All About Pocket Knives

Hi members,

can anyone tell me which wooden scales are these here on a Kershaw 1070:




Thanks in advance

I'm sure there are others here that are more qualified them I am....but my guess....and it'd strictly be that, a GUESS....is that they're ebony. True ebony, especially Macasar ebony is quite expensive, as I'm sure your knife was. Very nice knife, indeed!

i would say walnut ebony is black this looks like walnut or mahogany but just a guess

I think I'd go with cocobolo. It was commonly used. Especially the grain I see in the second picture.

I'd say cocobolo too s-k

I don't have any of the old catalogs left from the 1980's that would have shown that knife.
I believe that it would be quite safe to say rosewood. It may be Cocobolo, which is a type of Rosewood.
IIRC, they were listed as rosewood in the old catalogs.

Dale

Thanks to all of you...so I guess it´s rosewood

It definitely looks like rosewood!. There's an easy way to tell, but you may not want to unless a knife is used. If you sand it with fine paper and there isn't too much oil in the handle, it will smell like roses!!

There are a lot of species of Rosewood in the world. There are at least a dozen species. The Brazilian Rosewood is the one that will smell like roses or at least give off a sweet smell, years after it was cut.

Other rosewoods include Cocobolo, Brazilian Tulipwood, African Blackwood, East Indian rosewood, Kingwood, Madagacar rosewood, and Honduran rosewood.

The rosewood that gives off the rose smell is now protected, Brazilian Rosewood. Rosewoods can be found in tropical America, Southeast Asia, and Madagascar. They are all woods that are on the oily side compared to the woods here in the US.

For cutlery, using the generic term rosewood allowed them to use many species, whatever was cheapest on the market. For musical instruments, this is not so, the density of woods give each instrument it's unique tone, whether violin, clarinet, or oboes.

GREAT info, thanks a lot.

Hukk wrote:There are a lot of species of Rosewood in the world. There are at least a dozen species. The Brazilian Rosewood is the one that will smell like roses or at least give off a sweet smell, years after it was cut.

Other rosewoods include Cocobolo, Brazilian Tulipwood, African Blackwood, East Indian rosewood, Kingwood, Madagacar rosewood, and Honduran rosewood.

The rosewood that gives off the rose smell is now protected, Brazilian Rosewood. Rosewoods can be found in tropical America, Southeast Asia, and Madagascar. They are all woods that are on the oily side compared to the woods here in the US.

For cutlery, using the generic term rosewood allowed them to use many species, whatever was cheapest on the market. For musical instruments, this is not so, the density of woods give each instrument it's unique tone, whether violin, clarinet, or oboes.

Great job Hukk, you really nailed it.

Rosewood is such a huge category that Gilmer Wood http://www.gilmerwood.com/species-page2.htm lists 14 species of Rosewood, each with a different Botanical species, these are the ones that have Rosewood in their name, not counting Kingwood, African Blackwood, Tulipwood and I am sure several others. Even Bubinga is also known as "African Rosewood" though it doesn't share the genius 'Dalbergia' that the true rosewoods do.

So you can easily see Hukk's point that it was advantageous for the cutlery industry to say "Rosewood" and then they could put any of the species that were readily available and least expensive on a knife & still honestly call it rosewood.

One of the characteristics of rosewood that caused me problems when I first started working with them is the high oil content of many of them. This is especially true of Cocobolo, Kingwood & some others. The high oil content prevents most finishes from drying. I find that with these woods the best way to finish them is to buff on several coats of carnauba wax.

Dale

Thanks Dale,
There are actually hundreds of species, but just a few are useable to us. Musicians prefer specific woods because each wood has a different tonal and resonance quality. One East Indian specie is regarded as useful for tool handles only, but it is passed off to the unknowing as another more expensive specie.

Thuya Burl is oily yet they stabilize it, but the wood has a sticky weep. The cure is to bake it for several hours at 225 degrees F.

With that in mind, I just had some Thuya Burl stabilized, BUT I baked it at 225 degrees F for 16 hours, 4 days 4 hours each and wiped the oil off hourly. Then I had it stabilized.

All pieces (from the same block) that had a pre bake did not weep. I do need to work with it first to see if any color was lost. Every piece that did not get a prebake weeped. Will this work with rose woods?

Caution: Do not work with Rosewoods or ANY stabilized wood without a respirator. They are skin/sinus/lung irratants.

Dadgum Hukk...


Think how many apple pies you could've made for us in that much baking time.










Bill

El Lobo wrote:Dadgum Hukk...


Think how many apple pies you could've made for us in that much baking time.










Bill

GREAT, Bill

Trust me, you would not want to eat anything I've baked. Only to temper steel and now to bake out that Thuya Burl.
If you can digest steel and wood, you might, I say you might be safe.

I keep a small oven in the shop that goes to 500 F, anything more goes into an Evenheat Kiln.

I wonder how apple pie and Thuya oil go together, it is quite fragrant

Seriously the folks at K&G were pretty interested in what I did, as weeping wood is a problem for Thuya. ( I don't like to see it cry either).

It was merely a simple solution, they always bake weeping wood after stabilization, why not before. It works and less sticky.

APPLE PIE ANYONE? With Thuya syrup.

I´m really glad that I´ve found this fantastic forum...all you guys seem to be really nice companions

Hukk wrote: APPLE PIE ANYONE? With Thuya syrup.

Humm, I was just getting ready for some waffles. Maybe I will try it!