Does anyone know a good supplier for handle material

A search of the site will yield several sources as well as a blueprint (or two) on how to make your own handles.

i have been looking at others knifes on forum. I am starting the bench work on hunting knife i forged out of 01 just trying to find some handle ideas now lol

Wander through everypic you can find on this site both in the forums. recent and past, and in the gallery pics, that should give you a grea idea for shapes sizes etc. Pay attention to materials that you like and would like to find ,,make a list of those materials and start contacting knife materials supplers including any that may be close to you. Contact them and see which of the materials they carry

thanks rich

I buy a good deal of mine from Ebay..About all of my exotic wood..I have a freind who is a taxidermist and I get all the stag from him I can use. Im a hunter and trapper as well so I have any number of bones etc to use if I want..
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Check ebay for wood, you can get some dandy deals..Check taxidermists for scrap stag..You'll get it cheaper from them than anyone..

thanks alot kyboy

Completely agree about eBay, but a couple of bits of advice:

1. Be patient. The goal is get good wood at a price you like, not to quickly win auctions unless you really need that wood now. Most of what you buy will have to season for months+ anyway even if the seller says it's "dry".

2. Beware of stabilized wood unless the auction clearly says that it's processed by a well respected company or you really know the seller. A lot of the "stabilized" wood on eBay isn't well processed.

3. Take chances. I recently bid on three groups of rather questionable, poorly photographed scales from a seller I've had good experiences with. He said you should expect to get 2-3 sets of useable scales out of each batch. I got a good deal better than that at a max of $8 per batch. Took a risk and threw some of them in an order I was just sending off to WSSI (my first to them). All came back useable and some are really pretty -- I'll save them for something special. BTW: a lot of that WSSI order was 4 of the 18 boards of spalted silver maple I got for less than $2 a board including shipping. Results varied but I really liked two of them; one of the two was well worth the cost of having all four done.

These days I *tend* to buy larger blocks and expect to let them sit for a couple of years before cutting into them at all. Of course I've accumulated enough wood so that the only problem is my patience...

Edited October 1, 200916 yr by Rileyrock

still have some work yet

I am a wood scrounger. I find good wood in old pallats, dumptsers and many other places. I recently found some old ironwood at the feedstore. It was for electric fences. I bought scrap purple heart several years ago and have used it to handle many things including my favorite draw knife. I have fround some very dense (unidentified) reddish wood in pallats at a saddle maker. These came from Mexico Most recently I picked up a couple large chunks of mesquite at a flea market. I find bleached cowbones on any local ranch but you can go to a butcher shop and they will give you some. Take them home and boil them good.

Ty for the info

Completely agree about eBay, but a couple of bits of advice:..

I might add that eBay can be a bit of a risk. I buy stuff from Ebay even though I have been burned about 6 or so times. Two sellers went out of business prior to shipping their items, and the rest sent stuff that was advertised as wonderful but arrived as either garbage and/or not the item described. All the sellers had high Ebay ratings, so that did not help. One seller even had a newspaper article written about how wonderful he was, and he turned out to be an out and out crook. :(

yea i did come across some wood for free its a hard wood just not sure what.i posted pics