Stabilized Wood – Fact vs Fiction

I think you'll be allright with that one. My main complaint is with woods on a full, exposed tang. It just seems to me, that all wood shrinks that way, even the stabilized stuff. Or, do the wood Gods just hate me?
 
I would go ahead with using the walnut,myself. I cut and dry most of my own wood, and haven't had any problems. The knife handle wood I mentioned above was osage, but it was dried the same way as yours, and I made the knife back in '91. The wood had no cracks after the year in the truck bed, either. We are talking about an Iowa winter and summer hot and wet,too. His brother that bought the knife for him was understandably pretty upset after shelling out $375.
 
As to that Walnut, take a look at the remainder after you cut it. Is there any checking? One or two radial checks is normal, it's almost impossible to cut a piece of wood across the radius and not have it crack. One thing you could do is cut a small section off, cut it in half length wise (to avoid the radial splits I mentioned) and bring it into your home. See how it reacts, if you start to notice checks and splits almost immediately there was a good bit of moisture still trapped inside.

Depending on the wood and local climate, standard air drying is approximately 1 year to 1 inch of thickness. A solar kiln is a cheap and easy way of drying faster. Lumber companies use large kilns to dry the timber. For your piece, 5-6 years of air drying probably brought it down to a relatively low moisture content, I would guess it is somewhere between 12 and 16 percent. I would try getting it lower though. This all greatly depends on the relative humidity and temperature in your shop and the thickness of the limb.

-MJ
 
the tree limb I have is about 3 inches up to about 5 inches thick,,,the cuts I have made have shown me no sign at all of any cracking,,,

The tree that it came off of died due to worms,,,,all over the wood that I have there are worm holes,,,it actually took a bit of time to find a spot that had solid wood with no worm holes...the worm holes go into the wood about one inch in spots.

The limb must have been dead while still on the tree a long time,,,,when I got the wood it seemed like it was some really dead wood...

My questions really ment to look into any chance that normal water in the air would soak into the wood, as it sat and got dry?

Also,,,Now thatr I have turned some of the wood into a knife handle,,,(sub tang handle) is there any concern that under normal use outside,,,that the knife would swell up?

I ask because of one thing that happend to me about 3 years ago.

I made a Full Tang sword, and the handle I made out of oak that was sold at the lumber yard for indoor use. The oak came from the store wrapped in plastic.
it was said to be very dry wood.

I went and left the sword outside for 2 weeks,,,it rained a few days too while it sat outside.

When I found the sword the wood had swelled up and broke free of the J.B.Weld and was only hanging on due to the brass pins.
 
What does astute mean?

You know...it's like silk, made outta worms!:footinmou

Stabilized wood does have a place and I use it for certain things. I use it more for very porous wood like decaying black gum. It fills the voids well and gives a beautiful, usable piece of wood. I also use it on handles that will take a beating like fishing knives. I feel the same way about stabilized wood as I do about Corian.

Using the proper wood for the knife is very important to me. Also drying the wood the way I consider it should be done, is important. I air dry everything for at least a year and a half. Even store bought exotics get the air dry for 6 months. The reason for drying (misnomer)already dry wood is to bring the moisture level up to the real world. Moisture isn't bad. Dimensional changes due to moisture changes are the problem. This is solved by using naturally stable wood and correct mounting.

Bruce hit dead on. If mounted correctly, a little change is not a problem.

Consider breadboard ends on furniture. If glued on, splits and cracks are certain. Mounted correctly, they float, same thing with raised panels, biscuit joints, etc, etc.
 
DQF, THE WORMHOLES ARE COOL! Hang onto that stuff! I made some kitchen knives with some osage that I made from an old fencepost that the owner said was 100 ys. old, beleive it or not. The stuff was really cool, and the folks loved the stuff. Wormy oak and some other wormy woods is popular for kitchen and other decor in different areas.
 
TimWieneke said:
Speaking of wood - we ran across a new type of outdoor decking material (bout a year old in our area) that seems to be popular called Brazillian Redwood. It feels like it's heavy as coccobola, tougher than oak and has a rich solid red color with a very, very dense grain. I imagine it would make a superb knife handle, but haven't had anyone order a deck made out of it yet (yeah, I'm cheap). Anyone mess with this?
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Aw jeez!, I have been busting up and thrwoing away half rotten pallets with some pieces of this in them. Was wondering if the wood was naturally that color or something. I will start saving bits. All kinds of wood ends up in pallets I have heard; depends on whatever wood is cheap locally.
 
Kiln drying is an art and science . There are many who wanted to make a rifle stock [2 - 2 1/2" thick] and send it off to the nearest kiln for drying .Well if the kiln people throw the 2 1/2" walnut into the kiln that's doing a 1" pine schedule - you will have problems !! .....In the old days some woods were given special treatment. Apple for example would be submerged in a pond for 2 or 3 years ,then air dried.Other things happen to wood also. I was cleaning out the garage and rediscovered a piece of fairly dark white oak 2'x6'x2" .I decided to make a seat for a settee. The wood had been there for about 40 years ! It had oxidized to the most beautiful mocha color .No one will belive me that it wasn't stained !!
 
I am lucky to live close to a sawmill that dries wood in a 35KW microwave chamber under vaccume. They dry to a moisture of appx 10%. The plant usued to process persimon wood for golf clubs.
Mike
 
I think stabilizing wood is kind of like heat treating steel. If it absolutely has to be the best, send it to a professional. Mike at WSSI gets my acrylic stabilizing and Paul Bos would get my heat treating if Canada Customs would stop stealing blades.

Having said that, there is something to be said for sole authorship. I'm sure there are easily measurable differences between a blade I heat treat and a blade done by Paul - but is that a difference that my customer would ever be aware of? Perhpas it means more to my customer that I did it all - than to know he'll get 20% more rope cuts between sharpenings.

Same goes for stabilizing. If something is going to see kitchen duty - with anyone but my wife - Mike gets the nod. I have made a few though from carefully dried wood - sometime vacuum stabilized with my own concoctions. Do I trust them as much as Mikes work? - No - but I trust them more than untreated and I'm proud to say "I did it my way."

Knifemaking is all about stretching limits - your limits and the limits of the craft. That's what makes it fun. That's what makes it exciting - and that's what makes each one an original.

I won't shortchange a customers needs - but if I can meet his needs with my own work, that's where I'll try to be.
 
I like wood, not plastic. I use dense, hard woods like Ironwood, Mesquite, Osage Orange, Manzanita Burl, Rosewoods and have not had any trouble. Of course I live in a dry area.

Often when I read these back and forth discussions on stabilization, I think of an old country song I remember from the late '60s called Plastic Saddles. Any of you other old farts remember that one?

Don't give me no plastic saddles...
I want to feel that leather when I ride.
 
A nice hand rubbed finish on wood is hard to beat. The only time I can see to use stabilization is on rotton wood (spalted) Beautiful stuff. The fast growth theory has a lot of merrit. Look closely at new vs old walnut or simaliar wood. The old stuff has very tight grain and the other is more open with Large growth rings. Something to think about??
 
Chuck Bybee said:
- Grade the wood to determine pricing (or if it goes into my private stash ;))
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That's only reason I still buy choice wood for myself. Sure you can pay high prices for others good stuff. But it's hard to get yourself the choice pieces by buying from others. Then again I'm just starting out so I don't use the choice stuff and buy useable stuff from suppliers. Like yourself.
 
I dry my wood in my shop, no special anything. I toss it in a metal cabinet and leave it there for years and it comes out pretty good. It's an outdoor shop and the wood is hot/cold hot/cold with the normal seasonal changes. I honestly believe it's the easiest and cheapest way to go for drying wood for your own use. Osage Orange and walnut have been check free, even green thick slabbed Osage that was left in the drawers for years didn't check. My shop tip for you fellas, cut crooked and naturally curved Osage limbs for home drying. Most of it still has the bark on while drying, too. The knotts in the Osage wood don't loosen, either. The knotts in the ugly gnarly limbs really adds good looking character to a handle. I have used wood from white lilac bushes and the handles turned out pretty good, but the stuff checks like crazy with the homie method. It makes a good looking handle but is easily UV faded from the original purple/white/black/brown colors.
 
I hate to bring this up, but are you guys aware that this thread is over 1 1/2 years old.
It was brought back by someone that should have started a new thread.


Edited to add; I see Daniel noticed it too.
 
Danbo, if the wood Gods hate you, they hate me too.

I have had terrible luck with my collection. I have all sorts of stabilized woods, wood, stabilized bone, ivory, sheep horn, and stag all shrink on me. Some of the shrinking was REALLY bad. I just had a knife come in not too long ago, it made it in with a shrunken handle. Come to think of it, I need to send that one out to the maker :).

I've come to the conclusion that the only material that won't shrink is micarta.

I guess you have to take the good with the bad :).

Matt
 
I posted my first response on this topic over a year ago, unfortunately some of the research I had wanted to do didn't continue do to personal issues. I was having similar discussions on another board over the topic with Ray Rogers and Ken at K&G. At the time my concerns were the claims of longevity of the materials stabilized. First let me say that Ken was very helpful and would have supplied materials and his time to aid me in this, it is my fault it went no further. Well cared for, handles for knives, and firearms for that matter can survive centuries. Since wood stabilizing is a relatively new process, long term environmental exposure hasn't occured. I was curious to see the stabilized pieces put thru simulated exposure treatments, Ken was for it, I had thoughts of contacting WSSI as well and finding a facility to run the gamut on stabilized samples. If anyone wants to run with the idea, I'd be welcome to discuss all my thoughts on it. I'd personally love to see the results. Like many in this discussion, the mentality of only stabilized wood is fit for a handle leaves a bitter taste in my mouth.

-MJ
 
LongRifle said:
I've come to the conclusion that the only material that won't shrink is micarta.


Matt
Click to expand...

Yep. I reached the same conclusion. It's why I generally don't buy any knife with a full exposed tang. Bruce's point about rounding the edges sure makes a lot of sense to me though.

Roger
 
Sometimes these old threads make as much sense now as they did then. Some good info in this one.

The only way I'll do a full exposed tang knife is with screws. May be tacky but letting the wood float works for me.

I love the wood from those Micarta and carbon fiber trees. ;)
 
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