Thread: Olneya Tesota or Desert Ironwood

Does anyone have experience with this hardwood for scales? Most sources I've been able to find sell knife blanks which are just short of the size needed for a rescale.

Desert Ironwood - Olneya tesota

I haven't had a chance to use it personally, but I believe it's a relatively popular wood for scales. I've seen quite a few restos that were done in ironwood, and a few new razors are even sold in ironwood scales.

As the name implies, it's a VERY hard wood with tight grain.

My only question is it soft or hardwood(I would imagine its hard), if its a hard wood it should do fine. Some soft woods arent bad either. If its being used as handles on knives it should be fine for scales.

Used it for one of my first restos. Gorgeous timber.
A hard, dense wood. Hard on cheap bandsaws & sanders too

Smells bad while you work it & is probably one of those in the toxic or allergy causing list ~ Just wear a dust mask

I love Ironwood, I find it hard to resist. Unfortunatly it tends to be out of my $$ range most of the time

The Hiromoto AS Wa Sujihiki was rehandled by Stefan Keller Stefan's handles - Home

holy cow! That's an awesome set of handles you have there!
It is a hardwood, and one of the heaviest I've seen. I have a very nice silvertip brush made in AZ ironwood, feels like an iron ball in my hand when using it, in a good way. Also a didgeridoo made out of hollowed OZ ironwood that would serve very well as a weapon. I've used it from time to time for a workout
I have ZERO experience with scales, but this is a project I've had in mind for as longs as I've been straight shaving, so I don't mind waiting longer for the right razor and blank of wood to come around, if they do at all.
I picked up a Helje that had broken scales for very little bread recently, it's cleaning up very nicely with some sandpaper, little bit at a time, might be a good candidate for this project... time'll tell.

Hey bassguy I've got an Ironbark didge. One of our Eucalyptus species. Weighs a ton & unusual for a didge coz the termites don't like to chew on such hard timber. Anywho we've got 2 or 3 trees here they call Ironwood but none as pretty as the Arizona desert ones. Good luck with the scale making.
Don't forget to consult the oracle... I mean Wiki

Originally Posted by DwarvenChef

I love Ironwood, I find it hard to resist. Unfortunatly it tends to be out of my $$ range most of the time

The Hiromoto AS Wa Sujihiki was rehandled by Stefan Keller Stefan's handles - Home

That is gorgeous indeed! Gotta go find myself some Desert Ironwood now...