Clear Maple for Knife Handles - because good wood is a terrible thing to waste

C

Cushing H.

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Perhaps a strange question: I know that highly decorated wood is optimal for handles - but does anyone on the forum like to use (or can use) clear maple? I ask because I have an old (21 year) crib made out of solid maple (lots of slats, several 4" round pieces). this is one of those "drop side" cribs that is now not legal. I cant sell it as-is because of liability ... and it just does not feel right to give it to the trash hauler to burn. The slats are a mixture of 1/2"x 1" and 1/2" x 1.8" pieces - not too far off to use as handle scales. Nice wood with a light finish that can be sanded off - but the wood is not stabilized.

If anyone wants it (or some of it), I can certainly send it off to you - though I would need to take a circular saw to it to break down and get into box-able pieces. Let me know please?
 
Cushing H. said:
Perhaps a strange question: I know that highly decorated wood is optimal for handles - but does anyone on the forum like to use (or can use) clear maple? I ask because I have an old (21 year) crib made out of solid maple (lots of slats, several 4" round pieces). this is one of those "drop side" cribs that is now not legal. I cant sell it as-is because of liability ... and it just does not feel right to give it to the trash hauler to burn. The slats are a mixture of 1/2"x 1" and 1/2" x 1.8" pieces - not too far off to use as handle scales. Nice wood with a light finish that can be sanded off - but the wood is not stabilized.

If anyone wants it (or some of it), I can certainly send it off to you - though I would need to take a circular saw to it to break down and get into box-able pieces. Let me know please?
Click to expand...

I often use plainer wood on lower priced knives. Especially kitchen knives and hunters.
 
A little silver inlay dresses it up a bit too.
 
Ok - then here, if I may is another question: so many people here swear by stabilized wood - is clear maple problematic if used unstabilized? This would be for kitchen knife use (hopefully taken care of and not really allowed to get and stay wet). the issues around stabilized versus non-stabilized wood are new to me.....
 
Wood can move, basically change size, due to equilibrating with changes to the local humidity. Basically in the winter it's drier, in the summer it's more humid, and (in the northern hemisphere) up north it's drier, down south it's more humid. So the wood can expand and shrink a little when exposed to these changes. It's not necessarily a big deal for a lot of wooden objects which can tolerate a little movement, but when you stick a piece of wood that will move some to a piece of metal that moves very little, then sometimes you can have issues.

Kiln dried and very well seasoned wood will move a lot less than green or less seasoned wood. If the wood is not yet at equilibrium and still drying out, it's likely to split since it's still shrinking. If you ever cut up logs, you'll notice the wood just even splits on it's own; this is because it's drying out faster at the ends than on the sides and the stress causes it to crack.

Rock maple from a 21 year old crib is probably pretty dried out and equilibrated (it was probably kiln processed before use too), and I'd be willing to put it on a knife handle. I would wet sand in polymerizing finish like Tru Oil to fill the grain (even tho maple isn't very open grained at all but might as well seal it) then a layer of paste wax on top. It will ding and dent a bit easier than resin stabilized wood though.

Stabilization lets us use woods that otherwise don't have the properties needed for a good handle (too soft or moves too much). It also is added insurance that the wood is less likely to move and usually harder. If you sell somebody a knife for $100 (or $1000 or whatever), you don't really want to have to go through the time and hassle of fixing a busted handle, nor do you want the black eye for what the buyer might consider poor workmanship.
 
Milkbaby (where did that name come from?) - thank you for the thoughtful reply. I probably stated my question slightly wrong - but i think you answered the question i was really asking. The reason i state the age of the wood was precisely the drying/curing issue. Given that even well dried and cured wood will expand and contract with humidity and the seasons, will this wood do well enough on a knife that i am not going to sell, or is it still absolutely destined to failure via cracking or delam? I think you answered this by saying that you would use it.... i still cant help but think also that after all, unstabilized wood has been used for handles for centuries...

I can definitely understand (and agree!) that a professional maker can not afford NOT to use stabilized wood (or resin-based). But for those of us who are hobbyists, using our knives or giving to family and friends, is wood like this “good enough”? I am truly on the fence on this, especially given the beauty of the harder and more resinous woods. Like i said up front though .. i hate to just consign good clear wood to the trash burner...

(Aside on curing of wood: we once had a beautiful black walnut in our backyard take a lightning strike. Had to do some trimming after that. Offered the (good green) wood to a co worker who is a woodworker and has his own mill and kiln. It took one week for him to pick it up, then another week for him to get to milling it. After that time he had NO salvageable boards- it split that quickly after moisture loss...)
 
Afraid not. You would need to glue some slats side to side to make it wide enough. Great idea though! With some stain to hide the joint maybe would look good?

I have also been wondering if the slats could be glued up and used as a light colored component of Wa handles. Those can be gorgeous, and would not have quite the same mechanical stability issues as a full tang handle with rivets. Hmmm .....
 
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