Handles

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Bigfoot joe

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I've made a couple of knives already but only done a Paracord wrap for the
Handle but I got some madrone scales to handle a knife with what is the best way to finish the wood? Rub with linseed oil and then seal with bees wax or is there a better way please help
 
Bigfoot joe said:
I've made a couple of knives already but only done a Paracord wrap for the
Handle but I got some madrone scales to handle a knife with what is the best way to finish the wood? Rub with linseed oil and then seal with bees wax or is there a better way please help
Click to expand...

Hey Joe,

First off, do you know if it is stabilized. I know madrone moves a lot if it's not completely dry or has not been stabilized. If it's pretty dry linseed oil and beeswax would be fine. Another option is truoil. With either linseed or truoil put a coat on and let it dry for a few hours, then put another coat. I would keep doing this until you're happy with the color or you get tired of waiting ;) then sand the oil smooth, clean it off, then apply your wax.

If it happens to be stabilized, hand sand to a high grit and hit it with the buffer.
 
Hey Jeremy I don't know if it's stabilized or not I got it from a place that sells handle material for knives and other things so now a new question how would I go about stabilizing it
 
I wouldn't suggest hitting it with a hammer, it could crack or chip out
Stabilized wood, in my opinion is very subjective these days I think, with K&G at the top. of course this is just my opinion and others here may disagree but I've used some woods that were advertised as stabilized that I think were laughable to title them as such.
That's not too say they were junk, just not thru and thru stabilized. that leads back to your question.
With wood that has a proper stabilization you can sand down to 600 grit and buff and it will come out beautiful, on woods that are sold as "stabilized" but were done by a home brewer....for lack of a better term, and no offense meant to anyone here that does it that way... you can find voids and areas inside the wood as you sand that if you use a buffer they'll pull in compound and leave you with a blotchy messy looking handle. the best thing to do is put a finish on the block or scales before you put it on the knife to see what your going to have to deal with later. usually after 600 down to 1500 a few coats of wax or a couple thin coats of tru oil will finish any wood that's questionable.
 
Hey thanks yall except to the guy that said hit it with a hammer lol so stabilized means it's been properly dried..... Can't wait to start the handle process just out of curiosity what kinda epoxy do y'all use
 
I won't try to detail describe stabilization here because the way I type the sun will be coming up on me tomorrow, but it's not termed as properly dried wood.
It's actually treated with polymers and acrylics in a vacuum - pressure container. in theory...the chemicals are pulled into every fiber in the wood, then it's cured, then put to market.
I use all kinds of regular wood but I live in Florida. right now it rains every day and the humidity is at 90% at 7:00 in the morning.
shipping a knife with regular wood that I finished last week and shipping it to Las Vegas tomorrow could present problems with the handle shrinking or other undesirable things happening, on the other hand, if I used stabilized wood that's been treated I wouldn't give it a second thought....that's the idea behind it, it's been stabilized to prevent any movement or at least minimize it.
It's expensive, but it mostly all I use.
 
if your handle is wood, use wood finishes. I prefer Deftane oil based polyurethane(hardest finish but darkens the wood and takes 8+ hours to dry) or Rust-o-leum water based polyurethane for floors(clear, no darkening, one hour recoat time). Boiled linseed oil and wax make an ok finish but takes days to dry and sweats when hot. for epoxy to start, go to walmart and buy epoxy with an ape on the label or says jb.
 
that will work, but try the Devcon 2 Ton next time. it takes a bit longer to set and is waterproof. the important thing is making sure the wood and the steel are clean and oil free. i usually wipe both sides down with alcohol right before gluing.
 
Sorry about the hammer blow comment guys. Seem's its not for everybody LOL. I did a demo the other day to someone to show the difference between non-stabilized blanks and blanks that I stabilized. While the non stabilized maple burl showed a dent from the ball peen hammer the stabilized piece was impervious to denting. No need to wallop the piece hard enough to crack or chip. My comment was simply a quick and easy way to tell if a piece was stabilized or not which the poster was trying to determine.
 
It's all good brother I laughed at it....scott thats all Lowe's had at the time I wanted the 2ton but just settled this knife is for a friend to handed down to his boys when they are of age so I don't think it'll see alot of use
 
For wood handles here's the two methods I use(neither involve true-oil which I find excruciatingly slow!):

The first is sand to finish and using an artists brush coat with a UV epoxy and cure in sunlight or with UV cure light. (I use the cure light) Rock hard in 3 minutes. Sand again for finish and if needed (pores etc) do another coat and cure and finish sand. Then buff. This is REALLY a fast finish. It also takes some technique. Buffs out AMAZING!

Method two is the one I prefer as I don't have to be on my A game. When getting close to finish sanding on the handle use minwax pre-stain sealer. It's very "watery"and dries very quick. When sanding leave some dust in the pores and then with a very soft flat artists brush do one quick coat of sealer. If you brush over twice you'll pull your dust out of the pores. In about 15 minutes you can sand again and then fill pores. when pores are good then you sand for final shape and seal again. When everything is dried and epoxied then I lower the knife into a small crockpot of hot carnuba wax. Then I lower it into a small hot empty crockpot and let the extra drip off. Then buff.. that's it. Finish is hard and amazing.

Since my long term goal is semi-production knives, I have been putting in serious hours on every aspect of finishing knives. Give either a try before critiquing....lol. I'm not saying this is the best method, and maybe guys are faster than me with true oil....but I get bogged down on finishing and needed something that will work on less than full custom knives.

I love oak handles. They remind me of grandpas old carbon steel kitchen knives. But i hate the pores. Since I developed that last method I am finishing up some red oak handles for a skinning knife I started months ago and then regretted the oak handles. Not any more lol....

You can see open pores where I have been reshaping (I kind of bounce back and forth between filling pores and shaping the handle as I always see need for change/improvement on feel/asthetics of the handles) Those pores will fill very quickly. On the higher part of the handle the pores are completely filled.)but that may change today if I don't like the feel on the blade...lol) This method allows easy change as I don't have huge amounts of time invested in finishing.

The two tiny holes in the tip of the handles are some kind of bug hole....still need to fill those and remove some red stain marks. I'm sanding with 320 grit in the pics. the pre-stain sealer dries hard and doesn't leave sand marks on the wood easily.

this last method is very quick on maple. I have also done an entire birch gunstock this way and it was quick!

I'll post the finished knife when it's done.

I put this post up as I am also new to this craft and perhaps these two methods will help streamline things for new guys (and old guys that are not mired in tradition...no offense meant...if it's working for you...cool.:)) when I get to the semi-production point I hope to be using the epoxy on a small conveyor belt with a gang of lights...but that's a ways off!

Hope this helps.

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Thanks y'all alot of different methods to use or try I'll have to think about it and pick one lol when I'm with this handle I will post pics of the final product but I don't see it happening anytime soon due to me being a perfectionist
 
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