Knife Making Supplies: Trade/barter ?

[Mertell]

I burn wood to heat my home. In so doing, I handle 4 cords each year. I can recognize a diamond in the rough from time to time. I cut so many oak crotches and burls that I cannot count them all.

Attached pic is of a white oak crotch that I recently salvaged from the "burn box" to the "save until further review" box.

The golden question is:

*** Is this good knife scale material? Or will it break?
(I have the means to machine this "rough blank" down to proper size.)

***Is there anyone out there who wishers to trade / barter for such material and or the rough steel I have: truck springs, old files, saw blades.....

-Mert

[Camp10]

Did you feel me cringe when I read that you cut and burn burls? There is no short answer to whether this will make a good handle or if it will break. There is a process that can make almost any wood in almost any condition good enough to be a handle. I am assuming this is seasoned for firewood and if it is and not checked up than I would say it is ok to use. I stabilize all the wood I use first but some makers dont and they seem to get by just fine. If this was a burl, I would be interested in making a deal but I have plenty of wood right now and several knives ahead of me that need to be finished. Have you thought of trying your own hand at making it into a knife?

[crashdive123]

I'm still in the discovery phase of finding out what is good and what isn't. I figure that will take at least another 20 years to figure out. When I visit the guy that is showing me the ropes, I am utterly amazed each and every time at some of the things that he experiments with for handle material. Stabalizing the material makes a huge difference in the end product. While non-stabalized material can make some beautiful handles, it seems that stabalizing them opens the door wide. He has made some gorgeous handles out of stabalized pine cones.

As far as barter - I'm pretty good for now on material. If we lived closer it might be more practical. Once you start mailing chunks of steel - it gets a tad expensive. As Camp10 suggested - you might like making your own. There are lots of folks that would be happy to help and guide you through the process.

[Ole WV Coot]

I've saved so much over the years a lot of it went back to firewood. White oak is tough to cut and work. If I were going to go to the trouble I do believe I would stabilize it. I don't simply because I use very well seasoned black walnut and fruit woods. The kind of knives I make aren't fancy so I just use what will last. Try it yourself.

[Mertell]

Thanks Guys,
I think I will give it a try. When you say "stabilize" just what do you mean? Anything beyond drying ?
My preferred treatment would be linseed oil.

-Mert

[crashdive123]

Thanks Guys,
I think I will give it a try. When you say "stabilize" just what do you mean? Anything beyond drying ?
My preferred treatment would be linseed oil.

-Mert

I have found that stabilize mean different things, depending on who says it. When I refer to stabilized handle material I mean that it has been injected with material that fills all of the pores. The guy helping me built his own equipment to do it (you can send things off to be stabilized). With his equipment he places the material in a cylinder, draws a vacuum and then pressurized it to about 3500 pounds. He can introduce dyes while it sits like this. The end product has no pores and really turns out nice.

I also tried the method that Old WV Coot told us about - coating with super glue - sanding - coating again.

Regardless of how you do it - if you are going to use wood - make sure it's dry.

[Camp10]

Thanks Guys,
I think I will give it a try. When you say "stabilize" just what do you mean? Anything beyond drying ?
My preferred treatment would be linseed oil.

-Mert

I built a machine similar to what Crash described but there is a simple way to get good results without much equipment. First off. this stuff can be dangerous! It can explode or burn if it gets near open flame...be careful!
Get a wide mouthed mason and a can of Minwax wood hardener. Cut your scales to roughly the size you will need for the knife...about 1-1/2" x 5" and 3/8" thick (x2).

Place these scales into the mason jar and pour the hardener in the jar so that it would cover the wood if the wood wasnt floating. Place the lid on loose.

Now it is similar to canning...place this jar in a pot with some water in the bottom and heat the pot until the hardener is warm..not really hot (remember..this stuff is bad!)just so it is warm enough to seal. When you get to this temperature, remove the jar from the pot and seal tighted the lid. It should seal when it reached room temperature. Now you just need to wait. The wood will sink to the bottom when the hardener gets into the pores and saturated the wood. I would rotate the jar a few times (every day or so)until the process is done.

Fish them out in a week or two and let them dry...there,done!