Wood Stabilization Guidance

[tsavickas36]

Question for the experienced crowd here again. I found a facebook listing last week for hardwoods and was able to pickup enough maple, white oak, black walnut and Sapele for around 500 knives very inexpensively but it is only kiln dried not stabilized.

It is necessary to stabilize these pieces of wood to keep things from cracking and moving?

I have only purchased wood scale material in the past so just want to make sure I will not have long term problems with these pieces of wood.

Thanks as always for your expertise.

 

[Greenberg Woods]

My opinion, its not worth stabilizing the material. Oak, walnut, maple and Sapele will totally work for knife handles natural. They may swell or shrink, over time they may wear, there is a possibility of a Crack or check depending on the condition and use, but natural hardwoods have been used as knife handles for thousands of years and will be perfectly serviceable.

Quality stabilizing is expensive, it adds clean up time and hassle. In my opinion, its worth it for figured, burled, or particularly soft or unstable woods that would not be suitable for knife handles if natural. For the price of Stabilized 2 × 1.2 × 6 piece of Oak or maple, you can get a piece of plain grain Rosewood, African Blackwood or other exotics which would provide extra durability and water resistance.

If your goal is simple and inexpensive, plain kiln dried hardwood is perfectly serviceable. Imo the next step up is a plain grain exotic. The benefits of stabilizing are very real, but it has to be weighed against the price and effort costs associated with it.

 

[ScarFoot]

^This guy knows a thing or two about wood.

I have used un-stabilized walnut and cherry on some early knives and testers. They will shrink, swell and change a bit otherwise. I always used a spacer between the wood and tang just to provide a buffer. Just use some type of oil or finish to treat the wood and give it some protection. I’ve processed whitetail deer with one of my knives with cherry handles and had no issues with the wood. If I remember correctly I only used Tung oil on the handles.