Teak wood

[gwriffer]

Does anyone here know if teak wood makes for a good handle material? It seems to be extremly dense.

GW

[Ansoknives]

Teak makes very good handles. When I started to make knives many years ago my main source for handlematerial was old teakfurnitures......its a very good wood but maybe abit "dull" as there is not much grain in it. But besides the plain looks its just about perfect. Youd want to clean very well with acetone before gluing to the knife to remove as much of the oils on the surface as possible.

[gwriffer]

Thanks Jens,

Someone just droped off a good supply to me. They were wondering if I could use it and so was I, that's good to know.

[Ansoknives]

I just remembered that later I was using thick pieces of teak with the endgrain showing on the sides of the knife. I used them on sticktang knives on the fron and liked the looks very much..still do but I mostly do fulltang knives now.

[JimmySeymour]

If you buff it on a buffer go at it with a very slow speed. I made a knife with a teak handle and the buffing wheel cut a gouge in it the width of the wheel in about a second.

[Phydeaux]

Many years ago, one of my friends was gracious to give me some teak to "play" with. One item of interest he pointed out to me is that when the teak grows, it gets alot of sand and silica in it. This will tend to dull tools faster. He also mentioned I may see an occasional spark!

The other warning he gave me (about the teak he gave me) is that it was from a salvaged battle ship. The implication of this is that there may be pieces of shrapnel imbedded in the wood. You probably won't need to worry about it.

If the teak grain looks too "boring" you could cut a groove or dovetail and inlay a contrasting wood or other material.

One of type of wood that I'd like to try for a handle is bamboo. I have some bamboo cooking utensils which go thru the dishwasher (most often me), get soaked for hours in soapy water and still don't warp and crack.

Phydeaux