A Study In Ironwood for Kitchen Knife Handles

Over the years I've used a lot of AZ Ironwood for knife handles, it's among my favorite choices. I like that it's hard to grind since it allows me time to make mistakes and fix them and it grinds nearly compatible with bolsters, tangs, and pins to allow me to get a flush fit without undercutting. Then there's the look - wow who can't appreciate the color contrasts, dark lines, and metallic shimmer? I love it!

What I don't love so much is how it doesn't finish as nice as I'd like. It's a tight grained, dense, & oily wood that isn't stabilized, it's natural. Most knifemakers simply sand, buff, and wax and call it good. That's what I did as well but then I started to wonder about how it holds up in the kitchen. Most "custom" knifemaker's knives go from maker to customer and then to the safe - that's it's life. For a kitchen knifemaker we have to expect that our knives will be used, get messed up with oils/grime/acids, and then washed with detergents and maybe even scrubbed with scouring pads. How can we expect a wax coating to hold up and protect the wood in this type of an environment? Ironwood turns dark over time from UV exposure, hand oils, and gets washed out from dish detergents - we need to protect against these problems.

Over time I've had mixed results in finishing ironwood and have found a few things to be true when working this stuff. First is that it should not be over-buffed or buffed hard. In fact, if buffers are used it should be done using a soft buff, gently, and quick because the grain can get easily smeared. I stopped buffing ironwood, preferring to go to higher grit sandpaper instead. Yes some shine is sacrificed by not buffing but I can keep the grain appearance tight. I've also taken on the task of trying to figure out how (if at all) it's possible to seal ironwood using drying oils and this task has turned into a long term experiment since I've had little to no success.

As I mentioned before, ironwood is very dense, tight grained, and oily - it doesn't want to allow anything into or below it's surface. When an oil is applied it ends up sitting on the surface and drying/curing even if it's designed to soak in as many are. For most other woods (even stabilized woods) it's relatively easy to get a smooth build up of oil on the surface by first soaking the wood and then building up the layers but with ironwood (with a surface that doesn't allow penetration) all we get is a build up and this is weak since it's not holding onto anything - essentially the surface build up has got no roots under the surface like we can get with other woods. In every test I've done (with oiling ironwood) I've always been able to scrub away the oil coating using dish detergent. It's a major bummer when this happens after days of rubbing in the coats of oil.

To mention the test/experiments some....what I'm doing is using every drying type oil that I can get my hands on, mixing concoctions, etc. I've been doing this for a couple of years now and only in the last year or so have I seen results that are promising yet not so consistent. I have figured out a few mixtures/recipes that work for most common woods yet ironwood remains troublesome.....until recently.

The knife shown in the pictures below was first finished using the traditional method of buffing & waxing, then it was used and became ugly over time. The owner actually tried waxing per my instructions and then went so far as applying tung oil but it still kept getting uglier. I refinished this handle a few days ago and it's now the first that's been sealed using a new mixture of oils that actually block UV light, waterproof, keeps oily dirt out, and repels acids....all while allowing the look and feel of the wood to come through. The loss of color contrast is the only negative that I can see but maybe over time I can improve on this through tweaking.

I'm going to be shipping the knife back to the customer to have him use it as normal and we'll see where this experiment takes us. I'm hopeful but hey you never know. I'll be sure to post the results when that time comes. I just wanted to share with you guys now what I've been up to. Please feel free to comment, I'd love to hear what you think about the differences between finishes and your opinions on the topic of using ironwood in the kitchen.

BTW, to seal this handle took 11 coats! Talk about a time consumer.

 

Would love to see my AIW burl handle pop again like it once did Still looks good but it is rather dark now.

 

It might have lost some contrast compared to the other method...but less compared to the used version...nice looking handle Dave!

 

That's really good looking Dave...and yeah, Arizona ironwood can be a pain. I generally sand to 1200 grit, then buff lightly with tripoly on an 8" loose buff. After that it's about 15 coats of tru-oil with 3000 grit paper, to fill the grain and seal the handle...then a buff with 100% carnauba wax (just because I like the way it feels lol...nice and grippy). My first two gyuto are ironwood handles, and when I refinished them with this method last year they seemed to stop changing color (and kept the contrast even).

I don't have anywhere NEAR the number of handles out there you have though, lol...and these are my only ironwood ones so it could just be a one off deal .

 

It always amazes me as to how many layers there are to knife making. Of course the blade has a myriad of processes, but so does the handle. As I get closer to the end of my third year in this business I'm still in awe of the expertise and applications that you guys have and do. Dedication is the work that comes to mind, and thanks.

 

WOW, well said! :like :cool1

 

You might have the answer Chris. Tru-oil is part of the mix I used on the final two layers but you have me wondering about sanding it down between coats to fill the pores even more. I'll be thinking about this on my next ironwood handle. Thanks

 

I really hope it works out for you my friend . I actually rub the coats in with the 3000 grit paper until the oil starts to get tacky...then quickly rub it off with a lint free towel. I use the 3m trizact sponge backed stuff. I'd originally tried doing it with 1500 grit paper, but it just made the finish look muddy. I think the resultant slurry was too coarse for the sanded particles to properly fill the pores on the dense ironwood, if that makes sense...so it just sat there in the finish. The 3000 grit makes an almost invisible slurry with the tru-oil, and since the particles of wood are so ultra fine...it fills any pores nicely, while leaving a nice crisp looking finish. I do that on the first three to five coats (there comes a point where you know it's not doing any more good lol), then use the same process without the abrasive, using a soft cloth to apply the tru-oil.

I'll PM you a picture (so as not to clutter your thread with my stuff!) of the refinished handle.

 

Great, thanks Cris

 

Hi Dave, just wondering any update from the customer how these handles look now after a year and a half post-refurb?

I was under the impression that a lot of woods will darken over time from oxidation and UV exposure, and as a result there isn't a lot we can do about it. The grain filled and oiled handle looks nice in the pic, but obviously there were more lighter colors initially that have darkened.

It looks like in order to avoid just a plain dark handle, it's necessary to choose ironwood that is high contrast and possibly highly figured to use to begin with?

 

Yes I have received feedback from the customer and it appears we have a fail here.

Since doing this I've had a few other ironwood handles go out with a completely different type of oil used and I'm hoping that they're going to do better but I'm realistic in knowing that it's unlikely that they'll stay fresh looking forever in the kitchen environment,

 

i love the stuff but i use IW only now on light use knives or extreme use (that are not worried about the color of the handle) i have both fancy burl and nearly straight grain blocks
cant beat iron wood for durability in a natural handle use. only being bested by synthetics
in jsut one summer of use my ironwood scale on my EDC folder turned nearly black. a light sandig brings the color back out but the writing is on the wall and i will be replacing the scale with something more color fast in wet use

 

So I've still been working on this issue, 2 yrs later, yet finally making progress with something positive to report.

As we've known the issue(s) with ironwood is turning dark and ugly through oxidation, UV, and detergent exposure. The goal is to minimize the contact that the wood will have to those things through sealing the surface while retaining the nice color/tone of the ironwood during the process.

Most oils darken & cloud/obscure wood and also don't want to adhere to such an oily/dense species as ironwood. I've found that oiling to seal this wood type just doesn't work. The wood doesn't want to accept in the oil nor will even the thickest coating remain in use.

What I have discovered is that varnish will do just the opposite - it'll soak in, adhere, and stay put through normal use. The keys are using the correct varnish and thinning it enough to allow it to get into the wood and build up from within. You simply can't coat ironwood and expect the finish to last. I suggest using a thin spar varnish. This type of varnish is meant to live in the elements, is very tough, and is UV resistant. Thin the varnish down to a water consistency and let it soak in and do however many coats needed until the varnish appears to build up onto the surface. Don't be tempted to thicken it, this is a long process that'll take a week to get correct, just be patient.

This method can also be applied to cocobolo. This is actually where I learned the most about how to seal ironwood as cocobolo is even tougher to get right since nothing builds on this wood easily.



The handle below shows my most recent results in ironwood. Here you can't see (in the pictures) the sheen very well but it's there and you can obviously see that the color and character of the wood shows clearly. I'm encouraged by these results....

 

Impressive and encouraging-- but you'll have to wait a good deal of time, during which the knife will be actually used, to confirm that this latest method really works as intended, right?

 

It passed the short term tests but to know for sure it'll take time.

 

Hi Dave, curious if you've ever tried removing the surface oil from the ironwood first?
I do this, but then apply the board oil (mineral oil) beeswax combo and buff.
I remove the natural oil with alcohol or lacquer thinner. It actually sinks in a little bit, so not just the surface oil is gone, it goes into the wood a little bit. I learned this in my epoxy attempts. Sticks much better with oil removed.
The wood looses just a bit of color doing this, but seems to come back a bit with the oil mix I use.
I wonder if your varnish would work better if you tried this first?

 

Hi Mark,
I do clean the wood off with acetone before I do anything to it. That sure does help with applying any finish and with epoxying too.

 

Yep, it leads to better results, but still that finish doesn't lasts. At least in my experience. It would be gone in less than a month

 

So, it's been 3 months since the last update. I've been researching this topic like crazy for the last few days and was wondering how the new method has been holding up??

 

I can't answer that as I haven't checked in with the customer but I can say that I'm still using the same method, in fact I just finished an ironwood handle today. I still find the key to getting the varnish into the wood is to use lots of very thin coats, much thinner and many more than normal.

I'll have to reach out to the customer on this handle and see how the wood looks, thanks for the reminder.