Wood Handle Shrinkage

J

John Frankl

Joined
Oct 16, 2001
Messages
1,917
Hello All,

I picked up a nice L. Dorneles integral from Danbo a while back. I really like this knife, but have noticed the handle bolts just slightly protruding out from the handle lately.

The handle is curly maple, and I am guessing this is due to the difference in humidity between Brazil and Korea.

What do all of you recommend?

Thanks,

John
 
Hi John!

This is something that just occurs with natural handle materials... expansion and shrinkage. I once sent a sheep horn handled piece from Montana (where its very dry) to southern Florida (where its very humid), and within two weeks the sheep horn was literally tearing itself away from the tang (it was installed with Loveless bolts). We tried a few things, couldn't make it work, and finally went to synthetics for the slabs.

One thing that I have found that helps....often times a maker is in a hurry to get a knife out the door, and will often times ship the knife as soon as its finished. I have found that if I finish a knife, and let it sit for at least a week, much of the expansion/shrinkage takes place in that time, and I can touch it up before sending it out.

Some handle materials are just more prone to it that others. That being said, ANY natural handle material WILL move, even stabilized materials. Ivories and Maples are a couple of materials that "move" the most. Overall there isn't a great deal that the end customer can do....its just the nature of the beast. If you (or the maker) cleans things up, and then the knife moves to another environment, just the opposite will occur, and your right back where you started from.
 
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