need help w/handle material

B

Buck

Member
I am making a kitchen shantoku knife for a niece and have found this substance "Rhodonite"on a site but I don't know the porperties of it. what can I work it with sander,grinders,diamond?? I am new to the blog and my experience is in blacksmithing and can forge the steel but I have no exper. w/this handle mat. Any help ya'll can provide I would appr.

ps it states on Wikipedia it has a hardness of 5.5 to 6.5 for Rhodonite.
Thanks in advance,
Buck
 
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Is that "Rhodonite" the stone? Are you looking to use it for the entire handle or an accent? I do not have any experience with it, but I sure am curious to to see what some of the others here have to say about it.
 
Buck said:
I am making a kitchen shantoku knife for a niece and have found this substance "Rhodonite"on a site but I don't know the porperties of it. what can I work it with sander,grinders,diamond?? I am new to the blog and my experience is in blacksmithing and can forge the steel but I have no exper. w/this handle mat. Any help ya'll can provide I would appr.

ps it states on Wikipedia it has a hardness of 5.5 to 6.5 for Rhodonite.
Thanks in advance,
Buck
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Buck,
Ask the people on the site that you see it. If it's Stone, Pass on it. Not a good choice for a handle, But may be some made up name for a composite?

Laurence

www.rhinoknives.com/
 
Jantz sells that it is a composite and would work like stone and g10 kinda combined . I would use wood like stabilized curly maple for a santoku very pretty stuff and much easier to work with. kellyw
 
thanks for the reply it is to be a gift for a neice in culinary school, try as i might i don't want to put a pink handle on a blade but she is fru fru (girlie) and i saw this substance in like cracked "stone" look pink and black and that bridges the gap so to speak. So I thought I would give it a try, again thanks for the reply.

Buck
 
Buck said:
thanks for the reply it is to be a gift for a neice in culinary school, try as i might i don't want to put a pink handle on a blade but she is fru fru (girlie) and i saw this substance in like cracked "stone" look pink and black and that bridges the gap so to speak. So I thought I would give it a try, again thanks for the reply.

Buck
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Buck,
Go with Purple Heart or Red Heart woods, I've come across some that looks pink, And used it for a Woman's Culinary knives. They love it! Try ebay if you don't have a hardwood supplier near you.

Laurence

www.rhinoknives.com/
 
For a pink look, there is an African wood called Pink Ivory. True to its name, it has a vibrant pink tone and is very resistant to water. Here is a brush I turned from it a while ago. I may have a set of scales (depending on the size you need) that you can have if you don't mind paying the shipping. Shoot me a PM if I can help.

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HELLGAP said:
Jantz sells that it is a composite and would work like stone and g10 kinda combined . I would use wood like stabilized curly maple for a santoku very pretty stuff and much easier to work with. kellyw
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Yep on the wood! I don't know about that composite stuff, how it would be to work. If it works like stone, be prepared to purchase what lapidary equipment and tooling to work it, and it's not cheap.

If the material is soft with hard particles, it is going to be a real killer to work. It will probably clog your diamond stones and cutters, etc. Perhaps Jantz can answer questions pertaining to the material. They are very nice folks.

If you go to stone for the handle, it will look great but pray the knife doesn't get dropped. Some stone can be worked on your grinder belts.
 
Buck, if I were in your situation I would definitely hook up with Mike and work out a deal for some of that pink ivory!

It is a rather difficult wood to obtain, but I believe it will give you the look you're after.
I've had some that ranged from a "brownish pink" to some that was a deep reddish pink. And much that was a very bright neon type of pink.

If you decide to investigate it further, other names for that wood are purple ivory (seldom) or red ivory (more often), but the most common name is simply pink ivory.
 
I was in a similar situation as you. I was making a set of knives for my mom, and she has a very "established" theme going on in her kitchen. Needless to say, the colors I was looking for weren't readily available in typical synthetics (micarta, G10, etc.) but I thought about recon stone. Having never used it before, I asked the crew here and was cautioned by several about it being VERY brittle. While I'm sure it has its place in knifemaking, I didn't want to risk the project by choosing a less than optimal material for the sake of aesthetics. At that point, I ditched the idea of matching her theme, and used some very choice cocobolo I had been saving for a special project. I guess my point is: Use something predictable. Kitchen floors are hard, and restaurant kitchens are very busy, if not chaotic. Why risk having a handle crack or shatter when you could buy proven materials that would also look great?
 
Buck, I have a bit different view since I actually went to culinary school for a while.

This is kind of what my instructor told me when I asked about what knives to buy.

Culinary school is HARD on good knives with the amount of usage they get and they get banged around constantly with all the activity level of the students and the constant washing in big stainless sinks. They get knocked to the floor and dropped in the sinks. I would recommend something that is DURABLE rather than just for aesthetics. One other tip I would offer. If she is actually going to be using this knife in her school work, personalize it. Have her name either etched, or engraved on the blade and possibly put her initials on the handle. As sad as this is to say, if that knife isn't personalized, it stands a good chance of coming up missing. She is around a group of people who appreciate nice knives. That's not to say that it will happen to your niece, but it does happen. It's kind of weird but, culinary people tend to be an odd, rag tag bunch that ranges from normal everyday joes, to really wild punk hair, tats and piercings all over the body and everything in between.

My recommendation would be to make her a really durable one (like G10 or maybe Dymondwood from Janz) that isn't as "pretty" to use for school, but make her another REALLY nice and pretty one to present to her when she graduates. Even with the really durable one, I would personalize it.

Hope this helps.
 
I sell culinary production knives to the people in Culinary school.
some are just "out" for "good behavior" of the slammer and the nicer kids are always coming back to get another Boning or paring knife etc, that grew feet while they were at school!

Make her two Knives as has been suggested. And put here name or initials on it nice & BIG so that it doesn't look so inviting to thieves
 
You could make up some home made laminate like Micarta with Bondo Fiberglass Epoxy and fabrics. Durable as heck and then you could get the colors she wants/likes! I may be making up a camo batch with pinks and purples in the next month or so.
 
I have purple heart and it would be very nice for a womens knife . Ide have it stabilized its not very expensive and the wood is very reasonable. Looks like your getting lots of help. kellyw
 
This is what I was actually meaning about knives coming up missing.
Not sure why, but culinary school seems to be a popular choice for ex inmates. :les:

rhinoknives said:
I sell culinary production knives to the people in Culinary school.
some are just "out" for "good behavior" of the slammer and the nicer kids are always coming back to get another Boning or paring knife etc, that grew feet while they were at school!

Make her two Knives as has been suggested. And put here name or initials on it nice & BIG so that it doesn't look so inviting to thieves
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