Above: 7 inch fillet with standard western style Rose wood handle. Carbon
steel. Prices are at the bottom of this page, and include standard handles in the price. You can choose either Rose, Myrtle or stabilized burl wood for the handle. Click for prices
9" Fillet with Stabilized Koa Wood is from Burl Source
Above - 9
inch fillet knife with standard western style rose wood handle. Carbon steel and brass bolster. Steel is 1/16th" thick. Click for prices
Below : 7 inch Fillet Knife with Western style standard Myrtle wood handle. Click for prices
Above: Close up of my custom 1/4" rivet that is placed in the butt of my handles. Square brass inside round brass, filled with brass and steel rods and red-dyed epoxy. It goes through the handle
Below : An example of Double Brass Bolsters with a high French polish on . Cost is $35 extra per knife .
Above : Fancy western style handle with stabilized Box Elder Burl wood, with two 1/8" black and white spacers ~ brass/ white/black. E-mail me of your interest in me putting a handle like this on your cleaver, when ordering. Click for prices
Above, top : Extra fancyhandle - with Myrtle Wood and . I use strictly high carbon tool steel that is 1/6th inch thick. Notice my company chop in the butt of the handle. It is composed of 1/4" tube filled with 4 - 1/16th" brass rods inside a square tube of brass, all is filled with red dyed epoxy that is injected. At the center in the middle of those roads at the center is a slice of lions hair piano wire. It is made in 12" sections and sliced. The other rivets are 1/8" brass road glued right through the full-tanged stronger style handle ( steel in the middle and wood on either end ) . Wood is Myrtle Wood then brass sheet, then is black dyed eco-harvested stabilized Red Wood burl, a white/black spacer and lastly the brass bolster. The knife back, heel and the front of the bolster are softened. The edge is razor sharp and of course the steel, is as good a tool steel as there is on the market today. Each unit is personally hardened in shop and drawn to a straw yellow, in an electric oven. I use Macadamia Nut oil to harden. Handle is finished with a combo of Orange/Olive Oil. If you want a handle like this, e-mail me and ask for the extra fancy handle. Click for prices
The stabilized wood, absorbs very little moisture and the color will not fade. The finish on my blades is finished to 600 grit . Over time the surface of carbon steel kitchen knives, will take on a patina. All handles come finished to 400 grit, with a coat of vegetable oil. Presently I use Orange/Olive Oil. I use various woods for the handles, depending on your preferences. The first choice is called Myrtle Wood or Bay Laurel. It is generally light colored (lighter than the Rose Wood ) although some pieces can be tawny. Many pieces have tremendous chatoyance. It was locally harvested over 25 years ago along with the Madrone wood I am now using.
Madrone is very hard and grows wild all over the west coast. It exhibits swirls and waves at it's best. I call it the Northwest's answer to Pink Ivory, because of it's pink overtones. It is much like Eucalyptus in that the skin of the tree sheds it's bark and some leaves in summer. It is ideal for kitchen knives. I also use Santos Rosewood, which is heavier and more oily than Myrtle, because of climatic conditions. It is harvested from a finca in southern Mexico one tree at a time, and is an abundant excellent substitute for Cocobolo ( which is rare and super expensive ) . It still has the brown base and can exhibit swirls and dark longitudinal lines. It is perfect for a kitchen knife handle. Madrone, Myrtle and Rosewood are the same price in the drop down menus. If I have Myrtle and you want it, great. If I am out, I may need to replace it with Madrone. Any questions about this, write me. The last choice of wood I offer, is stabilized burl wood. All species and handles can usually be highly figured with swirls and eyes. If you go to my F.A.Q. page ( & scroll down ) , there you will find two links to my suppliers. Simply cruise around their sites seeing if you can find the wood you want on your handle, then e-mail me. If your busy and you want me to look, let me know. Each wood choice is unique, with no two exactly alike. I charge $20 over the cost, plus shipping/handling to work with this wood. Part of the $20 is the cost to ship it to me. Below are two sources of stabilized wood. Cruise around their sites, and see if something hits your fancy. If it does,, simply e-mail me along with size of knife you want, and I will invoice you. Any problems with size match and I will get back to you promptly. Each side of the knife has a SCALE and each knife has a set of scales. Minimum size of each scale of wood should be : 4 3/4" long, 1.5" wide and 5/16th" to 3/8th" thick. Any questions about this process, please let me know. They carry many different woods (both local and exotic) and most are quite nice. Just noodle around and let me know, or tell me and I can send a few choices if you like. e-mail here
1- Burl Source - they are two valleys over from me.
2- Alpha Knife Supply - numerous choices. I prefer not to work with spalted wood.
The carbon steel I use is 1/16th or .062 inch thick ( except for knives longer than 12” ) . The steel is 1075 cold rolled high carbon tool steel, which is heat treated one knife at a time, by me in my shop. I machine my knives, thereby saving the expense of forging a thick piece of steel out to the thickness of the steel I use. Properly heat treated carbon steel, allows for a knife that will keep a keen edge, yet is noticeably easy to re-hone for a new keen edge. All the sweeps of the edges of my knives have the classic French curve, for that nice rocking motion. For ease of use and re-sharpening. The brass bolster is riveted and glued onto the full tang, and is in between the handle and the blade. It serves to protect the end grain of the handle wood and adds the perfect weight to the handle. Handles generally measure out to about 5 ¼ inches – ¼” leeway from the back of the blade to the bolster, 3/4" of brass and then 4 1/4" of wood. All blade lengths are close but not exact. The handle is secured with 4 rivets, which are glued and pressed into
place. There are three 1/8” brass pins, and a company chop in the handle ‘butt’. My chop goes through the handle and is functional. It is made in 12” lengths and is comprised of 4 - 1/16” brass pins, with a steel center, inside a 5/32nd square brass tube, which is inside a round brass tube. Red dyed epoxy is injected into the 12” tube, to hold all a-tanto. I then cut them down to about an inch and install. (Back to the top)
