Salvaged goods for knife parts/handles question?

[Fulmaduro]

This last weekend while cleaning out my garage I came across numerous items that I thought might make good handles and parts for some knife projects. I found a beautifully figured but damaged antique oak pressback chair. A new laminated bamboo cutting board that was cracked down the middle. A highly firgured small oak medicine cabinet from the 1800's. Brass artillery shell casings and .50cal machine gun brass from my Marine Corps artillery days.

I would like to know what anybody else here has found and salvaged for this purpose? Weird stuff too. I don't believe I am the only one here see things and wonder if they would be good cut up and used on a knife. Thanks for any input.

Tony Z

[Ed Tipton]

Fulmaduro...Of course others look for these things. About the only thing that "salvage" cannot provide is steel that has a known pedigree. Other than the steel, almost anything you can think of has been used for handle material. The only restriction is what you can imagine.....however...not all of these ideas have resulted in quality handle materials. As always, the intended use of the knife needs to be taken under consideration, and if a given material is ill-advised for that purpose, then you should probably consider an alternative material.

[Ray Rogers]

I used a 20mm cannon shell as the handle on a very large meat cleaver once ...

[Cthulhu]

Originally Posted by Ray Rogers

I used a 20mm cannon shell as the handle on a very large meat cleaver once ...

Ray, I remember working with those 20mms in my Navy days as an Aviation Ordnanceman on the Forrestal.

They always made me nervous. No firing pins for those bad boys, they're electrically fired, requiring something like .2 amps to fire. Not much, static electricity level. When we were loading the ammo drums for the A7 Corsairs, I was always secretly terrified one would get set off, as some of the other guys weren't as fastidious about grounding themselves out as I was.

And you can imagine the damage one of those things could do in a shipboard magazine......