South Carolina Ironwood

[N.W. Gean]

Good morning, my friends. My dad went out of town recently and brought back a little pile of Ironwood from South Carolina for me to use as knife handles. I'll have to post some pics later today, but it appears to be "American Hornbeam" if I'm seeing the right stuff. All I can find on it is that it's dense but rather prone to warping. Does anyone have experience with it?

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

It will work fine. Let it dry for a good year before using it.

It is best to call it Hornbeam, as calling it ironwood will be confusing in the knife world. Lots of different trees are called Ironwood in different places, but normally only desert ironwood is called ironwood by knifemakers. American Hornbeam is actually a member of the Birch family.

 

[N.W. Gean]

Will do. Thanks for the advice, Stacy. One thing though, it isn't raw wood. It's dimensional lumber (if I'm using that term right) that was cut offs from making decking and things like that. Does that mean it's ready to use?

 

[Cushing H.]

Will do. Thanks for the advice, Stacy. One thing though, it isn't raw wood. It's dimensional lumber (if I'm using that term right) that was cut offs from making decking and things like that. Does that mean it's ready to use?

I'll take a stab at that. IIRC, dimensional lumber is kiln dried to something like 15% moisture. Knife handles, to be stable, need to be drier .... 10% or less, and then actually stabilized in the environment it is going to "live" in. (I have lots of examples of even stabilized wood that has shrunk here in the desiccated northern tundra, and left "lips" between the scales and bolsters. Best to do what stacy said .... unless you have a moisture meter, let it sit in your shop for a year or so to avoid dimensional changes after the knife is built...