Stabilized or not

C

Cojab

Well-Known Member
Can some one give me the basics on the when and why I need to used stabilized woods. Also what about other materials such as bone or horn etc. Thanks.
Jeff
 
Cojab said:
Can some one give me the basics on the when and why I need to used stabilized woods. Also what about other materials such as bone or horn etc. Thanks.
Jeff
Click to expand...

When you want too is the first answer.
I prefer stabilized Maple, Box Elder and many others. The handle is then almost impervious to water and will last much longer.
Woods like Cal, Buckeye are unusable unless they are stabilized. This greatly increases the kinds of porous and punky type colorful woods that can be be used for handles.

Some woods cannot be stabilized because they already have a very tight and strong grain and don't need it or benifit from it, like Ironwood, Ebony, Paduak & Cocobolo just to name a few.

I don't care for most bone & horn but they benefit greatly from stabilizing as it fills the natural holes and help prevent cracking.

Laurence

www.rhinoknives.com
 
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All natural materials move with humidity and temperature. This action tends to loosen knife handles. Stabilizing reduces (but doesnt completely eliminate) the movement. The benefit of stabilizing is a handle that is less likely to loosen over time. With woods, burl woods move more vs. straight grained woods. Bone or stag can benefit from stabilizing but less than wood due to cellular structure. Some woods move more than others. Some woods are so naturally oily they can't be stabilized reliably.
I personally prefer stabilized material but others don't like it for what they believe is a plasticy look the process brings to wood. There are lots of different methods to stabilize material. Some are more effective than others.
 
Thanks for the replies. Thats kind of what I figured. BTW Boss. My third knife I finished I used the stabilized Turkish walnut from USKM. It is beautiful. Number 4 will have the other block of the same on it. I also saw the Turkish Walnut scales. Would these "need" to be stabilized or just a preference?
 
That Turkish walnut is really nice stuff.
Walnut is one of the more stabile woods as evidenced by all the furniture made from it. It doesn't have to be stabilized.
 
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