Raw Materials from Alaska

Miles of Alaska Raw materials Info

Read my bio for more information about me.

Disclaimer notice. You should be responsible for knowing the laws in your area concerning my products. Many items like fossil ivory, wood, artifacts, knives, have restrictions that vary by location. I can not know all the rules in all the places and keep up with their changes. What I offer is legal where I am. You are responsible for knowing your local laws, not me, ok?

I sell a lot of fossil mammoth ivory to knife makers.
Here is the direct link to knife scales:
fossil mammoth ivory knife scales

General I specialize in Alaska materials. I find most myself along interior Alaska rivers. I find most but do buy or trade in Alaska from locals, mostly Athabaskan Indian. I wish to help support my Native friends and their lifestyle. Some materials I get in Tucson as a lifestyle change at the big gem mineral fossil shows. I do not get out into the wilds as much and am not in the animals parts business so changed how I acquire. I trade or buy, but for sure hand select everything. I buy nothing site unseen through the mail. Many customers feel all I provide has things in common, unique, good price, and rustic.

I advertise I sell a lifestyle and way if life. This is not just a line. This means to me, all material I find or acquire is cool, exciting and it does not have to be #1 grade or flawless. The world is imperfect, so am I, and so are most materials. I do not support waste, meaning tossing out half the material so I can offer 'the best.' No, I want to find a market for it all. I myself use damaged, off color . I tend to offer as close to nature as I can ,so my raw is not sanded well, lines off a tad, not squared up well. My prices reflect this. My shop time is $65 an hour. How much would you like to pay for? The less I do, the cheaper I can sell the material to you. If you want more work done, say so and I can double the price. On most materials and work if you are not happy, return for refund, as it is usually one of a kind and may not work for you.

I try to offer character unique one of a kind different that you do not find just anyplace, so I have a nitch market for those who feel as I do and like my taste and energy. I am a one person business live remote at the source and am one of the few who works material I sell, so understand most needs, can answer questions about use and requirements. I have a lot on YouTube video on how to, and sources in the wilds as provenance.
YouTube homepage

Blank blades
On site links for information on materials
Wood
Local material I find when searching for firewood is my main source of wood. . This will be already dead from log jams or fire killed. Birch Alder, poplar, diamond willow, are my specialty that are local to Alaska and rare elsewhere. Some wood I stabilize and or dye. One reason is some really cool Alaska wood is not considered hardwood so is soft enough to not take a polish. To use it something needs to be done! There is wood I offer that might be too soft for most purposes without treating, but some is 'as is.' My biggest market is knife makers seeking handles, but sell to pen turners, jewelry box makers and decoy carvers. I now do the Tucson fossil gem show and have 'connections,' as a trader -business man. I have access to ironwood and mesquite on my own property or art from Mexico . I can sometimes get bog wood or anything I find interesting I can trade for. I work my wood with simple tools, own no lathe, but a bandsaw, and 4 inch belt sander are my main tools. Much of my local woods need seasoning like the burls. I cut with chain saw. I make basic thick slabs with the chain saw, then coat with a sealer I make that is half Elmers glue half water. I set the coated wood in the overhead beams of my shop or in a special room to let it cure for a year or more. I bandsaw slabs, then dry more. The eventually get stabilized with cactus juice and might dye or use resin to fill huge gaps in an artistic project.
Stone
From river sandbars, usually jade, agate, jasper, conglomerates. I find, cut polish myself. I specialize in natural shapes, double sides so reversible so can be wire wrapped, or cast capped so they have no backing or standard setting. My general rocks tend to have a rustic natural look no one else has to offer. The exception is a new interest in cut faceted semi-precious stones like quartz or zircon. Opal is a favorite I have to traded for and come up with more high end finished product in the over $2,000 range. I also see to gravitate to interesting nature crystals as 'speaking to me.' Hand select at the Tucson show or the dealing with Alaska remote villagers. My stone selection tend to have my own look. Those customers who connect with me seek out my hand picked stones to use in crafts or re-sell themselves. I sometimes get huge display crystals with scenes trapped inside. I go through spells or moods and stick with one kind of rock until I feel Have accomplished what I s et out to or fulfilled a mission and move on to another phase, maybe working turquoise for a few months. Or playing with opal. It is hard to know what direction I will go. I might find myself carving a stone the I had planned to cut up into slabs. It is not what the rock desires. Or my imagination sudden sees something in it I wish to explore without all the magic talk. I'd rather not be known as a 'hold the rock, hum and stare at the sky' person. Or chant or bless. However. I have to pause. I approach the day with a blank open mind and at the end of the day observe what I have done, as a spectator. I do not call it anything beyond how it is. I have had rocks 20 years before I simply select it out of the box and it is ready to be set free so to speak. I offer rocks in all price ranges from a dollar on up to finished $5,000.
Metals
Usually bronze or copper. Bronze from old barge propellers off the Yukon River. Copper from 1920 water pipes in Nenana. White bronze, sterling silver I have to order. Sometimes I use gold from local prospectors.Years ago I used to and saw metal piercing as my old form of metalwork. I had no electricity or tools beyond a vice and hand saw. This was my style for 30 years. I no longer have the dexterity and eyes to do it. I got into fasting once I got electric to grind and run a tumbler. I do lost wax casting by methods usually seen in 3rd world countries. I cast copper which is supposed to be impossible. I spin molten metals in the canister in a way they do not mix and come out like a marble cake that I have not see anyone else do. I have methods I learned on my own over 40 years of just doing and always experimenting. I do semi production casting about 30 items at a time frorm my own wax molds I created the originals from. I cast guards and pommels for my custom knives, claps for my neckalces and caps for my art work. I do not see as much as other materials but offer some cast art, a few belt buckle design a series of cast mini skulls, and some of my more popular designs. I prefer one of a kind never repeated art so find making many to sell boring. I usually eat with an oxygen- acetylene cutting torch. I have an electric melter but never use it. I centrifugal cast in plaster. In a room with no electric and no water so quench in a 5 gallons bucket of waster I bring in. All very primitive and would not be legal to have workers helping me. Not considered safe. Good because I am not likely to have competition.
Fossils
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l specialize in fossils I find myself in interior Alaska along the rivers. Most are 40,000 to 60,000 years old, from the last ice age. Such finds have to come off land with mineral rights. Mammoth and bison are most common, but also camel, musk ox, wolf. I attend 'the' fossil show in Tucson each year, the biggest show in the world. My mother lives there and I show up to sell, buy, trade. I sometimes trade for other fossils, dinosaur material or items I cannot find in Alaska. I use all my types of material myself in my own art for knife handles and pendants, so understand the artists needs. It is rare that the one who finds the material is the one selling it as well. Most of the material will have a story and 'provenance.' Since I am the source I can answer questions, provide authenticity and have the best prices with no middle people. Downsides to keep in mind... I live remote at the source, internet can be slow, I might be out hunting, think 'Indian time.' Also 'raw' to me is wet still covered in mud. I do clean dry and do a rough job making good material presentable, but it is not a finished product. Not a top shine, not perfect straight lines, thickness could vary by a 16th - possibly more variance then you are used to seeing. I figure you are reshaping it anyhow, so why pay an expert shop time to finish it up? I hope the lower prices and savings is desiredTEXT

Knife blade-- blanks for you to create your own knife
I hand draw and cut each one so no two are alike. I prefer either 1085 high carbon or D2 stainless steels. Sometimes old crosscut saws are used which is L6, but this rusts very easily. I harden and doublre temper, usually just edge harden so the blade is tough. I cryo deep cold treat all steel. I test each blade and minimum standard is 250 strokes on brass rod. Most factory blades, buck Gerber rate about 50 in this test. 20 pounds of tock and 20 degrees of flex is my standard.
Tucson Arizona show link I'm listed in the guide
I have been doing the big gem fossil show in Tucson for over 20 years. I have a lot of connections for cut gem stones amber fossils 'things from the land. If I do not find material myself I trade del with local natives , friends and had select all I use or sell. Nothing is ordered by mail, or acquired site unseen.