In your honest or professional opinion which wood or woods would you say are the best as far as looks/longetivity is concerned?
I absolutely adore desert ironwood, birch, snakewood to name a few.
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In your honest or professional opinion which wood or woods would you say are the best as far as looks/longetivity is concerned?
I absolutely adore desert ironwood, birch, snakewood to name a few.
i would start at the wiki
Category:Scale Making - Straight Razor Place Library
but generally speaking looks being obviously subjective i prefer darker woods
I also really love Desert ironwood! And it'll last for ever!
But its rediculously brittle at that thickness (for razor scales) These here i made for a "Hand forged Mussel" from "ERN"
and have already been cracked and re glued together from assembeling... and i had to take the whole thing appart to back the wood with vulcanised fibre. It just looks too beautiful and is to special to throw away!;)Attachment 241987
Is Crosscut D.ironwood Burl...
Yellow heart looks very nice with an oil finish and with a CA finish it looks fantastic. That being said it is also the only wood that I've worked with so far that made my skin itch and made my nose run. Even with that I like using it. A lot of woods look better with different finishes. Ironwood I like without a finish just sanded fine and buffed. Especially ironwood burl.
I like olivewood and ebony.
I like cocobolo or the different rosewood types.
Very oily and easy to work with.
+1, I start by thinking about what finish I would like to use and decide on the wood from there. Not all woods work well with all finishes. As you said, some need no finish at all and get better with time and handling.Quote:
Originally Posted by JSmith1983
Lignum Vitae
Period end of story :) no really look into it
Other then that I agree with Stefan the Rosewoods are a great choice..
After that it comes down to taste
http://straightrazorpalace.com/works...ae-scales.html
this is what i found about it :shrug:
IMHO spalted maple is stunning, but is so soft that stabilization is required. Runny CA (not the usual thick or gel version) works well for that.
Bocote has interesting - and often unpredictable - grain and so is another fave.
Lignum Vitae: Wood So Bad-Ass, It's Used to Make Shaft Bearings for Nuclear Submarines (and More) - Core77
It is the most Waterproof and Densest wood there is
Made scales from various types of wood.
Yellow& purple hart
African mahogany
African paudak
Ebony
Walnut
Birdseye maple
5000+ yrs old bog oak
African black wood
Teak
Bloodwood
I really like the African black wood with its dark brown, almost black, with golden highlites.
http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...8d2cbac347.jpg
And the bog oak. Very dense, hard, and jet black. It has a look of horn once finished.
http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...3bdcbd9fd5.jpghttp://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...0aff241a1c.jpg
well if its good enough for a submarine
I've worked with a bunch of woods, some were a breeze to work with, others a PITA!
For durability, strength and mold/fungus resistance, African Blackwood hands down. I had a piece with a selection of other woods in a moldy basement for a couple years... the other woods were ruined, the AB not even touched, perfectly fine!
I've not worked Lignum Vitae, so I don't know how durable and mold resistant, but submarine bearings is awesome!
But it's not the hardest wood there is, that distinction goes to Quebracho.
BUT, many considerations need to be addressed when choosing woods.
Red Coolibah burl is amazing but challenging to work with.
Sometimes the most challenging are the coolest woods.
Teak is a great wood. It's pretty impervious to water. It's so dense when they fell the tree it has to remain for a year or more because the stuff won't float it sinks.
Agree. And has good strength, and a very nice open grain about it.Quote:
Originally Posted by thebigspendur
All that is needed for maintenance is a bit of teak oil now and then.
http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...40eb3779e6.jpg
I think the stabilized burls make nice sets myself! But I like horn; some acrylics; and other mediums as well.
In fact....here is the latest buckeye burl I made for this older German Imperial razor that looks great in my opinion.
Attachment 242017
Oh my... o_O... look at those scales...I always said the most beautiful things come from nature.Quote:
Originally Posted by JakobD
I agree. I love natural materials. And those burls have great character!Quote:
Originally Posted by Str8Up
That desert ironwood is definitely on the list too. But I've got a dozen types of wood in stock that I have never worked with so probably should get to those first.
If brittle, then I wonder what backing might be good for desert ironwood...?
Id heard before i worked with it that it was a brittle wood, but i think it was so brittle for those scale because it was cross cut. Who knows, if you made the scales where the grain runs with the scales, maybe it doesnt need to be backed it at all...?Quote:
Originally Posted by MikeT
One way to find out ^^
That's true though, some woods are very hard yet brittle, some beautiful yet brittle or rot easy, some flexible yet warp and are soft. The list goes on.
It's great, the variety, and challenge in finding and learning to work with them..
I had a Mastro Livi with Poplar scales and really liked the look. Have a Mastro Livi Club Member razor on order with poplar scales. I do prefer bone or antler scales, makes a really special razor.
In my humble opinion I think lignum vitae is my go-to wood that I love the most it used to be that I loved and use Ironwood for anything handles, and tools that iwanted strong and last and if one,uses Ironwood Roots it's much stronger and less brittle by far than Ironwood tree itself lignum Vitae is hard it is natural oil it takes a shinet like nothing else , I haven't had anything break I've ever made out of lignum vitae. Long ago and far away thay used to make bearings for boat propellers out of it. For what it's worth that's my opinion
Dan
After seeing all the good stuff about lignum vitae on this thread i thought i need to give it a go!
I found this stuff thats very closely related called verawood or Argentina lignum vitae. Its got pretty much the same characteristics as lignum vitae but a little lighter and Greenish in colour.
And i reckon its pretty close to bomb proof! It really does take a shine like nothing else and has a beautiful feathery grain! perfect for straight Razor scales id say...
Attachment 242485
Both will change color over time, if you want to increase the change, leave the wood in the sun :)
Just got this Jerry Stark razor with Birch scales. Haven't seen this wood used but it rally looks great.Attachment 244352
So far I've enjoyed working with rosewood, bocote, cocobolo and ebony-I love the tropical, oily hardwoods for workability and the ease with which they polish up. I'd love to try some lignum, and horn is awesome in the non-wood category obviously.
Before treating/sealing? Or does it not matter?Quote:
Originally Posted by gssixgun
If you use a finish with UV inhibitors it will slow the change down some. I've worked with purpleheart that sat around for awhile that changed to a brownish color and I let it sit in the sun for awhile and it returned to a deep purple. The reason it changed back wasn't because of UV though, but rather from the heat. Some woods darken from heat while some it restores it. If your looking to darken woods oil finishes have tendency to darken woods while a water based finish doesn't. Check out The Wood Database it has a lot of info.
so mainman, do you normally stabilize your cocobolo scales? or how do you finish them? do you put any lien oil on them? or just buff?Quote:
Originally Posted by mainaman
thanks a lot!
do you need to stanilize any of those for razor scales? i've heard of some people that sday you need to stabilize those an the snakewood...Quote:
Originally Posted by ScoutHikerDad
thanks!
Gabe
I haven't worked with lignum, but either the horn nor the tropical hardwoods require stabilization. The hardwoods polish up beautifully and are generally pretty stable even without a finish, though a well-done CA, epoxy, or some sort of rubbed oil finish would certainly seal the deal.Quote:
Originally Posted by gabrielcr78
Stabilizing soft, punky and/or spalted burls in a vacuum chamber with "Cactus Juice" or similar and then curing them is a necessity, and can produce stunning results. But unless you're going to get into it on a volume basis (or have a knife-maker friend who will trade nice blanks for fancy cut-off pieces from a custom art furniture maker!), it might be easier just to buy the stabilized blanks.
Thanks Sout! one las question, whats the CA epoxy? I mean i know whats wpoxy, but what does CA stand for?
Thanks!
Sent from my SM-G903M using Tapatalk
CA is super glue. Stands for cyanoacrylate. It will produce a glass like finish if done right. I like it on yellowheart. It really makes the wood stand out. Here is a good bit of info on doing it.http://straightrazorpalace.com/works...ints-tips.html
It isn't used much because the grain is nothing special but teak is an ideal wood. It is extremely dense and almost impervious to water. Fresh cut teak will actually sink not float.
If its cut properly, it has an awesome grain.Quote:
Originally Posted by thebigspendur
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...b89f56127f.jpg
I am partial to scales made from kauri wood. Not much to look at, unless you get lucky with a quilt or burl grain, but pretty cool to use wood that is over 45,000 years old. Basically, the wood on these scales pre-dates shaving.
