What makes a piece of wood exhibition grade?

Burl Source

Forum Owner & Moderator
I have been real hesitant to call a piece of wood "Exhibition Grade" or "Presentation Grade" because I have seen the designation used so loosely. I have done so a couple times, but only on pieces where there was no doubt.

Does anyone know of an official source of the grading requirements for a piece of wood to be designated with the different grades. I cut so much burl that what I think is normal good stuff could be the best someone else has ever seen.

I have been using designations like; really cool, weird stuff, bizarre and other off the wall comments. Not very professional on my part. A few suppliers have been buying blocks from me and reselling them as exhibition grade.

I figure if I graded the pieces correctly it may help add value to your finished knives. Do the designations; A Grade, Presentation Grade or Exhibition Grade have any importance to you? Or do you just base things on the look of the individual piece?
 
I am more familiar with gunstock blanks. But with them you started to get into exhibition grade wood when you started to get around 90% or more of the blank into figure and good color and have the right grain flow through the grip. Depended of course on who was grading it:) But most exibition is full figured. I have seen alot of your stuff that would meet this so don't know if knife blanks are different?
 
Old Tree Gun Blanks states they grade their blanks thus:
...................................................................
Exhibition Select:Exceptional one-of-a-kind pieces.

Exhibition:100% figure, nice color, one-of-a-kind pieces.

Fancy Select:75% figure, nice color.

Fancy:Nice color, 50% figure.

Semi-Fancy:Nice color, 10% figure or better.

Utility:plain wood, nice color and grain flow. Our utility grade wood is in fact considered fancy by many people's standards and is a lot prettier, and higher quality, than most of your factory stocks. Remember, most of your factory stocks are kiln dried.
................................................................

From what I've seen,knife blocks/scales are graded pretty much the same.
Some folks may look for "pedigree terms" when shoping for wood,
but I simply look for what my eyes tell me is nice stuff.
"Really cool, weird stuff, bizarre and other off the wall comments"
may not help sell the "wood snobs",but they work for me:D
(maybe because all those terms applyto me?!);)
 
Last edited:
Great question. I've had to wrestle with this one myself.

I think it is a carry over marketing/descriptive term from the custom gun stock side of things. I'm not sure there is an official definition. In fact I'm pretty sure there is no official definition.

For exhibition grade, what ever that is, I would tend to think of a fancy burl that is 100% figure, even color and high contrast with no checks, splits or inclusions. An example of that might be Box Elder burl that is tight eyes through out the piece and is all yellow with no red stains. Getting all eyes, with an even yellow or golden color and no red stains isn't all that tough to find but it is a fairly small percentage of good Box Elder burl. I'd say a deal breaker for "exhibition grade" for this wood is color changing from yellow to white (fairly common) or red stain of any kind. Finding Box Elder burl with all solid, tight eyes is tough also. Most pieces have only partial eyes and then fade to ribbon or rays.

"Exhibition grade" Ironwood (non burl) would be different than Ironwood Burl would be different than Black Palm.

One other thing to consider, and again this is only an opinion, would be how relatively rare the wood is. I'm not sure I would understand redwood burl being marketed as exhibition grade as redwood burl is not all that rare or unusual even though it is great looking wood.
 
Last edited:
Tracy, thank you for the well thought out answer.

I guess with some woods it will be obvious, others a matter of opinion.
Some woods can have so many variations that it is hard to say which is better. Here is an example of some Maple Burl blocks.
ld003.jpg
 
I simply look for what my eyes tell me is nice stuff.
"Really cool, weird stuff, bizarre and other off the wall comments"
may not help sell the "wood snobs",but they work for me:D
(maybe because all those terms applyto me?!);)

Ironwolf,
I like the way you think. I probably wouldn't get along with the wood snobs anyways so I will stick to being myself and dealing with people like you. Besides, the wood snobs would probably think I'm crazy if I told them about how Bigfoot and UFOs cause the trees to grow burls around here.
 
Last edited:
lol,cool!
Have you ever noticed at a party,sometimes there's that one person who really knows their stuff when it comes to wine,but is so caught up in their own Ego that the rest of us are thrown into shadow by their 'brilliance'?
You know the ones:they LOVE the sound of their own voice describing the
"bold,yet unassuming statement the grapes make,proclaiming the warmth of the sun kissed earth that bore them:and the sublime yet haunting refrain that lingers like a lover's kiss upon the lips"...;) (you'd think they cradled that grape in the palm of their own hands while it grew...)
lol,I've met a couple people who are like that with wood too!
While I'm impressed with their knowledge of woods,the fact they they are even more impressed with themselves is just sad.
I think most of us (knifemaker types)are simply wonder-struck by the Art that Nature creates for us,and adding it to a well made,beautifully crafted knife never fails to evoke that awe in me.
 
Back
Top