All About Pocket Knives

This is a nice handful of walnut and 5160.
Wrought iron guard, giraffe bone spacer and NS pins.
Really good cutter!

very nice iron ya got there bruce! they both look formidable.

brucegodlesky wrote:This is a nice handful of walnut and 5160.
Wrought iron guard, giraffe bone spacer and NS pins.
Really good cutter!

Really nice! I like the walnut, I'm allergic as all get out to it. But I often wonder why more knifemakers don't take advantage of it. I'ts a nice strong wood, I have some stabilized French Walnut thats exhibition grade and it looks great cause you can hide the pin if you chose to do so by using walnut dowels as pins.

Thanks. That walnut does tickle the senses.
The wood came froma piece of flooring I acquired. Extremely dense. I do a lot of stockmakers finishes and this one really didn't want to take the oil.
I had a couple of walnut crotches cut this winter. Can't wait till they're dry!!. Great figure and color!!

brucegodlesky wrote:Thanks. That walnut does tickle the senses.
The wood came froma piece of flooring I acquired. Extremely dense. I do a lot of stockmakers finishes and this one really didn't want to take the oil.
I had a couple of walnut crotches cut this winter. Can't wait till they're dry!!. Great figure and color!!

The walnut crocthes should look great! I went to Calico Hardwoods where they do nothing but gunstocks and I met a guy (who is a beginning knifemaker) in the store room or warehouse where the keep the finished blocks. I was holding some $300 to over $1,000.00 blocks of wood. The expensive ones where on the website they say to call for a quote (price ). I kept asking How much is this one? I had a ball going through there.

http://www.calicohardwoods.com I don't think they have any specials left. At least they didn't last I left. Yes, I have those pieces -4 of them. If you are a lover of wood, especially walnut this warehouse will give you sensory overload. They are about 5 minutes from me. They also sell walnut lumber.

Pretty slick operation, they burn the cracked gunstock blanks after they come out of the kiln. (they still are good for knives) in a generator and generate their own power and enough to sell some back to PG&E (our local gas and electric utility). Other non desireable pieces are sold for firewood. The guy let me go through a bin of gunstock cutoffs (man great looking stuff ).

I love walnut and I always come away from there with sensory overload.

I have seen some nice Bastogne Walnut. This is a hybrid cross between English walnut and California Claro Walnut. It is an accidental Hybrid, they were planting Claro walnuts for rootstock and 1 in several hundred looked a little different. The old timers called these peculiar looking strangers as Paradox Trees. The wood is more dense and heavy than either parent and is one of the most rare woods in the world.

Here is a link showing pictures of some Bastogne http://www.talaricohardwoods.com/stash.htm Great stuff!!!

Thanks Hukk. Sounds like a really neat place to window shop:-)

brucegodlesky wrote:Thanks Hukk. Sounds like a really neat place to window shop:-)

It sure is, the guy keeps remembering old stock and I keep going -WOW. That and I probably drool Everything I've been shown is exhibition grade. Since everyone claims to make knives to get wood he usually ignores them. Since I actually brought a knife that I made with some french walnut from there, we talk a lot and I'm the only one that has taken a knife there. I keep asking how much is that worth, usually it's $700-$800 and an occasional $1000.00. I just don't have the eye to see the difference between a $700 piece of wood and an $800.00 piece of wood. These are NOT stocks yet, just wood squares that carry that big price tag. I need to go there for a fix.

Oh, that knife I brought, he said it looks like came from a $900 to $1000 stock. I gave it to a neighbor who has helped my mother in law a lot. I also traded him a knife with a Buckeye Burl Handle and a rattlesnake inlayed sheath for some steel work.