Got wood? Or, what's your favourite handle material?

[RogerP]

I'm a big fan of wooden handles on a knife - the seemingly endless variation in colour, texture and grain provide ample choice. Plus, being a natural handle material, no two pieces will ever be exactly the same.

So what's your favourite wood? Makers, what's your most requested wood? Purveyors, what's your most popular wood? Post up a pic of your favourite wood-handled knife if you have one.



Roger

[cricket]

desert ironwood is my favorite wood, if I use bone, I like giraffe thats been stabilized or stag if I can afford it.....Ivory is good on the right type of knife.....You never know what the customer is going to want, so I try to have a variety to choose from.

[J.Arthur Loose]

I like maple curlies & birdeyes. This was some very nice curly maple. I should have taken the photo as a movie, so you could see the shift in light as it rolls around in that piece...

[Maxx]

Well three of my favorite types of wood are:

Stabilized birch burl:




Ironwood:




and Yew burl.



Of course there are many more, but theese are some of the best.

Regards
/Magnus

[Bearpaw]

I'm partial to curly maple and burl wood with whitetail deer and moose as backup.[IMG][/IMG]

[rhrocker]

Burly Mesquite!

[sjaqua]

So many woods, so little time. Yes wood is my favorite handle material as well. Done bone, done ivory (worthog tusk), done micarta and I keep coming back to wood.

I love how pink ivory works. It turns and carves almost like it doesn't have a grain structure (because rthe grain structure is so very small)

Bocote can work very well with right pattern weld to extend the pattern into the handle

English box wood is great for historic reproductions

And, I just found North African bloodwood. I don't think it can be beat for a deep UV stable red tone.

But you know everyone has a fall back. And mine happens to be walnut.

[titaniumdoctor]

Wow Max, If those are your knives, I'm envious. They are stunning. I don't think I've seen nicer straight knives than the ones you have pictured. Well wait...... I very much like Dusty Moulton's knives also, but what you're showing here is very cool. And to contribute to the thread here......I'm a big fan of amboyna burl and ebony. If you can drop it on the floor and it sounds like a piece of aluminum, then it's my kinda wood. Rock on kidlets.

[Andrew Garrett]

Does anyone else see that... or is it just me?

[Maxx]

Thanks titaniumdoctor, those are some of the knives I have made. I appreciate your kind words. I am honored to be mentioned in the same sentence as Dusty Moulton.

Andrew,... see what?

Regards
/Magnus

[RogerP]

Thanks a lot for the responses. This is far from scientific, and does not even qualify as a poll, but I tabulated the responses from here and two other forums where I posted the same thread and these are the results.

Note ? a wood had to be mentioned more than once to make this final list.

Interestingly enough, there were 4 woods that ranked WAY ahead of the rest of the pack. Why not try to guess which 4 before you read further and find out?..




The Number 1 spot, an undisputed (and unofficial) champeen of the wood: Desert Ironwood (18 responses)




We have a Tie for second with Walnut (all varieties ? black walnut, claro etc.)




and Maple (again, all varieties ? burl, fiddleback etc.) both with 15 responses.



In Fourth Place ? and the only other wood in double-digits, we have African Blackwood with 12 responses



The Best of the Rest


Amboyna - 7 responses (including all 7 different spellings)

Box Elder ? 6 responses

California Buckeye Burl ? 5

Koa ? 5

Afzelia - 4

Cocobolo ? 4

Snakewood ? 4

Ebony ? 3

Mesquite ? 3

Lignum Vitae ? 3

Thuya ? 3

Maidou ? 3

Olivewood ? 2

Ring Gidgee ? 2

Birch ? 2

Bloodwood - 2


Roger

PS - the suprise of the list for me - lignum vitae ties with ebony.

[J.Arthur Loose]

Wood is good.

[Les Robertson]

Is there anything more beautiful than Carbon Fiber!

Some of my favorites that I have had put on knives are:

Mammoth Tooth

Tortise (legally harvested)

Amber

Tigers Eye

Blue Tigers Eye

Malachite (tough to find big pieces, difficult to work gives off arsenic when you work it)

Some Jaspers (Difficult stone to work)

Lavender Jade (absolutely gorgeous stone)

Dark black/brown Fossil Walrus Ivory

Perhaps my most favorite is Lapis Lazuli

[J.Arthur Loose]

Some of these things are not like the others... :confused:

[Les Robertson]

Ok, wood content. I like Blonde Desert Ironwood. English Walnut and selected burls.

I forgot one other material...Fossil Dinosaur bone. It was awesome materials.