Attending a knife show is educational and fun and can be profitable. You can enhance the experience by knowing how to properly interact with dealers and other collectors. Follow these rules to get the most out of your next knife show adventure.
This article was from eHow.com
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Knife - Handle Woods - Australia's Desert Acacias, Part 1
Desert acacias or wattles as they are sometimes called, include woods from the deserts and "outback" regions of Australia. They are usually from small, often twisted trees or large shrubs. They include species like mulga, various gidgees, minneritchie, myalls and lesser-known, yet equally interesting species like waddywood, purpleheart wattle, western snakewood, bowyakka and even raspberry jam! Yes some do smell of raspberries and even flowers, like violets or boronia. These qualities become apparent when grinding and polishing. Neat eh? They all originate from our dry, outback, hot-forged and slow-grown in the desiccating desert sands.
These desert woods have for millennia been used for weapons and tools (eg spears, boomerangs, digging sticks, clubs etc) and most recently also for tool and knife handles. Their low natural moisture contents mean that they don't shrink much on drying or in service. Some compare with the best woods in the world (eg like ebony or Arizona desert ironwood) for their beauty and usefulness especially for fine, custom made knives and in other small turned or carved hand crafts (like pens, jewelery etc).
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