Curing wood shrinkage...ideas needed

C_Claycomb

C_Claycomb

Joined
Dec 11, 2000
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I have recently acquired a couple of lovely full tang knives with what should be stabilized wood handles. The knives were made in Taiwan, then shipped to the US where they sat around for a couple weeks in Colorado before coming to the UK. The wood on both knives has shrunk quite badly, about 0.050" all the way around the tang.

I can only imagine that the wood wasn't really dry when it was stabilized and that it has lost moisture since then, which has let it shrink, but I am not sure if stabilizing works that way? :confused:

Now I know that really well seasoned wood won't move too much since some cocobolo that started off in the UK, sat around a good while before going on a knife, then sat here some more before being sent to Colorado for a lot longer than the Taiwanese made knives, has hardly shrunk at all. It wasn't even stabilized. The shrinking wood is black sandalwood and some kind of walnut.

Is there anything that can be done to swell the handles other than steam them, which is no solution since the water will just dry out again? Also, are there any good ways for a maker somewhere very humid to put a wood handle on without having shrinkage problems when the knife is shipped?
 
My parents had been given a nice piece of furniture, all solid mahogany, from Hong Kong. In the humid NYC summer it was fine .When the dry air of winter came it started to shrink.It was horrible - huge cracks through most of the wood ! Most of it went into my woodstove, I mananged to save a few pieces....I don't think you'll have much success, just rehandle the knives.
 
third on the rehandle, they probably didn't do a very good job of stabilization. Cocobolo, on the other hand doesn't change much even without stabilization because it is such a dense wood.
 
Hi Chris. .....if you think the scales have settled down, would it be an option to grind some steel of the tang to the level of shrinkage?.... then treat them as unstabilized and give them a good soak in tung oil or something similar?

Of course, it could end up like the uneven chair leg, bit of steel off here, bit of wood off there, and before you know it, you have a stick tang:).

Knowing your level of work, I am sure you will come up with a solution and fix it, even if it means putting new scales on.
 
Chuck Bybee said:
Was the wood professionally stabilized?
Click to expand...

Now that is a question. I don't know. It certainly doesn't look like the finish you get on the WSSI stuff, but that has always seemed like the top of the pile for stabilized wood. Mike insists that wood is really well seasoned before he treats it, but I wasn't sure if that was for stability after treating, or to do with absorbtion/cracking during treating. :confused:

Do you think that soaking in something like Danish oil, for 24-48 hours, might expand the wood and leave it expanded? I know that people soak axe handles in linseed to swell them a bit to tighten up loose heads. I am very tempted to try something like that rather than resort to metal removal.

Hey Kevin,
Great to hear from you :cool: Hope everything is going well for you these days. :D

Thanks for all the advice. It is good to hear other people's ideas...leaves no stone unturned!
 
Fill the gap with coloured epoxy?
It might be worth the try before a rehandle.
 
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