Cheapest knife handle material to use for experience?

T

teter09

Well-Known Member
Hey guys, I'm just starting out and know I'll make lots of knives that aren't worth squat and will be thrown out. I was wondering what handle material is cheapest but will still yield the experience I need to develop those skills? I wasn't sure if micarta or G10 could be found in larger sheets and cut down for cheap, or perhaps just a regular board of any ol' hardwood I can cut down for scales?

Also, another handle material related question.... I had a friend clean out his dads wood shop and sell me some burl pieces he had. Two are 4 inches square and the third is 2 inches thick. They are covered in wax and I wasn't sure about the best way to get that wax off so they can dry. I wasn't sure if I should just scrape it off and sand the sides or try a heat gun to see if I can get the wax to melt or any other suggestions?
 
When I first started I used red cedar, black walnut and paracord for handles. The wood was free and the paracord was cheap. About any hard wood can be used and even some of the softer wood could be used if stabilized.
 
I bought some Corion from Ebay when I started. got plenty of it for around $20. you can also ask around some places that work with it and might be able to get scraps cheaper. easy to work, takes a nice polish and looks good when finished.
 
I still get some scrap from a guitar maker. Give him .50 per set of scales, his trash is my gold. Black ash, cherry, walnut, and curly maple mainly. I also get some hardwood scraps from a cabinet maker, all I can husk away every two months, I made him a skinner out of 1/2 a rasp. Sends me clients too.

Might be time to make him another one...
 
Teter09,
Like others has said. You can't beat free!
Furniture, Guitar makers, Counter top & wooden floor installers just to name a few all have trash that's big enough for us to use as handles of Wood, Corian etc..

I just gave away some stabilized Bamboo flooring that makes a decent handle that I got a entire 4ft x18"x18" box of from a friend that had it left over from a flooring job. I have used this on some kitchen knife rehandles and a few kitchen knives of my own. It's not presentation grade or course but it makes a usable handle and would work fine for you to work with and get a few complete knives under your belt!

If you want a small Priority mail box full of it?
It's about enough for at least 6-8 sets of scales. Just agree to cover shipping and P.M. me by clicking on my rhinoknives icon.

Laurence

www.rhinoknives.com
 
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I went to Lowes and bought a 2ft plank of Premium Oak when I first started. I think it was around $6 or somewhere in that neighborhood. I made several knife scales from that plank and I still have some left! I'm sure any hardware or home improvement store/lumber yard would have a short piece of premium lumber for you.
 
The best places to look are areas where you can take old wooden pieces, furniture, even old pallets that were made in other countries have yielded very good even beautiful handle material! The other place to look is the firewood bin. If you have any seasoned oak HICKORY is a good one, just about anything you can cut down to make a handle out of will work. THINK OUT OF THE BOX! I say that because there are plenty of different types of wooden pieces that could be re-purposed for knife handles. Some even loomk as good if not better than bought pieces! Hope this helps, Rex
 
McClellan Made Blades said:
The best places to look are areas where you can take old wooden pieces, furniture, even old pallets that were made in other countries have yielded very good even beautiful handle material! The other place to look is the firewood bin. If you have any seasoned oak HICKORY is a good one, just about anything you can cut down to make a handle out of will work. THINK OUT OF THE BOX! I say that because there are plenty of different types of wooden pieces that could be re-purposed for knife handles. Some even loomk as good if not better than bought pieces! Hope this helps, Rex
Click to expand...

I once found a 20 year + old pallet from south America that was made from Cocobolo wood.
It yielded many great looking handles.

Laurence

www.rhinoknives.com
 
The lumber yards around here carry a wood used for decking called Ipe. It's heavy, tough as nails, doesn't need stabilized and one board will make a BUNCH of handles.

Shane
 
About the burl, I wouldn't use a heat gun to remove the wax unless you absolutely HAVE to. I'd scrape it away first and sand off the waxy areas, then have it stabilized. The heat gun could burn the wood before it melted the wax. You could set it out in the sun for a couple hours on a hot day.
 
wood for scales is everywhere. I found spalted maple, burl, ambrosia maple, and curly maple splitting firewood. pallets and wood packing crates may be poplar, oak, or maple.
scott
 
Ipe, south American hardwood, has a nice fine grain, is water proof and is nearly hard as nails. Most deck makers around my parts have a lot of usable piece after each job.
Made this primitive style hunter with some:

rps20130216_015950.jpg

Photo just before lanyard tube and final finish.

Free wood is really great to start with!
 
scott.livesey said:
wood for scales is everywhere. I found spalted maple, burl, ambrosia maple, and curly maple splitting firewood. pallets and wood packing crates may be poplar, oak, or maple.
scott
Click to expand...

Scott,
That is assuming the pallets/shipping crates ORIGINATED in the U.S. where those are commonly used woods, for that purpose. When Hyundai was building the new manufacturing complex in Montgomery, Alabama, a Deputy friend of mine was cruising the area, he saw some shipping crates that some sort of machines where shipped in, he noticed the wood and that it looked , as he said, "interesting". He asked if they were going to throw it out and if so could he have some of it, they told him he could have all he could get before they BURNED IT!!! Not knowing what it was, only that it was "interesting'', he grabbed as much as he could safely put in his Deputy car, he took it home and set it aside, ....and went to bed as he was working the 3rd shift, sorta forgot about it until a few days later, on Saturday his youngest son was looking through their wood pile for wood to build a coffee table for a Scout badge, he was already pretty good at woodworking, and found that wood, after a little research they found out that it was TEAK! I can't remember exactly what kind of Teak, it wasn't like any I'd seen before as this stuff was gorgeous! It wasn't straight grained at all and made a beautiful coffee table, even though it was made by a 12 year old!

Hyundai is a Korean company, I asked him why would they use Teak for shipping crates?!? He said he did go back and try to get more but they had burned it, he told them that they burned some beautiful Teak wood, and asked where they thought it came from, he was told that no one knew for sure, that there were multiple pieces of equipment there, coming from all over the world. Best guess was that it came from any piece of equipment in there that was built in a country that uses Teak wood like we use pine. Kind of a broad guess I said, and he agreed, he kept watching for more, but no luck..., unless he was holding out on me....

I know someone mentioned Luthier makers, which I did get some nice pieces of Claro Walnut from one, but it's in a big city too far away from me to make it worth while for me to go for a visit. If I am in the big city of Birmingham, I do stop in and talk with the fellow and see if he has any scraps he'd like me to "throw away" for HIM! Honestly, all you have to do is ask! They'll usually give it to you, not always, I wouldn't go in expecting them to just give it to you, you may have to give them a knife, or a few bucks, they know what they have is of some value for you to go in there, so offer them "some value", meaning, either ask them how much they'd charge you for it, if what they want is too much for the piece, either give a counter offer, or just say sorry, explain your learning how to make knives and that you're on a tight budget, and was hoping to find a real good deal, a little (just a little) poor mouthing goes a long way. That you didn't want to put a lot of money into handle material that there's a good chance you will probably mess up the knife, the wood or both! Trust me, they will understand that, as they will recall learning their craft and the pains it took to learn their trade. Personally, I prefer to pay for it over trading a future knife, that is of course, if the price is right. And the wood is exceptional! Which I may add, it will be, because they always use BEAUTIFUL WOOD, especially the custom makers, they seek out the prettiest wood out there, I would go as far as to say they are as bad as some of us, if not worse....than some of us...not all! Some of us are a bit, err, OBSESSIVE!!!! And YES! I am talking about, ME! My wife swears I have started a wood collection, I even have one prized piece of beautiful Amboyna Burl that I have displayed on the mantle over my fireplace, yeah, I'm just a little sick! But it's a good kind of sick!
Hope his helps, Rex
 
Lots of good advice given about handle materials already but I'd like to point out a couple things.

Don't discredit you first knives that haven't even been made yet. You'll probably suprise yourself with what you can do.

Your early knives may not be worth alot to collectors etc. but they'll be worth alot to you and/or family members co-workers etc who may end up getting one.

I had the same idea of stocking up on a bunch of handle material as a beginner. I quickly found out that I was still buying new handle material just because I wanted to use something different.

Curly Maple makes a beautiful handle and boards can always be found on ebay for cheap. For the cost of a single stabilized block you can get ALOT of curly maple. Micarat makes a great handle and is cheap also. Picking up 3 or 4 sets of scales in different colors is a good idea IMHO.

$20 worth of handle material will keep you busy for quite awhile as a newbie.

If you wanted to schedule a shop visit on the weekend I could hook you up with some handle material to get you on your way. I would like to point out though that for the cost of the gas you could just order some stuff. I'm about 55 minutes from Orlando International Airport.

-Josh
 
Wow, Thanks everyone for the feedback. I actually never thought of trying to locate sources for scrap which I could use. I had originally posted thinking I'd get recommendations on a few wood types that would be okay without stabilization and thus cheaper than things like burl blocks or decorative wood. I love the look of wood handles, so getting scraps I can use would be right up my alley!
 
Josh Dabney said:
If you wanted to schedule a shop visit on the weekend I could hook you up with some handle material to get you on your way. I would like to point out though that for the cost of the gas you could just order some stuff. I'm about 55 minutes from Orlando International Airport.

-Josh
Click to expand...


Teter09,
Don't look at the opportunity to visit Josh as a chance to score some handle material, look at it as a chance to visit with a REAL knifemaker that can open your eyes up to entirely new world!!!! I know my first visit with a real knifemaker was all it took to solidify my obsession, actually seeing a knife being made, no matter what part of the process you get to see. For me it was like lighting the fire to a DRAGON!!!! I also got to do a little forging as well...that was it for me,
{in Alabama speak},"I was rurnt", and I mean for good! There was nothing I could think about after that one afternoon, and at the time I didn't have an anvil, a forge or even a usable hammer, I quickly learned the value (and personal satisfaction) of being able to build as much of my own equipment as possible.
Until that point in my life, (42 years old) I had not ever built anything like a knife, much less a forge, had never done any kind of metal work, I had done some woodworking but that is about it, so you can see that I started my new obsession off pretty much BLIND! I'm saying all of that to say this, since I started making knives, I've since taught myself to weld, built my own forge (with the help of a lot of help from these guys here on KD), built all of my work benches in my shop, and have learned about so many other things I can't even think of right now, my point is that it was THAT visit to a knifemakers shop that REALLY opened this world up for me, actually SEEING it done, takes you passed the mystique, it puts it into perspective like nothing else can. Do not pass up the opportunity to visit any knifemaker you get the chance to visit! Each one will offer you insight that you wouldn't get any where else! And the chance to visit a maker as good as Josh! Dang! What a deal, I'd be scheduling right now if I was within 2,..OK, maybe 3 hours of Josh!

Just my 2 cents worth, I know how much it helps to know what the right things to do are, I just wanted to make sure you didn't miss this RIGHT thing, this time!~ Rex
 
Visit Josh Dabney.
That being said, i went through all the other posts, and i learned quite a few things myself, i think no one covered this tho
In my opinion wood would require more effort and detail to go to nice finish, if thats what youre looking for, if not i would say get some of the synthetic materials, with experience you can finish them on your grinder if you have one or with minimal hand finishing skills (like the onea i have)
So i think you best consider what you want your first knife to be, practice, heavier practice, or just something to break 'the first knife curse' (which in my opinion is not a good idea) as Josh said, consider your first to be a good knife, dont lower expectations or value of it.
Another way to think about it, if you read knife making books, consider Bob Loveless or Wayne Goddard when they post the picture of their very first knife, now thats gotta be something, if not for its monetary value, then for sentimental one
 
Wax is used to slow the drying process. If the wood has had time to dry you can scrape the wax off but if the wood is not completely dry scraping the wax off can cause the wood to dry to fast and develop cracks.
 
McClellan Made Blades said:
Scott,
That is assuming the pallets/shipping crates ORIGINATED in the U.S. where those are commonly used woods, for that purpose. When Hyundai was building the new manufacturing complex in Montgomery, Alabama, a Deputy friend of mine was cruising the area, he saw some shipping crates that some sort of machines where shipped in, he noticed the wood and that it looked , as he said, "interesting". He asked if they were going to throw it out and if so could he have some of it, they told him he could have all he could get before they BURNED IT!!! Not knowing what it was, only that it was "interesting'', he grabbed as much as he could safely put in his Deputy car, he took it home and set it aside, ....and went to bed as he was working the 3rd shift, sorta forgot about it until a few days later, on Saturday his youngest son was looking through their wood pile for wood to build a coffee table for a Scout badge, he was already pretty good at woodworking, and found that wood, after a little research they found out that it was TEAK! I can't remember exactly what kind of Teak, it wasn't like any I'd seen before as this stuff was gorgeous! It wasn't straight grained at all and made a beautiful coffee table, even though it was made by a 12 year old!

Hyundai is a Korean company, I asked him why would they use Teak for shipping crates?!? He said he did go back and try to get more but they had burned it, he told them that they burned some beautiful Teak wood, and asked where they thought it came from, he was told that no one knew for sure, that there were multiple pieces of equipment there, coming from all over the world. Best guess was that it came from any piece of equipment in there that was built in a country that uses Teak wood like we use pine. Kind of a broad guess I said, and he agreed, he kept watching for more, but no luck..., unless he was holding out on me....

I know someone mentioned Luthier makers, which I did get some nice pieces of Claro Walnut from one, but it's in a big city too far away from me to make it worth while for me to go for a visit. If I am in the big city of Birmingham, I do stop in and talk with the fellow and see if he has any scraps he'd like me to "throw away" for HIM! Honestly, all you have to do is ask! They'll usually give it to you, not always, I wouldn't go in expecting them to just give it to you, you may have to give them a knife, or a few bucks, they know what they have is of some value for you to go in there, so offer them "some value", meaning, either ask them how much they'd charge you for it, if what they want is too much for the piece, either give a counter offer, or just say sorry, explain your learning how to make knives and that you're on a tight budget, and was hoping to find a real good deal, a little (just a little) poor mouthing goes a long way. That you didn't want to put a lot of money into handle material that there's a good chance you will probably mess up the knife, the wood or both! Trust me, they will understand that, as they will recall learning their craft and the pains it took to learn their trade. Personally, I prefer to pay for it over trading a future knife, that is of course, if the price is right. And the wood is exceptional! Which I may add, it will be, because they always use BEAUTIFUL WOOD, especially the custom makers, they seek out the prettiest wood out there, I would go as far as to say they are as bad as some of us, if not worse....than some of us...not all! Some of us are a bit, err, OBSESSIVE!!!! And YES! I am talking about, ME! My wife swears I have started a wood collection, I even have one prized piece of beautiful Amboyna Burl that I have displayed on the mantle over my fireplace, yeah, I'm just a little sick! But it's a good kind of sick!
Hope his helps, Rex
Click to expand...

Rex, "I think?"
China owns big parts of forest in Brazil for instance.
So the wood for the pallet's you are referring too could have traveled from Brazil to China to Brazil, to any where in the world since many mfg countries may have no hardwoods or other natural resources of their own to start with. S. Korea is another example of a country with little to start with that makes many things.

Laurence

www.rhinoknives.com
 
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