures using very high quality, highly figured walnuts, Turkish, English, Claro and the likes, including figured rock hard sugar maples. I had a good number of friendships with custom gunstockers who used to burn the cutoff scraps from their stocks in their wood fired stoves. Now, I find myself competing with stock duplicators which leave only piles of shavings, and custom pen makers. I fortunately stockpiled back then but my supply of super premium figured materials is growing thinner. I love burled woods, but prefer to see them in a good pipe, that's just me, and I don't generally use stabilized woods because they are tough, if not impossible, to carve and wire inlay, and I take the extra time it takes to finish these woods much the same as custom gunstockers do, very time consuming. I like cocboloa and other asian woods, but they are hell on my asthma and sinus's, even if I do protect myself, so I only do the occasional order with these. Ed's right on point about the stupid high prices for diminished in size handle material offerings.

There's so many benefits in using stabilized scales I can't believe I lived without it for so long. It's very easy to do, and it's way cheaper than buying them commercially.

I've been lucky to find some incredibly highly figured blackwood.

Oddly, I've had them for years and just can't bring myself to use them. Honestly - curly and burl.

But they remain in the box.

Someday.

Currently, my hands down favorite is Ringed Gidgee. Solid as a brick, very nice and fine grain and some of it as chatoyant as Koa. Very dark and rich.

I agree with Ed. There are a couple dealers out there just raping the unexpecting and probably newer makers. It's been going on for a few years, so new makers just entering the arena have never seen anything different, so this drives up the prices.

Seriously - I've seen one dealer selling curly maple for nearly 50 bucks!!! When I send off a box of material to get stabilized, it normally ends up about 7-8 dollars per block, including shipping. And we've all seen some materials bringing $100.00!!

So, buyer beware, and I highly suggest sourcing your own materials and getting them stabilized for yourself.

Ringed Gidgee:

I really like the look and feel of curly maple. I hand pick most of mine at Comark International in Weaversville, NC. Jason the owner will take me back to the section and I'll spend an hour or two going through racks of it. I use "AQUAFORTS STAIN'' that uses heat to bring out the stripe and make it a walnut color.

Buy the finish here:

http://www.cainsoutd....asp?item=19279

Edit: I've used Maple Magic with good success also as a finish.

Away from home and posting from my phone so this will be short.

I have developed a reaction to just about all of the rosewoods and most importantly . I still use olivewood, koa and bubinga, but that is it.. the rest of the wood I have been using is domestic walnut maple sycamores etc.

We invested in getting set up to stabilize an to do it right. For the last year 75-80% of our wood has been from stumps and crotch wood, burls from local trees. Cost is almost nothing except work

The curly maple I have we bought as a 2 1/2" /12" 6' board for around $200 from a place in Oregon we found on line. Buying this way is far more cost effective, and with the right board the curl is pretty consistent.

MP

Does anyone have a suggestion for a good, reasonably priced, trusted source for hardwoods or burls? Either online or lumberyard?

I understand the main message is "see it first," but that isn't always possible. The lumberyard in my town stocks very little useable wood...although I do travel a bit. If I'm ever in Weaversville I'll stop in at Comark International for sure, and I also understand there is a pretty cool hardwood distributor in Fairbanks, Alaska (I'll be up that way in May for a school trip). Any good sources in NJ, the Boston Area, or Washington State (I'm selfishly thinking about where I'll be traveling over the next year, but I'm sure this information will be useful to others besides myself).

Who do you trust to do your stabilization? I assume most everyone ships their blocks out for that...

Also interested in hearing how folks finish out their natural wood handles and stabilized wood handles. I've been using teak oil or Danish Oil and then paste wax on natural wood, but that doesn't seem to be doing the trick.

Steve

|quoted:

Does anyone have a suggestion for a good, reasonably priced, trusted source for hardwoods or burls? Either online or lumberyard?

I understand the main message is "see it first," but that isn't always possible. The lumberyard in my town stocks very little useable wood...although I do travel a bit. If I'm ever in Weaversville I'll stop in at Comark International for sure, and I also understand there is a pretty cool hardwood distributor in Fairbanks, Alaska (I'll be up that way in May for a school trip). Any good sources in NJ, the Boston Area, or Washington State (I'm selfishly thinking about where I'll be traveling over the next year, but I'm sure this information will be useful to others besides myself).

Who do you trust to do your stabilization? I assume most everyone ships their blocks out for that...

Also interested in hearing how folks finish out their natural wood handles and stabilized wood handles. I've been using teak oil or Danish Oil and then paste wax on natural wood, but that doesn't seem to be doing the trick.

Steve

Stabilizing it yourself is incredibly easy and relatively cheap. Buying a setup for it will literally pay itself off in less than 10 knives, and you can make a LOT of blocks out of just a half gallon of cactus juice.

I don't finish my stabilized handles. I wet sand up to 800+ and then buff. You don't "need" to finish stabilized handles. You can, but your options are limited because oils and stains won't soak in. You mostly need to stick to topcoat styles of finishing.

I'm definitely interested in hearing how other people finish their stabilized handles.

|quoted:

Who do you trust to do your stabilization? I assume most everyone ships their blocks out for that...

Steve

I send mine to Knife and Gun Finishing Supplies. I have tried about every commercial outfit that does it and have found K&G to be the most consistent in quality.

I agree with Karl on K&G..... for a long time I used WSSI, but any time I'd send more then 10 blocks of wood, I'd always get shorted when they returned. There was always the excuse that "no you only sent XX number of blocks, and that's what you got back". The final straw was when I send them 75 blocks of Box Elder Burl.....and got 15 back... after fighting with them for a while, I just chalked it up to "never again"...and have never seen the other 60 blocks. Several others have told me they had similar experiences.

K&G has always given me good service, fast turn around, and I have never had a complaint about the quality.

Stabilizing it yourself is incredibly easy and relatively cheap. Buying a setup for it will literally pay itself off in less than 10 knives, and you can make a LOT of blocks out of just a half gallon of cactus juice.

Respectfully, I have to disagree. I spent about 5 years experimenting with stabilizing my own handle material. What I found was just the opposite. If you want a quality end product, the equipment and the stabilizing chemicals are extremely expensive. The best chemical I ever found was just shy of $900 for a 5 gallon pail. To purchase a vacuum vessel that is what I consider adequate was $6,500...not counting the vacuum pump, which was another $1,200. (I built my own for about $550 total) I tried the Cactus Juice.....and simply have nothing good to say about it. Based on my experiences, its FAR more economical, and you get a better end product by farming it out to the "professionals".

Ed, What kind of problems did you have with the cactus juice? Did you find a resin that polishes up nicer? Were you trying to do huge batches?

I found doing over 3 pieces at a time with cactus juice was an issue for me. I made my vacuum chamber, and pressure tank. I first put it under vacuum, then pressure, followed by wrapping it in aluminum foil to heat, and bake which dries/hardens it. When I have a larger batch I send it out to a local turner who does the process for a group of guys in our turning guild.

We trade services regularly.