Making knives completely out of wood

[JoeWilson]

I was inspired by wooden cake knives to try and build some knives entirely out of wood. I'm curious to see how sharp of an edge I can get if I use very hard, tight-grained species. I also plan to try laminating sheets of softer and harder woods to mimic Japanese steel construction. This is just for fun, I realize wood won't hold an edge like metal but it will be neat to see how sharp I can make one. I've got an Edge on Up sharpness tester from a project I've been doing to test the edge retention qualities of various Japanese steels so I figured I could put it to use for this too.

I had posted a thread in the buy and sell forum and this sparked some interest so I'll post my progress as I go.

In the meantime, I would love to see any wood knives you've made or learn about woods that you think would make a good knife edge.

 

[ripjack13]

Here's a topic on em we did a while ago...

OPEN CHALLENGE the wooden knife challenge topic

OK....I know this is a crazy request...but I know that all of the knife makers here can do this. I challenge everyone to show their skills in another light. I would like to see everyone participate in making a total wooden knife ... fixed or fold..it would not matter. Let your imagination run...

woodbarter.com

And the finished knives....

Post your Finished Wooden Knife Here.

Ok. For those of you that are entered in the Wooden Knife Challenge, post up one picture that you want to be voted on, as well as featured in the calender. Please no comments from others in here. Just a picture, along with some description of what the wood used and finish on it. And please try...

woodbarter.com

And here's mine...snakewood and African Blackwood...

 

[JoeWilson]

Here's a topic on em we did a while ago...

OPEN CHALLENGE the wooden knife challenge topic

OK....I know this is a crazy request...but I know that all of the knife makers here can do this. I challenge everyone to show their skills in another light. I would like to see everyone participate in making a total wooden knife ... fixed or fold..it would not matter. Let your imagination run...

woodbarter.com

And the finished knives....

Post your Finished Wooden Knife Here.

Ok. For those of you that are entered in the Wooden Knife Challenge, post up one picture that you want to be voted on, as well as featured in the calender. Please no comments from others in here. Just a picture, along with some description of what the wood used and finish on it. And please try...

woodbarter.com

And here's mine...snakewood and African Blackwood...
View attachment 264703

That's a handsome knife. Thanks for the links, there is some great inspiration there.

 

[Arn213]

Here's a topic on em we did a while ago...

OPEN CHALLENGE the wooden knife challenge topic

OK....I know this is a crazy request...but I know that all of the knife makers here can do this. I challenge everyone to show their skills in another light. I would like to see everyone participate in making a total wooden knife ... fixed or fold..it would not matter. Let your imagination run...

woodbarter.com

And the finished knives....

Post your Finished Wooden Knife Here.

Ok. For those of you that are entered in the Wooden Knife Challenge, post up one picture that you want to be voted on, as well as featured in the calender. Please no comments from others in here. Just a picture, along with some description of what the wood used and finish on it. And please try...

woodbarter.com

And here's mine...snakewood and African Blackwood...
View attachment 264703

That is one exceptional piece- what museum is it in? The blade style I am a fan off, reminds of Terzuola he designed for the Camillus CUDA line- but your blade and handle design is just so much for sexier, refine and much more elegant.

 

[ripjack13]

Here's my topic on how I made it too....

Rip's knife (wooden knife challenge)

Darn you papppy. This is harder than I thought it would be. I spent a couple hours last night going through all my wood trying to find something that would look good together and be long enough for a good sized knife. I finally came up with a piece of African Blackwood for the blade. It had this...

woodbarter.com

Man it's been a long time since we've done that. I think after the holidays I'll start up a new challenge topic for one.
I need to set my calendar to remind me...

 

[Mike Hill]

I went back and looked at the entries - I was blown away!

 

[Tony]

I still have the calendar we made from that challenge somewhere...

 

[JoeWilson]

Some progress, I made a lamination with ironwood/leadwood from @TimR and manzanita. I'm going to try to make some knives in the typical Japanese style with these where the handles are a separate part. Second and third photos are wet to show the color.








I'm making a couple in more of a western style as well. Ironwood/leadwood again but this time a solid chunk. I've tried to orientate the grain so there is some end grain all along the cutting edges.

Ribbonwood for the handles - this stuff is super hard but carves really cleanly. It might be a good candidate for blades too if I can find a clear chunk of it. It's intensely red too, the photos don't do it justice, I can't wait to get some finish on it.

 

[Nature Man]

These are going to be most awesome! Keep the pics coming! Chuck

 

[T. Ben]

 

[JoeWilson]

Update on this guy with the first coat of oil. I decided to do a single bevel aka chisel edge on this one. I’m not happy with the edge yet - it’s chipping out a bit when I sharpen it, so I may need to adjust the angle. The next one will be double bevel.

 

[ripjack13]

That...is a good looking knife!

 

[JoeWilson]

Thanks for the kind words!

Progress on the Japanese-style laminated knives. 5 different species of wood used here - ironwood, manzanita, walnut, ribbonwood, and boxelder.

Putting a wooden knife into a sharpening jig has to be one of the goofiest things I've ever done. Both knives have somewhat of an edge on them now but I haven't hit paper-cutting sharp yet. Making them sharp seems a little counter-intuitive, polishing the edge with higher and higher grits seems to make the edge less sharp at a certain point. As does going side to side rather than back and forth. I think I need to put them back on the jig and rough them up a bit to get more of a toothy edge.

I put a small domino through the handle where the different woods come together as there is structurally weak end grain to end grain joinery happening here. I shaped the handle with a small block plane. That took a while so I'll probably rough it in on the belt sander next time, but I wanted to do it the traditional way first.

 

[ripjack13]

What if you soaked the edges with thin ca? That would make a decently hard edge to sharpen.

 

[JoeWilson]

What if you soaked the edges with thin ca? That would make a decently hard edge to sharpen.

Yeah, I think I'll try that next, if I can saturate the edge with thin CA glue it might work. Now that I have some finish on I can probably do it without making a mess on the rest of the knife.

 

[Mike Hill]

Those are awesome!

 

[BangleGuy]

I went back and looked at the entries - I was blown away!

I did the same thing and was so impressed. Great work by all!