should i be concerned if i ordered a wood handle?

C

cards94

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Jul 23, 2013
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i was looking at the ebony, cocobolo, and others and wondered if they absorb moisture, how long would the wood last before it would start to get weaker.
 
Don´t worry!!

Ebony and Cocobolo are exrtemely hard woods. It won´t suck with moistore so that you will realise it. It will be there, ok. But that´s about it.

I´ve seen knives with wood handles 120+ years old and no problem at all. It was interessting; the wood still had a great grain and was worn out, but the blade was really sharpened heavily ... not really a steel needle but close.

Those natural handle materials are made for a very very long time. I wouldn´t worry about.

In Germany or whole Europe wood and stag are traditionally used for knives and for almost some centuries. They worked quiete well.
 
Wood is very strong material especially so with a little care. My parents have some kitchen knives that are about 20 years old that go through the dishwasher daily...they look terrible but still work. If they can last 20 years with pure abuse I think yours will be okay :)
 
i was reading that before ww2, ebony was used alot for knife handles and was considered a working man's handle. alot of those older knives that i've seen pictures of look pretty good for all of this time.
 
The various ebonies and rosewoods, along with desert ironwood, make excellent handles in their natural state. Here is a thread that shows how well ebony holds up even when submerged under water. Many other types of wood handles that are used on modern knives are stabilized, so that should make them durable also.

No need at all for concern, IMO.
 
I do not think you need to be concerned about ordering a wood handled knife. The wood is most likely stabilized by soaking in Acrylic.

A little info about wood density (weight per cubic foot), along with water and acrylic
Walnut 40 pounds
Water, 62 pounds
Gabon Ebony 63 pounds
Cocobolo 68 pounds
Acrylic 74 pounds
African Blackwood 75 pounds

Some conclusions can be drawn from the above.
1. Walnut floats because it is lighter than water
2. Ebony, Cocobolo, Acrylic, and African Blackwood, are all heavier than water, they sink.
3. Acrylic is used to stabilize wood, including walnut. Most woods will weigh between 60 lbs to 75 lbs per cubic ft after stabilization.

I wrote to GEC to ask if their Ebony is stabilized. They said yes, ALL their wood is stabilized. Also ALL their bone is stabilized.

read more about stabilizing here:
http://www.stabilizedwood.com/info.shtml
---

I recently sought confirmation from GEC regarding their use of stabilized materials. Apparently I had misunderstood an earlier conversation. GEC informs me that:
"The only thing we use that is stabilized is Primitive Bone. All the rest of our bone is not stabilized nor are most of the woods"

I will be preparing several delicious servings of figurative Crow, no birds will be harmed during my re-education. I apologize if anyone was misled by my earlier posts that claimed all GEC bone is stabilized. At this point I dont even know if the CheChen is stabilized or not. Feel free to just ignore anything I say until I graduate from knife materials 101, sometime next year maybe.
 
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Interesting regarding the stabilization. I have a couple GEC's in ebony and would not have guessed that as there is plenty of open grain easily felt with fingernail rather than being filled in. They also do not have the "plasticky" feel of some of the stabilized wood I have handled. Kudos to GEC as it looks and feels nice and has not moved at all.
 
i wonder if gec would try a desert iron wood on a few knives. i love the look of it and wouldn't mind one with a wharncliffe blade. :D
 
cards94 said:
i wonder if gec would try a desert iron wood on a few knives. i love the look of it and wouldn't mind one with a wharncliffe blade. :D
Click to expand...

Oh - I'd love to see some ironwood! The pics I've seen on some custom knives with ironwood were just gorgeous.
 
Desert Ironwood burl is a beautiful, strong and stable handle material in it's natural state. It has it's own natural oils.
Here are some of my Bark River fixed blades in DIB.



I would love to see some GECs offered in it.

Tom
 
Double Ott said:
Desert Ironwood burl is a beautiful, strong and stable handle material in it's natural state. It has it's own natural oils.
Here are some of my Bark River fixed blades in DIB.



I would love to see some GECs offered in it.

Tom
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:eek: i'm speechless.
 
I've handled rapiers and hunting knives made during the renaissance, and they're fine. Bone and wood handles 400 years old, look good. If you throw it in salt water and dredge it out a month later, you may have different results, but a minimum of care, they will last.
 
Double Ott said:
Desert Ironwood burl is a beautiful, strong and stable handle material in it's natural state. It has it's own natural oils.
Here are some of my Bark River fixed blades in DIB.



I would love to see some GECs offered in it.

Tom
Click to expand...

Me too!!!! Or curly zebrawood. Just got the new cocobolo from GEC and it's beautiful. The second one should be here soon. I wonder if GEC will ever do a run of bubinga, or blue abalone knives.
 
With reasonable care, ebony and cocobolo handles will outlast you. Just don't run them through the dishwasher on anything resembling a regular basis.

I find it hard to believe that GEC stabilizes their ebony and cocobolo. If so, they would be one of the only (if not THE only) manufacturer on the planet to do so. Ebony and cocobolo do not need stabilization. In fact, the high oil content of cocobolo would probably make stabilization a difficult process.
 
Yes, you should be concerned, Look at all those hundred year old or older trees in existence and how long it takes for wood to decompose laying there in the woods.
 
manowar669 said:
Me too!!!! Or curly zebrawood. Just got the new cocobolo from GEC and it's beautiful. The second one should be here soon. I wonder if GEC will ever do a run of bubinga, or blue abalone knives.
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In the early days GEC made Bubinga Handled knives.
235108 Bubinga 50 pcs. serialized 31 pcs. no serial number
 
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I to wonder about gec stabilizing cocobolo and ebony. That doesn't make sense.

This knife is almost 100 years old. Still solid and holding up well.
20130807_091555.jpg
 
manowar669 said:
Me too!!!! Or curly zebrawood. Just got the new cocobolo from GEC and it's beautiful. The second one should be here soon. I wonder if GEC will ever do a run of bubinga, or blue abalone knives.
Click to expand...

A lot of the early beaver tail knives had jigged bubinga scales. I have a furtaker trapper with jigged bubinga.
 
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