Nice woods for knife scales, that don't just age to muddy brown.

[demographic]

I've noticed a bit of a trend with exotic woods where they start out with vibrant colours then tend to age to an indistinct brown after a few years so lets have a few pointers for what colours these woods go to with age.
I have an Eklund knife someone on here made in 2006, its nice but the scales are snakewood and although they started out great theyve aged to a dark toffee brown. Still nice enough but it had far more contrast.
I've noticed that Purpleheart ages to brown as well.
Elm starts out brown but ages well and retains the contrast in its grain.
Cherry ages nicer than it starts off. One of the nicest looking decent scale domestic woods IMO. Mebbe a bit splitty to use sometimes.
Yew? Not seen that one long term but I suspect it gets better with age.
Ebony? Well, at least its stable cos it starts out black and stays black.
I have a few bits of birdeye mappe from a factory floor which have a good golden colour but they've been soaked in machine oil so likely not great to use as scales.

Any more comments to add to this cos I've missed a huge amount off the list.
Personally I'm not in the stabilise and varnish it til it looks like plastic camp cos I like to feel the grain.
Nothing against plastic by the way, just not wooden plastic.

 

[kawasemi]

Hornbeam - darkens down but is so tough it goes to a glass like sheen. I have a really old Ben Orford in hornbeam.

K

 

[demographic]

Ahh, Hornbeam. i have a plane with its sole made from hornbeam.
To be fair the grain on thats not right interesting but it will have been chosen for its stability and straightness and not its figure so my plane sole won't be the best example.
I forgot Ash, which reminds me of a lighter version of Elm.
Also American Wallnut, kind of blacky browny.

Thing about knife scales is the world's yer oyster cos its only two very small bits of wood, not like making furniture.
Not sure I've even seen Applewod or Pearwood (Sapient or normal) in anything other than firewood so can't comment about them.

 

[TLM]

I think lignin in wood tends to darken in sunlight almost no matter what is done. One might try to chose woods with wildly differing original hues, the contrast might last a bit longer that way,

 

[Van-Wild]

My Woodlore was rescaled in yew in 2007. Original scales were birch. Its aged beautifully.

Sent from my SM-G970F using Tapatalk

 

[Robson Valley]

The oxygen in the air and the UV in sunlight will kill whatever attractive wood pigments you see (and some you don't).
All of the end products of this destruction are various browns. Heavy surface finishing only slows down the inevitable.
Some attractions never change like stone or metal inlay (why not?) Crushed turquoise set in epoxy is beautiful.
I use abalone shell for some inlay, but I think it would be too soft for a knife handle.

 

[TLM]

Now lets see materials that are mostly impervious to UV and O and moisture, gold, most platinum group metals, silver. Naturally stable oxides formed, aluminium, titanium, chrome, nickel, lead. Not a very useful list. Bronzes, brass to a lesser degree. Various minerals. I think I'll take wood.

 

[Billy-o]

Curly birch doesn't seem to change that much.

You could try rubbing down with some methylated spirit to lift out some of the ingrained oils from treatment and use. Just did some teak chairs last week which had shocking grease stains on the seatbacks from being moved about all the time. Came up lovely. I am basing this advice on the notion that methyl hydrate and methylated spirit are the same thing.

 

[demographic]

Now lets see materials that are mostly impervious to UV and O and moisture, gold, most platinum group metals, silver. Naturally stable oxides formed, aluminium, titanium, chrome, nickel, lead. Not a very useful list. Bronzes, brass to a lesser degree. Various minerals. I think I'll take wood.

Aye, I'm reasonably up with my noble metals and so on and to be honest not entirely against woods going muddy brown, as long as its known to happen.

I quite like wood, hell I'm a carpenter and wood is my career. Fnar fnar.
I woulld just like an honest conversation about the starting colours versus the aged colours of woods.
Yes, they all age, mostly to brown but it would be nice to know which direction it was likely to age to.

 

[Corso]

osage orange for the win

 

[Robson Valley]

There is quite a spectrum of synthetic wood dyes/stains available in this day and time.
Some brands report the measure of "light-fastness," at least some artists' paint companies do that.
I have liter cans of red, blue, green and an icky brown in my shop.

Nothing amiss with coin silver inlay. Been done on western revolvers for a century+.
Copper and brass look good. Elaborate cutouts of blank printed circuit board, polished, is good.

I have tried the brass dust from a key-cutting machine. Packed with epoxy into relief cut-outs.
Chalk up a file and cut that back smooth. Looks like brass dust in epoxy. Not worth the trouble.

 

[Stew]

There is quite a spectrum of synthetic wood dyes/stains available in this day and time.
Some brands report the measure of "light-fastness," at least some artists' paint companies do that.
I have liter cans of red, blue, green and an icky brown in my shop.

Nothing amiss with coin silver inlay. Been done on western revolvers for a century+.
Copper and brass look good. Elaborate cutouts of blank printed circuit board, polished, is good.

I have tried the brass dust from a key-cutting machine. Packed with epoxy into relief cut-outs.
Chalk up a file and cut that back smooth. Looks like brass dust in epoxy. Not worth the trouble.

You don realise that none of this answers his question, right?

 

[Stew]

Aye, I'm reasonably up with my noble metals and so on and to be honest not entirely against woods going muddy brown, as long as its known to happen.

I quite like wood, hell (word soon to be obliterated by an over enthusiastic editor) I'm a carpenter and wood is my career. Fnar fnar.
I woulld just like an honest conversation about the starting colours versus the aged colours of woods.
Yes, they all age, mostly to brown but it would be nice to know which direction it was likely to age to.

Laburnum is a good choice to my eye - I’m not too keen on the pale brown it can start as but the dark chocolate brown it ages to is gorgeous.

I think Wenge/ panga panga / partridgewood stays pretty similar to its start point

 

[Robson Valley]

Mask the change with something light-fast. Or a decorated distraction.

 

[bobnewboy]

osage orange for the win

View attachment 61278

Gotta love Osage, but even that darkens over time to chocolate brown or even purplish shades. Quite a contrast from bright yellow on cutting, through gold (“bring me my bow of burning gold”) when recently finished, maturing to brown.

I don’t think any wood can really resist the change to natural brown, unless deeply hidden in finish or dyed beforehand. I think it’s a case of ‘accept and enjoy’.

 

[TLM]

There might be some other plant base material that does not have so much lignin that could be used for handles. With resin one can use almost anything but I guess that is not a solution in many cases.

 

[Billy-o]

The lig vit I have is pretty stable colour wise after about 10 years. Also partrigewood and sneezewood

 

[gra_farmer]

osage orange for the win

View attachment 61278

I like that a lot

 

[gra_farmer]

The lig vit I have is pretty stable colour wise after about 10 years. Also partrigewood and sneezewood

I have a mark hill that I handled in partrigewood, I'll take a picture in a bit

 

[Billy-o]

You don realise that none of this answers his question, right?

Since when has relevance been a requirement?