The Cure for Rainbow Trash Metal
Some of you might know that I enjoy woodworking. While the majority of the pieces I have made have been one of three woods—cherry, maple, and most recently walnut—I have had the pleasure or working with some more exotic stuff in small amounts over the years and I think that the knife world would be better off if some of these woods were more often used in knives.
Before we get to species, let me, one more time, assail to the stupidity of MokuTi and its rainbow trash metal brethen. First, of course, these materials are ugly. The same dudes that prance around with MokuTi pocket clips are driving huge, manly trucks (which I also think are silly, but for entirely different reasons) with extra fenders and grills and the like. Taste is not what these folks do. But here is the fundamental problem with the appearance of these materials—its gauche. Like the couches with gold painted lions for the endcaps on the arm rests, or Swarovski “crystals” as an upgrade, MokuTi appearance is cloying and visually assaultive. I don’t want rainbow swirls on anything I own, probably because I have never been a 6 year old girl. Its just ugly. Then there is the cost. MokuTi is all manmade (which means it is not actually an exotic material…we can make as much as we want) that is labor intensive to produce. So it is inordinately expensive compared, say, to the base material like titanium. It has no weight or strength advantage, its just swirly. So you are paying more for, in my opinion, less. Finally there this inescapable fact—this stuff is not rare. Since it is entirely manmade, we can made as much or as little as we want. It is artificial scarcity that makes DeBeers diamond hording look honest.
The natural variety and beauty of wood is something that doesn’t overwhelm the senses like an over-the-hill Vegas showgirl wearing too much perfume. Its classy and tasteful. And while we are on the subject, I have had some odorous woods as knife handles and it is just too much for me. Unlike MokuTi, given some of the sources, wood is actually exotic. The amount of large holly boards in the world is pretty small. Koa doesn’t get shipped in full shipping containers. Beautiful, exhibition grade burls are genuinely hard to find. If you want to see some truly exotic stuff, agarwood, the most expensive wood in the world, should satisfy your snooty needs (though it would make a pretty crappy handle—its used for perfume production). Many of these woods have been used by Chris Reeve knives for inlays. They have also used a few that aren’t listed here—Gabon Ebony, Beech, Chestnut, Cocobolo, Desert Ironwood, Plantain, Bog Oak, and Bocote. Yet another sign that Chris Reeve is doing this stuff right. Some wood needs to be stabilized (that is filled with resin via a vacuum press), but some are hard enough and/or oil impregnated enough that they are fine without any extra TLC. I am not a turner or a knifemaker so I don’t know which woods would require stabilization. Here are a few of my favorite woods that would make good knife handles or inlays.
Koa
Koa is the wood that most people ACTUALLY want when they ask for desert ironwood. I know because I asked Scott Sawby to make my swift with Desert Ironwood and told me: you should use koa instead. He sent me a few pictures of DI handles when they were made and when the knife came back for a spa and his point was clear. Like many wood species, including and most notably cherry, desert ironwood tends to darken over the time resulting a loss of contrast between light and dark grains. The end result is that older desert ironwood looks muddy and brown, like stained pine but harder. Koa, which has a similar high contrast appearance initially retains that pop of contrast over the years. It also adds chatoyancy to the mix. Chatoyancy is a property that cause a material to appear as if it is changing its texture or shape when it is seen from different angles. The effect is exceedingly hard to capture in video and, by definition, impossible to capture in a picture, but in person it is breathtaking. Koa is like long-lasting, desert ironwood plus powerful chatoyancy. Its visually spectacular and my favorite wood that could be used for a knife handle.
Zebrawood
While it has a more uniform (and therefore less interesting) visual appearance than Koa, Zebrawood is both more readily available (you can find it at any real hardwood lumberyard, whereas Koa is so rare that it doesn’t even regularly show up at turning supply places) and it has perhaps the most powerful chatoyancy of any species of wood I have encountered. If you move a piece of Zebrawood in relation to a light source it looks as if the wood is almost alive or melting into a different shape. Zebrawood is exceedingly hard to work compared to other woods because of its high oil content, its captured silica, and it is very hard itself.
Burls
Burls are not a species of wood, but a kind of wood growth pattern. Think of a burl as the wood equivalent of a scab or blister. When a tree’s bark is wounded, it reacts the same way our bodies do when our skin is wounded. The burl grows over the wound and then it begins to swirl, compress, and explode the normal growth patterns in the tree. As the tree grows bigger, the burl does as well, appearing like a large lump or growth on the outside of the tree. The growth pattern inside a burl is random and therefore the grain pattern is 100% unique. Larger and older burls are composed of heartwood and are generally most prized. Many species can create a burl but there are a few that regularly produce spectacular burls. The “ice cream flavor” woods (cherry, maple, and walnut) produce nice burls, and oak does as well. An exotic species, chechen, which already has striking grain, becomes almost psychedelic in burl form. Chechen is already among the most prized turning woods in the world and chechen burl is even more sought after. I am particularly fond of Box Elder in burl form. Its dense, swirling pattern is made more visually striking because of the high contrast between the dark and light portions of the burl with the light portions being the color of cream and the dark portions being the color of toffee. My Gen 1 Mnandi shown above has a particularly spectacular Box Elder burl inlay.
Exotic Maples (Spalted, Bird’s Eye, and Quilted)
None of these kinds of maple are a different species. Instead they are abnormal growth patterns in normal maple.
Spalted maple is actually maple infected by a fungus and in the initial stages of decay. Spalted maple is the KING of wood contrast with colors ranging from pure white, to pink, to brown, and finally to black. The swirls and sharp lines give spalted maple a different appearance from other high contrast woods making it visually striking in a way that nothing else is. You can also find spalted versions of other species. In fact, here is a piece of spalted cherry I used as a face board on a blanket chest I designed and built (this might be my favorite design that I did entirely on my own; the bit of white is paste wax being pushed back out of the grain as the wood dries…its easily fixed, if I could get the chest down in the workshop). Tamarin is another species that looks great when spalted. Here is a pen with spalted Tamarin:
While spalted maple is sick maple, bird’s eye maple is entirely healthy maple but it contains a repeating pattern of spots, like very small leopard rosettes. Interestingly scientists don’t know exactly what causes bird’s eyeing. Spyderco released a version of the Chaparral with Bird’s Eye Maple and but for owning two Chaparrals I would own it. In fact, I think it will be added to the arsenal sooner rather than later.
Made when parts of the tree are under significant compression, such as when a tree is growing on a hill or there is a large branch split (hilariously called “crotch wood”), quilting is a wave or undulating pattern in the grain. Its not as chaotic as a burl, but it is still quite striking. There is, like with splating, quilting in other species. Maple just happens to be the most striking and readily available.
Holly
Turners love holly. A quick second with an item made of holly will tell you why—it is virtually grain-free and comes in striking colors—from light pink to absolutely snow white. Holly is like ivory without all of the guilt, international crime, and greater color variety. Interestingly you can find holly in swirled patterns as well. The problem is that holly comes from a bush and in order for it be large enough and hard enough for use in knife scales, the bush has to be positively massive. We had a holly bush at our old house and it was probably 16-20 feet tall and while the main trunk was about wrist thick it was still far too soft for use in woodworking, even when dried (and you bet your butt I tried).
Macassar Ebony
Macassar Ebony is like a dark version of holly—very intense coloration and almost no grain pattern when finished. Macassar ebony is harder and denser than holly (roughly 3,000 on the Janka scale v. roughly 1,000 for Holly; oak is around 1,350). In fact it is so dense and so impregnated with oil it cannot be finished like other woods. The best way to seal and shine macassar ebony is by polishing. Well polished macassar ebony is essentially the same texture as smooth, well-finished plastic. Macassar ebony grows in trees unlike the woodworking versions of Holly (some species of Holly can grow into trees, but these are not the species that produce woodworking Holly). Macassar ebony is so beautiful and unique that it is often called the wood of kings and is referenced in the Old Testament (Ezkiel 25:17…no just kidding, that’s something else…Ezkiel 27:15). Its colors range from a dark brown to a gray to absolute jet black. Because it is rare, heavy, and used in high end woodworking (it is a favorite accent wood in Greene and Greene furniture), it is exceedingly expenisve by the board foot. When you add its tendency to check and split, large pieces of Macassar Ebony are basically the wood equivalent of gold.
Lignum Vitae
Nothing is like Lignum Vitae—nothing. It is a wood so dense that it does not float (one of only a handful species that does not float). It is among the hardest wood in the world (hitting 4,500 on the Janka scale). It is so impregnated with oil that not only will it not take a finish, it was used as an self-lubricating material for making drive shafts for submarines before UHMW materials were made. But unlike all of the other woods that are this dense, hard, and oily, Lignum Vitae is stunning. Its like a harder version of cocobolo (which also makes an excellent handle material) or Zebrawood without the explosive chatoyance. I have a few chips of Lignum Vitae and they are amazing. I carry one as a worrystone every once in a while. Also, I cut some and they destroyed my very thin, high tooth blade on my bandsaw. It went from a wood-eating machine to a decorative metal ribbon in about fifteen minutes.
Snakewood
Snakewood is not a species, but the heartwood of several species. It has perhaps the most unique grain pattern of any wood with scale-like colors overlayed the burgundy and black stripes. All of the species that produce snakewood are exceedingly hard to work with. Not only is the wood hard and impregnated with silica, its dust is an extreme hazard. My local lumberyard sold Snakewood, but did so only to people who were aware of its impacts on the human body. Its dust produces a poison ivy like reaction on the skin and has been known to send woodworkers without proper ventilation and respiration to the hospital. I am not 100% sure but I do think there might have been a very small release of snakewood handled Chris Reeve stuff.
There are a bunch of wood species out there that avoid the normal “knife scale” materials bins at knife shows. A lot of them are really spectacular with amazing attributes. Adding these to the mix would really help with the monotony of handle materials we are seeing right now. If I see another self-published blade release with a titanium, green micarta, and black micarta option I am going to puke. Then I will have to puke again when, six months later, a release of “limited edition” versions come out with MoktuTi handles.