Oak as a knife handle unpopular?

It's because it generally doesn't have much interesting figure in it and it is prone to cracking. Stabilized bog oak is beautiful and is very popular.
 
I had a set of scales of "crotch oak" that really looked good when finished. They stayed in drawer for over a year, just didn't "look" like they would pop, but when I finally used them, wish I had more. I'm not sure about the cracking part - have not heard from customer and it's been a couple yr now.
 
Nebraska oak burl. Cut it myself.

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spend some time in the florida woods (and i suspect elsewhere as well) and you can find what I call hard-rock oak. some oak instead of rotting away apparently goes thru some sort of seasoning process and becomes almost petrified - it is so dense and heavy it is hard on saw blades (doesn't float)
If you select a crotch area or other gnarly portion you often end up with nice figuring. It finishes glass smooth - have several knives that came out very nice.
 
I will echo the others......98% of the time oak is too plain and boring (I do have a killer block of oak though).

Any plain boring wood type can have that one odd rare piece with interesting colors or figure.

One more tip....every maker, new to experienced, should put the absolute BEST piece of handle material they can on their knife every time.

I've heard the comments "I can't afford (justify) to put a $70 piece of wood on a $150 knife".

The truth is, you can't afford NOT to. To the vast majority of knife buyers (most are relatively uneducated about knives) the handle material is THE number one selling point. Put the best on you can.
 
J. Doyle said:
One more tip....every maker, new to experienced, should put the absolute BEST piece of handle material they can on their knife every time.

I've heard the comments "I can't afford (justify) to put a $70 piece of wood on a $150 knife".

The truth is, you can't afford NOT to. To the vast majority of knife buyers (most are relatively uneducated about knives) the handle material is THE number one selling point. Put the best on you can.
Click to expand...

I used to be exactly like this as in I didn’t want to spend a massive amount on handle material. After Buying some real crap off the many sellers on Instagram (most of them complete thieves looking to make a quick buck.) I will gladly pay significantly more to buy from a reputable dealer.
 
J. Doyle said:
I will echo the others......98% of the time oak is too plain and boring (I do have a killer block of oak though).

Any plain boring wood type can have that one odd rare piece with interesting colors or figure.

One more tip....every maker, new to experienced, should put the absolute BEST piece of handle material they can on their knife every time.

I've heard the comments "I can't afford (justify) to put a $70 piece of wood on a $150 knife".

The truth is, you can't afford NOT to. To the vast majority of knife buyers (most are relatively uneducated about knives) the handle material is THE number one selling point. Put the best on you can.
Click to expand...

I have quite a few customers choose koa for their knives. I tell them that there is a price range for it and send them pictures of several pieces with the prices. 95% of the time, they choose the most expensive piece. Nice wood sells a knife.
 
I agree. another thing that sell a knife is the accompanying sheath. I never understood how some folks offer their knives with out sheaths. I've seen makers at shows have a table of knives with no sheaths to go with them.
so now the buyer has to figure out how to transport it without getting sliced and find someone to make a sheath for it, which just brought the price up.
and for a lot of folks finding someone to make a nice sheath for a nice knife can be a problem.
as for me, I won't make a sheath for someone else's knife. I just don't have the time for that kind of business.
I've seen people lose sales at shows because of sloppy leather work or none at all.
 
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