Most stable woods for handles?

Joss

Joss

Joined
Nov 20, 2001
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In your opinion, what are the most stable woods for knife handles? I'm talking about unstabilized pieces of course, and by stable I mean less shinkage and cracks.

Thanks,

Joss
 
The rosewood family is very stable, as are most in the ebony family. We had a discussion on this in the shop talk forum. I'll link it: http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/1091871-Woodcraft-Knife-Scales Look at the post by Pabatjor half way down the first page. I have used Brazilian Tigerwood, Ebony, various Rosewoods, Zebrano, Padauk, and genuine (Honduran) mahogany for years in non knifemaking applications and they are VERY stable. With the right cut (quartersawn) even hard maple is stable. Black Walnut is good too. Teak is another stable wood. With all of these woods, the straighter the grain, the more stable it is. We like figured grains esthetically, but straight grain is what I put on working knives (and guitar necks, tool handles, edge trim on cabinets etc.) Figured wood shifts more. There are a lot of woods from Australia and even Hawaii that I don't have much experience with. Others can chime in with their experiences. I'm a newbie at steel, but I have some experience with wood. I have an uncle who is a master cabinet maker, and I learned a lot from him. An overlooks wood that is very dimensionally stable is Tamarack. It looks like a very even straight grained combination of spruce and hard maple. Farmers covet it for fence posts. The varieties that grow in swamps are quite dense and hard. Almost as important as the variety of wood is the drying process. A properly dried piece of wood, acclimatized to its environment will be more stable than a wood that has more potential, but was not properly prepared.
 
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lignum vitae?
 
Both sugar maple and walnut have been used for centuries on gun stocks, where stability in a variety of environmental conditions is critical to maintaining the necessary precision and accuracy of a hunting rifle. This is one of the reasons you also find these woods on so many knives.

Ash and hickory are known more for their hardness, but they're both pretty stable too.
 
I have found African Blackwood to be very, very stable. It requires nothing but a high polish and a single coat of soaked in oil to bring out the blackness. Of the nicely grained American woods, good curly maple is very stable. It usually needs nothing more than a high polish, a stain, and a few coats of a good oil finish to protect the polish.
 
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they use that stuff for propeller shaft bushings/bearings in large boats and stuff so I'd imagine it would be pretty solid. I made a couple knife handles and it was pretty awesome to work with
 
Ive had good luck with various rosewoods. Also one of the most stable (not real rosewood) guys Ive used is Bubinga, it polishes to a high shine, looks really good once finished, just be careful when grinding on it. The wood will burn if your not using good belts and what not (like most hard dense woods).
 
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Once dried, Osage is nice to work with.
Once used for shear pins on plows and discs.
With a little search, a person can find some figured, as well.
 
Rosewoods, Blackwood being one of the really good ones. I managed to score a couple of pieces of gorgeous Belize sourced Honduran Rosewood burl a while back and it was great stuff!!!! The wood guy at the back of the ABs section at BLade this year had some, but he was sure proud of it if you go by pricing!!!! Most of the lignum vitae out there for sale today is probably the "Argentine Lignum Vitae" which is not the real stuff.
 
I am experimenting with Black locust now we use it for fence posts around here. you can sink it in the ground and the post will be good for 50 years. if the stuff holds demention im sure you will see it on some of my knives
 
Joss said:
In your opinion, what are the most stable woods for knife handles? I'm talking about unstabilized pieces of course, and by stable I mean less shinkage and cracks.

Thanks,

Joss
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Joss,

Since you asked about both shrinkage & cracking it sounds as if you are wanting to cut & dry the wood for handles yourself. If so, I would recommend doing some research on what happens to all wood as it dries as there is MUCH MORE to it then one would guess.

As has been said, some woods are naturally more stable than most others and you've been given a good list of them. If you are in doubt about a certain wood's stability then give a professional stabilizer a phone call & ask if being stabilized would be beneficial. Professional stabilizing isn't all that expensive and often is a good idea. Remember that it is your reputation that goes with the knife and you want to use the best materials that you can on it.

Gary

Gary
 
Well down here the most stable timber I have found is Gidgee, Black Mulga and Mallee come in a close second place. Red Gum, Yellow box and a few other Eucalypts once dried are fairly stable as well.
Cheers Keith
 
RI_Shooter said:
I have found African Blackwood to be very, very stable. It requires nothing but a high polish and a single coat of soaked in oil to bring out the blackness. Of the nicely grained American woods, good curly maple is very stable. It usually needs nothing more than a high polish, a stain, and a few coats of a good oil finish.
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+1, African blackwood is fantastic stuff. I've heard it's a pain in the ass to work with though.
 
MUCH easier than some others. Ironwood, Argentine lignum vitae and some others are downright gummy. Blackwood and the other rosewoods are much more forgiving than some woods.
evanPGH said:
+1, African blackwood is fantastic stuff. I've heard it's a pain in the ass to work with though.
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