humidity and knives

[castor0troy]

Hi Guys
i was wondering what the ideal room humidity should be to avoid handle shrinkage.
due to the dry weather my room humidity is between 20-25%.
is that way too less for knives?
any suggestions?
someone told me to put a bowl of water in the room.
most of my knives are stainless.no Damascus.

thanks
sohail

 

[Kevin Jones]

Hi Sohail.
20-25% is fairly low humidity for storing knives.
I keep a small container of water in my knife displays and that seems to work and have experienced no rusting.
Damascus steel (or oxidation process association with it) actually resists rust to an extent. At least more so than carbon steel.

 

[Win Heger]

I live in very low humidity and really haven't had any problems over 5 years. I considered doing what Kevin is doing but introducing moisture in a closed environment didn't seem like a good idea.

I buy Bill's Cases for my knives because the lining doesn't attract moisture. These aren't cigars.

Win

 

[castor0troy]

thanks guys.i am going to try keeping a bowl of water in my case.
have u guys ever measured the humidity in your room?
how much should it be?

also which handle materials should i avoid?
i have been told that ivory will shrink/crack.
how stable is stag?

thanks
sohail

 

[Buffalohump]

From what I understand ALL natural materials can shrink or crack under the right circumstances.

Apparently the least prone to it are stabilized hardwoods like desert ironwood.

 

[Hmathews]

Natural materials move around with humidity changes. That is just the nature of the beast. The ideal humidity for a knife would be the same humidity that is in the shop the handle material was stored in and the knife made in. That is seldom possible and gives us nightmares when we get a person interested in our knives that lives in a desert area.

Temperature change can be a culprit too. All materials expand and contract with heat, some more than others. It is what makes thermostats work. If you take a knife made in a shop that is 95 degrees and move it to a room that is 70 degrees, you can see changes in the handle materials.

What Kevin has done is create a stabile environment suitable for storing and displaying his knives. That will lend itself to the least amount of change in his handle material and is the best idea I've heard of for storing a collection. I have always thought it interesting that people will spend a great deal of money protecting those Cuban cigars or their wine collection, but keep their knife collection on a shelf over the gas space heater and then wonder what happened to the handle.