Wilderness Gathering Knife

[Roger]

I'm going to be making some more knives for The Wilderness Gathering soon. They will be on similar lines to last years "bushtool" design. This year they'll be in O1 tool steel and won't be numbered as 11th isn't really an anniversary year.
As per last year we'll give one away as an advance booking door prize.
The reason for my post though is I'm stuck on what handle material to offer with them.
I want to make them all the same, prefer wood and Ideally would like curly birch but any worth using is becoming increasingly difficult to get. A native hardwood would be nice (don't say yew though, it makes me ill). Anybody got any suggestions?

Roger

 

[Bardster]

Sounds excellent, what about bog oak, that would look good. An ancient English wood

 

[Harvestman]

Just going to say oak. Highly un der-rated wood. Hard, durable, and attractively grained if cut to show the rays.

 

[Macaroon]

Cherry? seems to be plenty easy to come by, and always looks great. How many are you making?

 

[Tiley]

What about elm? A good hardwood and very beautiful. As on the other post, how many are you making and, if interested, how do we get hold of one?

 

[Scots_Charles_River]

Cherry is certainly hardwearing and a nice darker colour. Beech polishes and waxes well, nice grain flecks, I use it for turning at school.

 

[Chris the Cat]

I know its not what you asked for Roger, but I would love to see them in some nice Samba Stag!
My best.

Chris.

 

[maddave]

Plus one on the oak... intrinsically British !!

 

[Chris the Cat]

Walnut... Could work very well.

C.

 

[jandude]

How about apple or pear? Very British trees but a departure from the norm. No idea of availability, though.

 

[Albus Culter]

I like Beech too so plus one for that.

Also plus one for Elm as it just appeals to me.

 

[Scots_Charles_River]

Burl ? My Helle Fjellkniven No4 is Burl, Curly Birch Burl.

 

[Marmite]

Loving the ideas of the bog oak, oak, cherry, elm, walnut - yes I'd love to see sambar too , but I'd like to throw sycamore into the mix as well if you don't mind. I've got a couple of heavy duty chopping boards and a rolling pin that was cut/turned by a local mill from some of the trees from westonbirt (ticks the locally sustainable) and the 'flaming/cushioning' (at least i think its the right term) found on all of the pieces is stunning, really mellow yellow in colour not to dissimilar to birch and durable/hard as can be

 

[salad]

Wilderness gathering always makes me think of apples, probably because of that bloke who always makes me buy cider from his cider stall .

So I vote apple wood

 

[Squidders]

That Cider dude is a bad bad man.

 

[HillBill]

I'd be inclined to say walnut. Light, strong, stable, can be very attractive too.

 

[Roger]

Cherry? seems to be plenty easy to come by, and always looks great. How many are you making?

Ten to start with.

 

[Tiley]

Curses! Sadly, I won't be able to come to the 2013 event because I'll be in Greenland.

It's a good looking tool, though. Very like the Skookum Bush Tool in many ways.

Will you be making them in the years to come for sale at the Wilderness Gathering?

 

[Roger]

Yes, I'd have thought so.
You don't have to be there to get one though, the WG shop is open to all at anytime online.
Greenland, I've always fancied visiting there, have fun.
Roger

Curses! Sadly, I won't be able to come to the 2013 event because I'll be in Greenland.

It's a good looking tool, though. Very like the Skookum Bush Tool in many ways.

Will you be making them in the years to come for sale at the Wilderness Gathering?

 

[Angst]

hi roger....elm, elm and elm....lovely! been getting rather into it recently....

a

its nearly W.G. time!!!!!! woohoo!