Mahogany for knife handles????

McClellan Made Blades

Well-Known Member
Hey Dawgs,
Has anyone used Mahogany for knife handles? I know it's a great out door wood and is very stable, the color is pretty nice while the grain isn't all that fancy. Although I've found some that has kind of a weird grain, (weird to me), right away it reminded me or made me think of Maidens Hair Damascus in places, I don't know why. Some of this wood is pretty light weight, while other pieces feel like they weigh a ton, I did notice the grain of the heavier pieces was closer to the middle of the tree, while the lighter pieces had weird, but really cool grain. Is anyone interested in using this wood for knife handles, if I can offer the blocks at a really great price? I've gotten interested in using this now, I'm going to look up the properties of Mahogany to see what all it's used for, other than Victorian furniture! Thanks Dawgs!
 
It's used a lot in guitars, both acoustics and solid-bodies. (For instance, almost all Gibson Les Pauls have a solid mahogany body, usually with a nice piece of figured maple on top.) Because it's so stable and also happens to give a nice warm tone. It needs a finish of some kind, like walnut or maple would. I don't know if it can be stabilized. Some folks fill the somewhat porous grain with a dark filler before they clear-coat or oil it, looks really nice that way.

Basically, I see no reason you couldn't use it for a knife handle, except the grain is generally kind of plain. Do you have any pics of the weird-grain stuff you have? I'd probably be interested in scales, I'm a guitar nut and that would be neat :)
 
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It's used a lot in guitars, both acoustics and solid-bodies. (For instance, almost all Gibson Les Pauls have a solid mahogany body, usually with a nice piece of figured maple on top.) Because it's so stable and also happens to give a nice warm tone. It needs a finish of some kind, like walnut or maple would. I don't know if it can be stabilized. Some folks fill the somewhat porous grain with a dark filler before they clear-coat or oil it, looks really nice that way.

Basically, I see no reason you couldn't use it for a knife handle, except the grain is generally kind of plain. Do you have any pics of the weird-grain stuff you have? I'd probably be interested in scales, I'm a guitar nut and that would be neat :)

Sure James, here is a pic, my wife wiped this block down with
Howard's Feed n Wax, it's a product I use to finish a lot of the wood I use, does a jam up job. This is lightly sanded at about 80 grit, in some places on some pieces it looks like it's curly! There is a glimmer on some pieces when the light catches it just right, I'm, starting to like this stuiff more and more! Rex
 
I see what you mean about the grain, that looks nice. Mahogany is good stuff to work with too, it's not real hard to cut or carve. You are talking me right into getting some! PM me with ideas on how much you would want for some scales or blocks.

You like it now, wait till you make something out of it and put a nice oil finish on it. I used to have a '83 Gibson Explorer with a mahogany body and neck... I sanded all the finish off the back of the neck and gave it many coats of tung oil. Silky smooth, no stickiness like a typical finished neck can have, with a nice comfy "warm" feel to it. Awesome warm fat powerful tone from the density of the wood. Man, I miss that guitar :(
 
I usually put it in the hardness category as pine, I know it gets dinged up pretty easy if I use it to make a pen, finishing will make it harder but its still soft, good luck
 
With all due respect, scroller99, I wouldn't put mahogany anywhere near the same category as pine in any way. In my experience, it's much more similar to rosewood or walnut. I've worked with a fair amount of both pine and mahogany in different applications, and they're about as different as two woods can be.
 
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My father worked for the railroad for 50 years he collected a lot of stuff during that time one Item was an old Philippine quarter sawn mahogany crate. He kept it in his shop and never used it when he died I cleaned out his shop and moved it to mine it sat there for another 20 years. As near as I can figure it’s been dried for at least 50 years I’m not sure how old it is. I was at my mother’s a few months back and noticed that she was keeping the handles on her old knifes with duct tape. So when I got back home I pulled down one of those old planks cut it up into scale size pieces and sent it in and had it stabilized. Here is a piece sorry for the picture it has a golden tone when polished I made her a new set of knifes not sure she is ever going to use them.
 
Mahogany has been a staple in the boat business and upscale furniture for ages. I thought it a soft wood also, but there are multiple types of mahogany and I'm sure rate of growth has an influence too.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janka_hardness_test
This was too long to cut and paste but has good info on hardness, note mahogany has several entries. Dozier
 
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Interesting info, thanks guys. It seems I've only been exposed to whatever type of mahogany is most used for instruments and furniture. I had no idea there was a version/species that soft. Maybe it also depends on what section of the tree it was cut from, as Rex alluded to?

Sorry if my earlier post seemed snotty :eek:
 
My father worked for the railroad for 50 years he collected a lot of stuff during that time one Item was an old Philippine quarter sawn mahogany crate. He kept it in his shop and never used it when he died I cleaned out his shop and moved it to mine it sat there for another 20 years. As near as I can figure it’s been dried for at least 50 years I’m not sure how old it is. I was at my mother’s a few months back and noticed that she was keeping the handles on her old knifes with duct tape. So when I got back home I pulled down one of those old planks cut it up into scale size pieces and sent it in and had it stabilized. Here is a piece sorry for the picture it has a golden tone when polished I made her a new set of knifes not sure she is ever going to use them.

Very cool Doug,
Im sure that meant a lot. Thanks for posting that pic and the story.

Larry
 
Mahogany has been a staple in the boat business and upscale furniture for ages. I thought it a soft wood also, but there are multiple types of mahogany and I'm sure rate of growth has an influence too.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janka_hardness_test
This was too long to cut and paste but has good info on hardness, note mahogany has several entries. Dozier

Dozier, I don't know how many folks abuse a custom knife, but at the very least some thin CA glue coating on the outside should prevent it from taking a lot of dings. I got this wood at a great price, for what I got, there are a lot of sizes and lengths, from blocks big enough for hidden tangs to large slabs, for full tangs. I think I'm going to make at least one knife, just to see how well it looks and abuse it a bit before I put a CA coat on it. If soft wood is bad, then why does anyone use Curly Maple? You can dent it with your thumbnail with little effort. I do have one piece that I know of, that is I guess what you would call "heart wood". It's from the center of the tree, you can see the rings, thats all the way down to the center, that is the heaviest piece I picked up- and I do mean HEAVY!! Like almost too heavy, the grain in it isn't as nice as some of the other I have. I'm selling the blocks, most of them are over sized because this stuff is thick, for 10 bucks each. Only because I got it at such a great deal, the only problem is, if I make market for this stuff, buying anywhere else will cost 4x's what I'm selling it for. It is expensive stuff, and I do believe it will hold up really well in extreme environments. I think I wil contact our good friends at Ankrom Exotics and see what they recommend for stabilizing, I sent some blocks with Pat at Blade thinking it would be 2 weeks to a month for him to have them done and he was done with them before I was ready to pay for it! Like a week after Blade! That was FAST! I've got some other blocks from him and the are awesome, so I'm recommending them for stabilizing, not to mention his prices are great, and the blocks I got from him at BLADE are beautiful!

At 10 dollars a block, I don't think it can be beat for knife handles, and this wood being stable enough for outdoor furniture, I think it should do very well with out stabilizing, but I'm going to do some testing so I won't be "thinking" it will be be good, I'll be "knowing" it'll be good! Thanks for the comments, the wood business is really "the Pups" venture, but I'm his Dad, so I'll be running it until he gets a little older, Yall have a nice day, Rex
 
Rex, I might need to get a couple of blocks from you. Has it been aged?
Stabalized it will be cats meow, IMHO I've always liked the grain of mahogany.
Curly Maple, what about spalted wood as far as soft goes? Dozier
 
Rex, I might need to get a couple of blocks from you. Has it been aged?
Stabalized it will be cats meow, IMHO I've always liked the grain of mahogany.
Curly Maple, what about spalted wood as far as soft goes? Dozier

Dozier, Just let me know how many you want, with the price of 10 bucks a block
(+ shipping) you KNOW it's not stabilized! And you really can't compare the spalted woods because to my knowledge they have to be stabilized. They won't work any other way. Being their already on their way to decomposing. And speaking of Curly Maple I've got some of that coming too!
And the age of this stuff, to my knowledge, the guy I got it from has had it for a couple of years, so it's at least that old, it has to be older, because he was building furniture out of it. The only reason I priced it so low is because I got a good bit of it, for a very good price. Passing the deal on to the good folks on KD. I wasn't sure if it would make great handles, if it turns out that it won't. I'll make display boxes out of it, or something like that. The bigger problem is that this stuff is so thick cutting it down is difficult. Cutting knife blocks I just leave it thick and sell them over sized, so you can choose to make several sets of scales or have the room to sculpt the handle. Either way it's agreat deal, it'll work out one way or another,. Thanks For everything, Rex
 
Back in late HS and early college I worked for a custom trim shop and we used mahogany for a few a jobs. I used a few of the "drops" for scales and they looked great. But, I was pretty picky about the wood I used. Some of it was pretty bland, but now and then we would get some that had killer grain to it.

Charlie
 
Mahogany is used by a lot of model makers/pattern shops because it has a fine grain and is very stable--very little movement due to changes in heat, moisture, etc.
 
It's used a lot in guitars, both acoustics and solid-bodies. (For instance, almost all Gibson Les Pauls have a solid mahogany body, usually with a nice piece of figured maple on top.) Because it's so stable and also happens to give a nice warm tone. It needs a finish of some kind, like walnut or maple would. I don't know if it can be stabilized. Some folks fill the somewhat porous grain with a dark filler before they clear-coat or oil it, looks really nice that way.

Basically, I see no reason you couldn't use it for a knife handle, except the grain is generally kind of plain. Do you have any pics of the weird-grain stuff you have? I'd probably be interested in scales, I'm a guitar nut and that would be neat :)

James,
I finally got the time to cut up a little of the heavy piece, tell me what you think about these 2 pieces!!! I'm going to start as new thread in the Supplies For Sale section, they'll be there if your interested, I definitely won't mind keeping these...I think I've turned into a wood junky...I may have a problem...

BTW, these 2 pieces were given a thin coat of Howard's Feed and Wax, my wife wanted to know what they would look like with it on them, I think a few coats of tung oil would look as good maybe better! Thanks Rex
 
...I think I've turned into a wood junky...I may have a problem...

Hi, my name is James and I'm a knifeaholic! :D I have more pieces of killer wood and quality steel than articles of clothing. I have literally eaten mac'n'cheese for three days running so I could afford a couple sweet chunks of figured walnut or ironwood... I feel mildly ashamed, but not really.

Dang you, Rex, you're an enabler! :D I'm definitely interested in some scales, and I will watch your for-sale thread.
 
Hi, my name is James and I'm a knifeaholic! :D I have more pieces of killer wood and quality steel than articles of clothing. I have literally eaten mac'n'cheese for three days running so I could afford a couple sweet chunks of figured walnut or ironwood... I feel mildly ashamed, but not really.

Dang you, Rex, you're an enabler! :D I'm definitely interested in some scales, and I will watch your for-sale thread.

James,
If you think I'm an enabler right now, just wait until I get good enough to put some knives up on KD! I'm still paying my dues, and my knife prices will be priced below reasonable! Below good common sense, but that is how dues are paid, and getting my work out there in the hands of good folks that need knives, solid, hard core blades that will stand the test of time, that's my goal anyway! Please do keep in mind, that the only reason the prices are so low now is because I got such a great deal on the wood I have right now. I would love to make a living doing this kind of work, but I never want to make a killing on any piece of wood, it just aint right in my mind,
Thanks James, Rex
 
The company that I was a manager at had a plant in Thailand. The entire product that came into my warehouse from them on pallets was mahogany, teak and ????
I still have boards of it in my shop.
They are pretty woods.
2thumbs
 
The company that I was a manager at had a plant in Thailand. The entire product that came into my warehouse from them on pallets was mahogany, teak and ????
I still have boards of it in my shop.
They are pretty woods.
2thumbs

IG,
When Hyundai was building the new plant in Montgomery, Al, the pallets and crates that the machinery was brought in all the crates were made of Teak. A friend of mine was a Deputy Sheriff for Montgomery County, on his patrol he rode around to the back and saw all the wood out there and asked what they were going to do with it and they were going to burn it!!! He asked if he could have it and they said sure. It had to be funny because he loaded up his patrol car for a week straight, actually went and bought a cordless circular saw so he could cut it up to fit in the car. Free Teak, that kinda stuff doesn't usually happen to me, but the deal I got on this Mahogany was pretty close, it took a lot of sweat and some cash, but sweat is free. And the price I thought was really low for what I got, if no one wants it for knife handles we're going to make some display cases, maybe some frames, and whatever else we can come up with, it is gorgeous wood, and some of it is highly figured. I guess what one culture calls junk wood another calls a treasure! Rex
 
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