Iron&Light
Member
Hi Everyone,
I'm new to the forum so please forgive me if this should be posted elsewhere.
I hand forge sporting knives using mainly traditional materials. I use a lot of local woods like walnut, maple, cherry and Osage orange for the handles. I have not stabilized them in a vacuum chamber as many people do with natural stuff, I just use solid woods and oil finishes. I like to keep the materials natural.
My question for all the makers out there is this; How do you keep the metal dust from your corby, bolster or tang from embedding in the wood grain when you are shaping or polishing a natural wood handle? Polishing is worse. Even if you use a white compound on the wheel, you end up getting grey metal dust from the exposed tang( or brass from bolster etc) in the compound and rubbing it deeply into the wood grain, where it can't be removed. Filling the grain seems like the answer, and I have tried to do that before the polish and after the shaping, but without a polymer filler like cactus juice, there is still enough space to totally discolor the wood grain.
I just turned a gorgeous bright yellow handle made of Osage orange into a streaky grey mess.
Any useful advice would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance,
Cameron
I'm new to the forum so please forgive me if this should be posted elsewhere.
I hand forge sporting knives using mainly traditional materials. I use a lot of local woods like walnut, maple, cherry and Osage orange for the handles. I have not stabilized them in a vacuum chamber as many people do with natural stuff, I just use solid woods and oil finishes. I like to keep the materials natural.
My question for all the makers out there is this; How do you keep the metal dust from your corby, bolster or tang from embedding in the wood grain when you are shaping or polishing a natural wood handle? Polishing is worse. Even if you use a white compound on the wheel, you end up getting grey metal dust from the exposed tang( or brass from bolster etc) in the compound and rubbing it deeply into the wood grain, where it can't be removed. Filling the grain seems like the answer, and I have tried to do that before the polish and after the shaping, but without a polymer filler like cactus juice, there is still enough space to totally discolor the wood grain.
I just turned a gorgeous bright yellow handle made of Osage orange into a streaky grey mess.
Any useful advice would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance,
Cameron