The heating paste wax (depending on the specific brand and makeup) to make it more durable is because of how paste wax is made. It has wax (of course), oil, and generally a solvent or chemical agent to make it a softer paste. Heating it up let's the solvent evaporate away, and as the wax is suspended as a liquid it can soak into the grain a little, solidifying as it cools and sets up. As it cools some of the oils in the paste separate out and get pulled a little deeper in the wood, again making the wax harder. It works similar to filling grain with super glue in that the wax locks the fibres in place and the pores filled (stopping grain from being pushed into them with further sanding). It is more durable than oil finishes and less brittle than super glue (which tends to crack or spiderweb if the handle gets damaged).
This comment is awesome!!! Thanks for the additional information. I have only done a couple handles so far, and my scale game is gonna evolve fast af with content creators like Alee, and comments like yours!! I consider this channel a great resource as a beginner blade Smith!
I really appreciate all your videos! I've learned quite a lot! I've been making knives for 2 years and feel like I was on my way to learning this on my own. You confirmed that I was on the right track. Ty!
Lots of tips, tricks and information in this tutorial. Great video on finishing and finishes. 👍👍👍💥 Thanks for another video to help us along. Going to try some different finishes on my knives. Health, blessings and cheers 😃
Excellent knife. Fantastic video. Mother Mag wheel is the bomb. I’ve been using that stuff for years on everything from metal, paint etc. it’s my absolute go to for head light restoration. I love it on hard woods. I’m definitely going to try that paste wax. Great tip with the heat gun I’ll give it a try. Back in the Army days we used a lighter with Kiwi polished our boots. Keep up the outstanding videos.
New subscriber here. I was sent here by Dave Evader Knives RU-vid channel. He told everyone to come over here for your handle finish tutorial. Really great videos! I'm glad he sent me over. I learned a lot and really love the look you're getting on those handles!
Thank you, this was very helpful. May I add that UV light speeds up polymerization of oil, so putting the knife under the sun helps or even better is a UV lamp, I can do three thick coats of tung oil in one day under a UV lamp.
@@Aleeknives you'll be amazed how much it helps, but UV lamps are different, if I remember correct the best spectrum for this purpose is in the 300-400nm range and the more power the faster the process, there is a lot of info on this subject on the internet, so don't just get any UV lamp. I'm actually using my wife's manicure lamp with UV LED lights, I don't know if it's the best option but for now it works well, but I don't think they last long, it's used for hardening nail polish. I plan on improving this setup so I don't have to rotate the knife, like making a box with lights from all sides.
Looks great , never knew about Super Glue technique, the wood looks good also . I dug up a large Cherry Stump and it is so freakin hard that I have to spray water on a chainsaw bar when ripping off a piece , it will simply burn up the chain . I get the same streaky looking grain near a root branch . I use Linseed oil first to draw out grain then 6 coats of Tru oil lightly buffing with 0000 steel wool between each tru oil coat allowing each coat to dry . Finally I take a cotton work sock and Turn it wrong side out , after carefully protecting the blade with leather and clamping in a vise , I polish the handle ( shoe shine style) with the sock and it shines like glass . BTW your knives look as perfect as I have seen
Were the knife woods stabilized originally? Your choice to have the spokes of the wood spread out from the center of the spine to the right and left has given your knife a rare beauty. Happy New Year.
I watched both videos. Nice results, dude! I do a similar process, but no grain raising. I go over the part very thoroughly with an air compressor instead. I whole-heartedly agree with Mother's Mag. That stuff performs really well for the cost and rate of cut.
@@Aleeknives Have you ever done a fully-finished stock as an attempt to prevent the wood from absorbing moisture and warping? I'm getting the itch to refinish a rifle, and that's just kind of a consideration I'm kicking around based on some times I've toured musical instruments.
I LOVE Minwax! It work great on hand forged things as well.after I am finished making whatever I dip it hot in the Minwax and let it cool. DON'T dip it too hot!
@@Aleeknives yea it catches on fire pretty fast! Mostly just get it hot enough to melt the wax then just hang it somewhere and let it cool. Great finish on it!
It's funny, I have the same watco method and I use the same mag aluminum polish 😂 literally! Never seen anyone else use it either. I stayed for part 2 just to see if that was what I thought it was. I use it on g10 mostly but things like ebony too. Has to be super hard wood
I thoroughly enjoyed this video, Airin. Some great tips there! The tip with the heat gun looks very interesting. I’m definitely going to be watching that one. I loved the blade shape, too. What a great little skinner! Thanks for the time you took to make this video, man. Your hard work and dedication definitely shows! Oh, and I agree with you that Renaissance Wax smells amazing. I have a pot of in in my kitchen, ready for knife 4, and I keep opening it to smell it. Cheers buddy 🤜🏻💥🤛🏻
Vonax brand buffing compound for plastics works fabulously as a finishing compound on platics, resins/CA and hard or pale/white materials generally, runs rather cool for less heat tough materials too. Someone gave me a block and it's been a godsend!
This knife is incredibly beautiful. Aaron, have you ever made a video showing how to stencil your initial in the blade. Would like to see how you do that, thank you!
Over the years I've found a few things that I've liked to use for handles 0000 steel wool is really good for doing cutting without loading up as it just sheds as it goes and isn't typically brutal enough to deeply score metal either- pins, bolsters etc. Plus it sort of conforms to the handle nicely around gentle curves if you've got a good wad of it Carnauba + bees wax mix gets really good and hard for a final coat Tru-oil made by birchwood casey from memory- its a gunstock oil and will usually only take 2-3 coats before you can cut back and buff to a mirror finish if you want that or a high satin. Its a mix of tung, linseed and probably a thinner if anyone wants to diy their own to experiment with Tung oil is a bit of a pain but its a natural, long lasting finish, but it does need about 6-7 coats with ideally a half to full day in between to dry fully before putting on another coat. Its one of those things which you can do if you're not in a hurry. Microfibre cloths- I get them in a big bundle for a couple of bucks at autopart stores and they last months, but really good for hand polishing, cleaning blades, putting on oils, waxes and so on. Just chuck them out between different jobs though you don't want them loaded up with errant chemicals from something else or bits of abrasive Superglue looks nice, but over the years I've found a good hard 10-12months of hard use will eventually wear it down and kill it, after that its extremely hard to repair, as a pore and grain filler on difficult timbers link Wenge it does a nice job though That radial cut timber you've got there is spectacular though
@@Aleeknives I'm really humbled mate, there was a period of my life were I ended up in a cabinet and picture framing business doing all the final finishing, staining, sanding, colour matching and probably ended up going through a couple of hundred miles of sandpaper in a year. It was a rough gig and I won't forget being in full body condom levels of chemical + dust protection on 40C (105F) days in a tin shed. It was miserable, but in hindsight when I have to do some hand sanding or finishes on a little old knife it doesn't seem overwhelming :) I guess if there's anything to pass on its to 'Be Patient' and 'Attention to Detail' on your timbers and metals, there's some processes that take a bit longer so for those of us used to instant gratification with everything in a modern world it can seem an eternity to think a week is too long, but that's just how it is sometimes.
Hello Airin and Kris, thanks for the share! I don't find in France the paste wax used in this video and ordered another one which is a paste wax Carbamex (brand Blanchon). Unfortunately it doesn't provides the grippy and hard effect you obtain, and that's what I expected... Bye reading the comment of Kris, I have a little hope because my product is made of vegetable wax of carnauba and I also have bees wax :) So any idea of the proportion of each for the blend before I try to melt it together? Thanks in advance :)
@@animaknives Sure if you can get pure Carnauba and Beeswax at a 1:4 ratio, then add the same volume of both (by weight) of Turpentine (White spirit, Mineral spirits), gentle heat and mix it together well, pour into a can or something and wait for it to harden. You sort of want a soft butter texture and seal it up for storage, it should keep ok for a few months. I used to just make up a little as-required
Cool finish and technique - I tried this myself though and couldn’t get it to work. I did a ton of Tung oil coats on some black walnut but didn’t get the pore fill technique to work. Still looks good but lots of open pores still. Next time I will fill first with some clear filler I have.
I am preparing to finish a set of Koa Wood Scales so this video really helps, Thankyou! so I gather I do not need to go to a super high grit finish with Koa?
Does the BLO make it hard for the super glue to bond to the wood? I used super glue on koa once and the glue delaminated and that sucked because it became cloudy and I had to sand it all off. Super glue really clogs up the paper to!
@@Aleeknives The superglue acts like an accelerator & hardens the BLO. It can be sanded right away. The resulting finish dries fast. I haven't had any issues with clouding or clogged sand paper. Here is a RU-vid link on applying this finish. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-I-FXOsMR2tY.html.
When using a finish on the handle that builds thickness on the surface (ex: superglue, polyurethane, lacquer, ting oil) there is a line formed on the top edge of the knife at the front end of the handle. The line I’m referring to is the edge of the finish because there is finish over the tang in the handle but no finish on the top edge of the knife’s blade. The line becomes more prominent as the thickness of the finish builds over the handle. Is there any way to hide this line which is caused by the edge of the finish? I like the thick high gloss finishes , but I don’t like the line where the blade protrudes from the handle. I hope I adequately explained “the line”. Thanks for any suggestions that you may have to offer. I watched the entire series on this knife build. It is an absolutely beautiful knife and you did a wonderful job of filming and explaining your techniques. Thanks for sharing your process.
I always use water with the paper when using it to wet sand steel but I have always worried that if I wet sand on the handle there was a possibility of introducing moisture into the handle material. Even properly stabilized scales can take on a little moisture. Have you tried this wet sanding on handles before? I would be interested
I am loving your videos, thank you so much for doing all of these tutorials. I am curious about these knife scales, I'm not seeing the type of wood anywhere in the video or comments (sorry if I missed it!). All of the descriptions under your videos only links to ironwood scales on Amazon. Wondering if you made these yourself or where you got them? I absolutely love the cross section, it's like a beautiful wood sunburst. There is one another video I'm going to comment on too to ask about those particular scales. Thank you!
I made these scales myself. It was a peice of firewood that I saved from the fire one night. I dried it then cut it up and stabilized it in a vacuum chamber with cactus juice resin. One of a kind but fairly easy to duplicate. Please do me a favor! I just posted a video making a Bowie for the Bowie challenge. Could you please watch it and then vote for who you think should win? Thank you!
cool, given me a couple of things to think about, the only hand material I use is locally sourced wood as are the treatments, need to look into other finishes I can source or make from what is around here
@@Aleeknives Beech, Ash, Lime, Sycamore and Hornbeam all available just up the road from me, I go and collect the good stuff that gets blown off or cut and left, leave it to season and then use it, also anything else I find that is reasonably hard and looks interesting, good coat of superglue over the softer ones works really well, also found a couple of good ways to stain wood using natural and available materials
I used the minwax application, then heated, then rubbed finish with great initial results, but soon had small portions wear off under use. What did I do wrong?
Hello again! Just suitors with that paste wax, which one is it because when I went to Home Depot or lowes ext I find paste finishing wax same can everything just it has shades like walnut, neutral, ect and I don’t know which one to buy so if you can let me know that would be amazing and much appreciated! Also, yes the mothers mag and wheel polish works so great so thank you for that tip!!!!
This was a peice of fire wood that had pretty grain so I tossed it to the side and let it dry for a couple year's. Then I stabilized it in a vacuum chamber. I don't know what type of wood it was
Might be a silly question but - what if you use epoxy resin instead of all these layers of tung oil? Can i not fill up the pores and reach a glass-like finish at 1 single step?
Question. I use alot of black walnut and really like it. I understand how to raise the grain but when you say sharp sandpaper to cut the grain down Im unsure what sharp sandpaper means? Is it grit or backing or both? Appreciate is you tell what what you use so I can try it out. Thanks for the video I've already used some of the information and had very good results.
Hi Airin, sorry, it's me again with a new question, ha ha. I'm making a try with a pure tung oil from the brand Chestnut but I'm not conviced by this one. After a big amount of layers, the pores of my wood aren't still filled and each layer never seems to dry... So I can't reach the point where it will be possible to sand it again and obtain the result expected. Is there something different with the Watco tung oil you are using? It seems to dry "quickly" and make a real coating. If yes I will probalbly try this one but importing it to France is really expensive so I don't want to be wrong ! 😄 Thanks in advance !
There is a big difference! I use a blended tung oil, pure tung oil takes a long time to dry. Take your tung oil and cut it down with naptha, that will help it dry faster!
@@Aleeknives thanks! I'm not sure about my translation of "naphtha". Is acetone, turpentine or white spirit could be one? If yes half of each would be a good blend or you have a better recommendation?
Hello :) I did a new try because I found in my shop some siccative. This is better but still not enough to give the the good result. I checked the paint thinners too but I found so many diffferent ones and with my luck, I will probably take the wrong one... So, is the watco a blend ? If yes I will try this one and stop my questions :)
Interesting idea using Mother’s for hardwood. I make almost exclusively culinary knives and I’m worried about food safety with using this product. Do you use it as a final finish or do you remove it afterwards?
@@Aleeknives thank you. Love to hear you talk about how to finish African Blackwood. All those little grain marks even in stabilized wood is a pain to get out with sawdust and ca glue. Love to hear if you have any other processes
That's a great idea for a future video! I jave been doing a new Playlist called the handle material showdown. Each episode showcases a new type of handle material!
Howdy from Texas! Love your videos. I watched your handle finish videos. You used tung oil. Is boiled linseed oil a similar process? With similar results? Or not as good? Thanks for a reply.
classic carnuaba wax finish, when done on lathe. Applying a stick of wax to spinning work melts the wax and polishes to glass finish. pity minwax paste not sold here.
found a paste wax here that works for me. Woodoc Antique Wax. Did a single thick superglue finish, keeping it wet for as long as possible especially on the endgrain. sanded it back, smooth to 600 then used the paste wax and heat, wow! Thanks for this one.
@@Aleeknives I want to thank you for the video talking about mothers aluminum polish,really works great.i make a few knives and have gotten into 1911 pistol grips.advice really helped.
if your tired of cutting up T shirts alot of times you can find cloth gun cleaning patches for swabbing the barrel in the sporting goods department of most big box stores
Also, what finish did you have as a build up on this knife? I’m so happy you showed us the sanding of the handle after the build ups so we can see what to look for when I’m doing mine so just curious what finish you used on this knife!? Thanks again!
