Hello everyone,

I’m planning to assemble an 18th-century Scottish dagger with a custom blade I hope to get this year or next, in this style:
https://www.auctionzip.com/auction-lot/Early-Scottish-style-dagger-with-spear-point-and_10AF18ED00/

Because of the grip’s shape, being narrowest where the tang is widest, my main concern is that it be unlikely to split if it were actually used.  I’d also prefer the wood to be a genus used in British cutlery (or at least general woodwork) in the 18th century, and be dark brown to go with the brass cutlery I have.

So I was considering Indian or Indonesian rosewood.  There seems to be a lot of Georgian-period British woodwork using rosewood of some species — it might not Indian or Indonesian, but since the British Empire was expanding into South Asia in this period, it seems like as good a candidate as any.  Also, a lot of people seem to think that the “red-handled” English trade knives made for Native American trade had rosewood grips.

From a practical point of view, is this the right kind of wood to use?  I.e., will it be strong against splitting?

I’ve noticed that when drilling pilot holes for knife grips with a drill press, the bit sometimes binds in round blanks so the blank just spins instead of standing still to let the bit keep drilling.  Is that likely to happen with rosewood, necessitating the use of square blanks?  I’d like to start with round blanks because there’d be less material to remove, but not if they’re going to cause trouble from the start.

Thank you.