Hi Steven. I never used this kind of sealing on wood handles, and I feel that maybe the best thing is to keep the material free for breathing, as it can lost moisture, but can get some too. Any home made sealing will not avoid natural material to work with high differences in temperature and humidity, as when it change form hemisphere in just a few hours... I live in the extreme south of Brazil, in a cold and humid region (surrounded by forested montains)while whe're in winter. I already saw even stabilized wood to shrink over the time, but is easier to get the moisture back on a narural material then on a sealed one. Usually, we made the first assembling and fitting of the handle, and then remove it to finish the damascus, etc. When we assemble it back,some days after, the scales may have shrinked a bit already... This snakewood, was first fitted to the tang almost one month ago, and we had extreme changes in climate the last moth, from the hottest summer to the coldest winter in one week (seems to be the rule from now on), and the scales did'nt worked a bit.
Another thing that contributes to shrinking, is how seasoned the material is before used, and I just can control this after I buy the material. In the last two years, I have been able to buy more material than I use (part because my production is getting smaller), and this allow me to season the material for more than one year before I use it. My plan is to be able to make that for at least 3 years.
I like stabilized wood, I'd use it more, if most of it where'nt so colorful and fake looking...
