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Stabilizing wood and making knife handles
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- Published on Apr 18, 2026
- In this video I will be stabilizing some maple burl and making some hybrid resin knife handles. I was going to make one of these in the last video but couldn't wait any longer for the wood to arrive in the mail so I had to move on. To make up for it I have made 8 knife handle blanks in this video.
This is truly exciting to have made my own knife handles to use on future knives. I hope you guys enjoy the video. If you have any suggestions for what kind of knives I should make with these handles drop a comment! If you have any questions about the process also drop a comment and I am happy to try and answer your questions! kthx bye
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The copper hits hard! Save time on show and tell by sanding to 220, then spraying with a rattle can coat of laquer based clear. Great stuff!👌👍
Nice 👍🏻
That helped me a ton finding the entire process all in one video! Thanks!
Beautiful stuff
Love them all. I couldn’t pick a favourite
Those will look awesome on a tops field knife
#6 is my favorite although one side of #7 is fantastic but the other side is only so-so.
#7 is definitely my favorite. Honourable mentions to #3, 6, and 8 :D
My favorite is #7 and #6 looks cool too! Love the metallic look!
All look fantastic! #7 is outstanding. Great job. Can't wait to see the finished knives!
2&4
Is the best👍👍
They all look amazing! The details in the actual wood come right through. I'm looking forward to viewing a video when you use these pieces of wood for handles.
has about $10,000 worth of equipment to make knife handles, uses record player to show them off...i love it
Haha 😂Glad you liked it. The equipment setup to do the stabilizing and resin casting was not nearly that expensive actually. I think I spent around $1500 CAD
My setup is complete at a cost of less then $200. Bear in mind I'm using a 1.5 gallon glass fish bowl, a $75 vacuum pump. Works the same just not a lot of volume for wood. But it's just for me anyway.
@samueljames9342 Thanks for the input my dude! I wish I would have constructed my own vacuum chamber. In all honesty my vacuum chamber does not have a lot of capacity for wood for how much cactus juice I have to use to properly submerge the wood. I have seen people with tall and narrow cylindrical chambers and I think that would have been the better route to go.
Thanks for the video.The red will eventually fade when exposed to daylight. It is possible to bringing it back by sanding and refinishing. The wood will dry quicker if you cut it to size before drying in the oven. Cutting down on time and enery.
Can we all take a moment to appreciate this?
Thanks 😊
Nice work . Relaxing video, watching the whole process was enjoyable. The finished items were top notch.
Thank you! I appreciate it
red /black
Fantastic video! Thank you
Glad you liked it!
Looks beautiful, great job.
Thank you Robert
Definitely 3 is my favorite. Great job, they all look great 👍
Thanks a lot! I appreciate it 👊
the brown ones on the left before you put the last one in. i love that kinda coulor. i subscribed man, had to 😊...awsome job!
Thank you!
7 & 8 even with the beauty mark .. awesome work!! Looking forward to seeing the knives
Beauty mark 😂
Hi, that was amazing to watch. I like 6 and 7 !
Thank you 🙏
#3, #7
🔥💯🔥
Thank you. By the way, I am doing a knife give-away to celebrate reaching 1000 subscribers. Check out my most recent video as well as my most recent Shorts video to see how to enter the draw!
Couldn’t choose just one. 3,6 & 8 are definitely my favs. Think they will turn out amazing as handles. Well done and thank you for showing the entire process. Very helpful for beginners such as myself.
Thank you 🤝
Love the turn table outro!
Thanks 😎
New to stabilizing.
Interested because I am a knife sharpener and would like to venture into handle replacements.
Cannot the bark be stabilized and then sealed in epoxy?
Thought it make for an interesting knife scale.
Thanks for sharing.
I'm sure the bark can probably be stabilized. If I remember correctly I did everything based on how I learned from other youtubers. I probably scraped off the bark because I saw other people doing it. I can't see any reason the bark can't be stabilized as long as it is dried very well
Very nice work sir,I got alot to learn,your knive will be eye 👁 catchers
Thank you!!
The blue looks sweet
Thank you. I still have the blue one. I haven't decided what to make with it yet.
Que es ese liquido que le echas
3 & 6 are my favorites
Thanks man! I've used up most of these handle blocks now but I am still holding onto #3 and #6. They were some of my favorites too and I am saving them for something special. I've been thinking about doing another video like this and making a new batch of handles as well.
holy batman. subscribed
Hey thanks buddy
They all are nice
Thank you 😁
Estimado Dave , muchas gracias por este tutorial , espectacular trabajo el que has demostrado , voy a seguir tu canal , un abrazo desde Ecuador , casi me olvido yo tambien hago cuchillos
Thank you. I appreciate it 🙏
I really like the last Resin pour block. The one that the steel had to be removed. But they are all so beautiful. Awesome workmanship Dave.
Thank you Debbie! ♥🙌
It's hard for me to pick a favourite but the ones I am most excited to use are 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8
😂🤣😂🤣
It’s difficult to choose a favorite. My husband likes the one with the copper color. I like the light green, transparent blue, transparent red….
Thank you, I appreciate it! The transparent red one got used for making the bread knife which I made a video for. The copper colored one I am afraid to say got ruined during a project. I think it was the pocket knife video that I made. I am very much considering making another resin casting video soon!
Hi Dave , excellent job mate.i thought all your blocks and scales turned out pretty amazing .loved the video , informative and funny .Nice one.😉👍
Thanks Dave! I appreciate it man! 👊
@DaveMakesKnives Your more than welcome mate credit were credits due.
Bonjour vous avez quoi comme dosage résine +durcisseur merci.
Thank 😊 you sir,just learning
You're welcome!
amazing work i just found your channel they all are awesome but the 3rd one caught my eye a friend who does tree work hooked me up with 2 big pieces of maple burl i have alot to play with im new to wood stabilizing but im up for the challenge subbed and liked Mark
Thanks for watching! I appreciate the comment 👊 Please let me know how your stabilizing goes. And don't hesitate to reach out if I can help you out!
@DaveMakesKnives 1 question what kind of resin should iget to cast with ? i have alot of cut off material would make alot of handles and the dyes you use thank you can you provide a link where to buy?
@Anderson-HandForged The resin I used the brand is called Magic Resin. It is manufactured in Canada and I live in Canada so I went with that brand because it was inexpensive for me. This resin was marketed as "arts and crafts" resin. Some of the more premium brands I have seen guys use on RUclips are Alumilite and TotalBoat. The resin I used has a working time of around 1 hour which was sufficient time to let the air bubbles rise. As far as the full technique I hope the video helped demonstrate that (using the temperature gun to monitor the resin temperature). Here is a link for some of the mica powder pigment I used in the video. Some of the mica powder in the video was sent to me by Magic Resin when I ordered my resin from them.
www.amazon.ca/Mica-Powder-Coloring-Pigments-Pigment/dp/B08N6KK16M/ref=sr_1_6?crid=3NEK2Q7ST19VO&keywords=mica+powder+pigment&qid=1656289901&sprefix=mica+powder+pigment%2Caps%2C116&sr=8-6
I also used some liquid dye and here is a link for that too. I shopped for this stuff on amazon and I basically just looked in the item description to make sure it can be used with resin. Hope this helps!
www.amazon.ca/Magicfly-Translucent-Colorant-Concentrated-Decoration/dp/B088361DYN/ref=sr_1_27?crid=33T2KAJT1JWPR&keywords=liquid+resin+pigment&qid=1656290021&sprefix=liquid+resin+pigment%2Caps%2C103&sr=8-27
They're cool. A guy could make a living making them or ones like them
Thank you. I'm sure one day I'll have an online shop and sell my knives and handles.
How did you debark?
Had gouge and or sandblasting?
Asking for a friend😁
I used a wire brush. Thanks for watching!
Great job, what resin do you use for the casting?
Thank you from Ireland 😊
The resin I use is stuff I get locally in Canada called Magic Resin. Thanks for watching!
Book matching the biger blocks by cutting them In half to show the same wood grain and resin on both sides would look really good too
Yes, that is true! I've done it a few times! Thanks for watching 👊
Please, how much pressure do you need to put into the chamber? Thx
I think I did them around 45-50 psi. Check what your pressure pot is rated for and make sure not to exceed that number. Thanks for watching. 🤝
How are your hands after
Touching all that resin
It's been a while since I made this video so I can't remember completely. But I would bet money that my hands were sticky and discolored for a week afterwards 😆 I try to wear gloves most of the time these days but sometimes I get ahead of myself and mix the resin before I have everything prepped and the end result is some nasty looking fingers
Hi Dave! Please let me know if a Honduras Rosewood Burl blank needs to be stabilized before using it for a knife handle making project
I can't say for sure if it needs to be stabilized. I have never worked with that kind of wood and I am by no means an expert on this subject so I hope I can give some proper advice. If the wood feels like it is not very dense, like there are lots of pores or holes in the wood, then I would highly recommend stabilizing.
can you stain the wood after it has been stabilized, if not what do you do to get the color of wood you want ?
Thanks for watching. To dye the wood, that would have to be done during the stabilizing process. There are dyes you can get to add to the cactus juice and then the wood will take the color when it is in the vacuum chamber. I haven't tried this yet but I believe this is how it's done. If you try to dye the wood after the stabilizing resin is cured, the dye will not penetrate the wood.
Where did you get the sound effects?
I probably just searched on google. I can't remember!
Is it advisable to put a polished coin at the bottom end of the casting resin to add more interesting combinations? Saw the work done on the pure wooden handles only.
Please comment and thank you for the work of arts
I think a polished coin could look pretty cool in there!
How did you make your molds and are they reusable?
In this video I made the molds. Yes they are reusable. Thanks for watching.
ruclips.net/video/YTxNzCxJAFU/video.html
Soaking is good and all but a pressure chamber is better. It also severely reduces your times. Also, you should do this process multiple times. It may seem good but even after a soak you WILL get a ton more bubbles which means you didn’t get all the air out. It would take me a weeks to get full penetration on maple burls. I never had a complaint. If you end up using dye and get streaking in the wood, you didn’t get full penetration.
This makes sense! Thanks for the feedback
7
Thanks for watching 😎
great video just cut this kind of video to 20min it will be way much better
If I got more feedback like that I'd consider it but you are the first one.
2
Thanks Mark!
Hello love you videos. My name is Jeff Martin. I have been kicking around some ideas about wood stablizing with heat curing epoxy. I have only seen this done with very small pieces of wood. Like pen blanks and knife handles. It does get a little expensive to stablize. I do have a vacuum vessel that accommodate very large pieces. Stabilized you can use more punky woods and push the envelope. Do you think people would pay for something like this? Thanks
Thank you. I'm not sure, I am having trouble picturing your vacuum vessel. Have you thought about making a video to demonstrate your idea?
@DaveMakesKnives No but it would be a good idea.
I'll take any blems,but don't see any
Thanks!
You will get less bleed out if you Wrap your wood in foil as well mate
Thank you. From all the videos I watched I know there are schools of thought that agree and disagree with wrapping them. For the sake of having less to scrape out of the burl I decided not to wrap them this time. The next attempt I will individually wrap the pieces when curing them to see the difference.