I am looking to have a knife made, but I want the handle to be made out of wood from my own property.
So, first question is what do I have to do to the wood before a knife maker gets a hold of it? Does it need to
be green wood or can I use a tree that fell a year ago. Also, I have white oak, red oak, black walnut to
choose from. Can it be from a 6" limb or does it need to come from the trunk?
Thank you for any information that you can share with me about this.

hello Mr T
i've made several knives from wood from people's property,,, other knife makers may have a different opinion, this is how i do it

first,,, you do NOT want to use green wood,,, as the wood ages it will shrink, crack and could warp twist bow or do things ya never would have
thought possible,,,, so IMHO,, the wood needs to be aged , dried

you don't want to use the outer layers of the wood,,, in fact if you are saving the wood to make something, handle scales, furniture, etc,, you want to
remove the bark and cambrian layer ,,, the cambrian layer is the outer layer where the tree grows a new layer each year,,, so as a tree ages it gets
bigger around,,,, you want to remove these layers as insects LOVE to eat in this area and will work their way in from there

i prefer trunk wood to small limb wood

best of luck with your project

^^^ what he said dried completely. And as close to the bottom of the trunk as possible .

Look at some Youtube videos on drying wood, I normally get wood from suppliers that are about 11% moisture content and I go through a drying process to get the wood as close to zero before stabilizing the wood. I has to be stabilized to make good scales.