African Blackwood...the hardest substance known to mankind!....my 9th knife....

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Angst

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Apr 15, 2010
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hi....this ones been a real battle....i set out fully intending to do a chunky bold handle and i'm glad i did....because the blackwood with the stainless fittings proved very tough indeed...thanks again to brancho for his dreadnought file link....they proved invaluable in getting a bit of shape to it...i was very overdue in replacing my worn out files. as anyone knows whos been following my knife efforts, i do like large handles to some degree over slender ones, they feel better in my hand...and a large handle suits this beast of a blade...but on this one i'm sticking here for now...i'll probably come back to it at some point and fine-tune. so...mammoth blades nessmuk with african blackwood over white liners with stainless loveless bolts and a stainless lanyard...hope you like and all comments welcome as usual! oh and its not been oiled yet....the stuffs so hard it comes up gleaming like buffalo horn just using medium mop....

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thanks guys.....

sorry cowboy....i dont follow....i've never used bone yet....dunno if i'm being a blondie?....the lighter colour wood is the bark of the blackwood tree if thats what you mean?....the dark wood is the heartwood.

Beautiful job mate!!! If you had to pick out of the two though which one would it be? Bone or black wood? ;)
 
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Aye, blackwood is pretty damn hard. :) All the better as a knife handle for it though. Get back to work lad :rolleyes: lol :)
 
Sorry what i meant was if you had the chance to do it all again what would you pick... Bone or Blackwood! But seeing as you've never worked with bone you wont have a clue what im on about.. There both extreamly hard to work, although i haven't tried my hand with blackwood yet, bone is a tricky but rewarding one. (its hard to work and STINKS when sanding)
 
ah....i've sen camel bone scales for sale etc....what would you recommend? i'll get some....i've used buffalo horn but thats soft.....but yeah the stink i can imagine...probably similar.....i've got a monster reindeer antler here which i've started cuting up too....will use that soon....any advice welcome m8....

the blackwood had a strange smell too....sort of ''chemical sweet''......nice but nasty at same time lol
Sorry what i meant was if you had the chance to do it all again what would you pick... Bone or Blackwood! But seeing as you've never worked with bone you wont have a clue what im on about.. There both extreamly hard to work, although i haven't tried my hand with blackwood yet, bone is a tricky but rewarding one. (its hard to work and STINKS when sanding)
 
lol :) Aye you get used to it.

I can find the smiley, but posting it on here has been proving a problem, think i might have just sussed it though ;)

Voila




yo...one good thing....no blister this time....got a 2 foot long callous now....i cant walk straight, it weighs me down!!!

but......wheres me owed smiley? lol!
 
Nice job, that sapwood makes for a fine contrast. I agree its one of the hardest to work but in the end one of the most rewarding woods to work, a few coats of good wax with an occaisional buff on the shirt sleeve will keep it looking and working like new for years.
 

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