Curly birch handle. Staining with walnut. Linseed oil

[Dandus]

Has anybody here stain a curly birch handle with walnut coulour stain?
I think it will really emphasise the difference in grain. Going to pantina the blade and coat the handle in bees/carnuba wax. I like the dull shine.

Should I use boiled linseed after I've stained it for extra protection or will the wax be enough?
If you've done it can I see a pic please and did it work out well?

 

[Janne]

Will the walnut stain be water based?
I have never stained curly Birch, just infused it with linseed oil ( turns birch yellowish) , or lacquered it with a neutral lacquer ( keeps it pale yellow/white)

Linseed oil gives a nice, non slip surface, even with wet hands.
If I was you I would try the stain on a cut off curly birch piece!

 

[SGL70]

Never used that, but used leather dye on curly birch

I apply black dye, sand it down and then apply yellow dye and sand a bit more and after that I treat it with oil. Nothing to it, really

Greger

 

[Shelley]

I think if you wax it then the linseed oil will not impregnate the wood, you may need to apply linseed then wax it afterwards.

 

[Fraxinus]

If the staining works out just use boiled linseed oil and apply several coats then further coats over time to keep the finish nice.
As Shelley points out, if you wax it then it will be a pig of a job to re-treat with oil. Boiled linseed has drying additives added to speed up the drying process but that makes it unsuitable for spoons and the like.

Rob.

 

[Janne]

It seems I have to modify the mainenance of my wooden handled knives. Just out of interest, due to this thread, I checked out the manufacturers recommendation ( on the selling company's website) how to treat/ maintain the curly birch handles on my latest kitchen knives.
They recommend food grade Mineral Oil.

I have also sent the manufacturer an email.

 

[Trotsky]

It seems I have to modify the mainenance of my wooden handled knives. Just out of interest, due to this thread, I checked out the manufacturers recommendation ( on the selling company's website) how to treat/ maintain the curly birch handles on my latest kitchen knives.
They recommend food grade Mineral Oil.

Walnut oil works too, a lot of linseed oils you find have various additives in them either to aid drying or left over from the extraction process.

 

[Robson Valley]

The manufacturer's suggestion is likely a good one = food grade mineral oil.
Question: "protection from what?" Your choice of washing up methods?

I buy really junky-looking Chinese cleavers. Little ones with 16cm edges. Fantastic carbon steel and a joy to use in the kitchen.
Like the 70 spoons and 30 forks that I carved in birch, the cleaver handles get 3 mins 30 sec in 325F olive oil.
Charles' Law of gas physics guarantees that the oil gets pulled down into the wood as it cools.
Cannot be washed out, even in boiling soup.

 

[Trotsky]

The manufacturer's suggestion is likely a good one = food grade mineral oil.
Question: "protection from what?" Your choice of washing up methods?

I buy really junky-looking Chinese cleavers. Little ones with 16cm edges. Fantastic carbon steel and a joy to use in the kitchen.
Like the 70 spoons and 30 forks that I carved in birch, the cleaver handles get 3 mins 30 sec in 325F olive oil.
Charles' Law of gas physics guarantees that the oil gets pulled down into the wood as it cools.
Cannot be washed out, even in boiling soup.

I treat my wooden spoons and spatulas the same way, keeps them in lovely condition and makes them very easy to clean.

 

[Janne]

I do not want blood ( from meat and me) to stain the wood.

 

[Robson Valley]

The oven/pot-baked hot oil treatment will last for decades.
You cannot wash it off because it's really "in" the wood.

If you coat the wood at room temperature with oil, even if you let it soak, the very first time you heat that spoon
to stir rice or spaghetti or soup, the wood air will expand and will push your oil into the food.
Then as your spoon cools, it sucks food juice into the wood. Charles' Law. Fact.

 

[Shelley]

I feel that I am going to have to look into Charles Law...

 

[Janne]

But how do you heat up the wood on a knife, where you do not know which glue they used?

In a sand bath in the oven?

 

[Robson Valley]

I have no idea what to expect with a glue-up.
All I ever work with/carve are one-piece wood handles.

One method is to paint the raw wood and then into a preheated 325F oven for 3 mins 30 sec. . . . by the clock.
Another is to heat a pot of veg oil to 325 - 350F and suspend the knife/tool handle in that for 3'30".

Shelley: I'm just using the gas physics described by Charles' Law for a permanent oil finish.
I would have to reheat the wood to 325F - 350F or more to change the result.

 

[C_Claycomb]

Do you expect your knife handle to be used for stirring hot food? For kitchen spoons that hot oil treatment sounds like genius, but I can't see the benefit would be worth the risk for a knife handle that wasn't ever going to be submerged in hot fluid again. There are adhesives that will stand that temperature, but unless you made the knife yourself you won't know whether that was what was used. Mostly likely not.

I have soaked for 24 hours or more in Danish oil at room temperature and found that the oil has penetrated at least 3mm into birch and walnut. Danish oil has thinners, dryers and additional resins compared to linseed. One thing though, the deep soak treatment kills pretty much all the chatoyancy (tigers eye effect) of the curly woods. The wood still looks curly, but that deep light reflective shine is removed. Don't know why exactly but I have seen it with birch, maple and walnut.

 

[Shelley]

Hmm, I can see how Charles law works now, good for spoons, not so good or practicable for knife scales, unless you want a charred finish, which some do.

Chris, the possible answer is that the oil that is still on the surface of the wood reacts with oxygen to form a thin, almost imperceptible layer which will reduce reflectivity, as the tigers eye effect will be due to light bouncing off the surface of the wood (remember you don't see things, you see light bouncing off of things), then when that bouncing effect is dulled you see it less.

I noticed the same with dunking a curly birch piece in blo for 24 hours, but did not really think about it, was more keen on protection.

What's the advantage of Danish oil over linseed?

 

[C_Claycomb]

Advantage of Danish over boiled linseed is that it has "thinners, driers and resins" which allow it to penetrate further, dry faster and set harder than BLO alone. My feeling is that it deals with moisture better than just BLO, but that is just my observations rather than fact. The disadvantage is that it is all but impossible to create anything other than a matt finish with Danish, and if you apply a layer and let it dry, then apply another, the second coat really just sits on top of the first and tends to look like varnish. Trying to create a traditional oil finish as seen on high end shot gun stocks, using Danish oil, seems to be a non-starter while a mix of BLO, terebene and beeswax is what at least one London maker uses on their £45,000+ guns and looks great and enhances chatoyance.

I have not noticed the dulling of chatoyancy from surface application of finishes, only from when the finish really soaks into the surface.

 

[brancho]

Soaking a handle overnight in danish oil will darken the wood.

Here is a knife I soaked overnight.

Knife and sheath by Alf Branch, on Flickr

 

[Leshy]

And that pukko is a thing of beauty... Lovely handle on that. 👍