handle material

[DANA HOLMAN]

morning gent's    
I make a knife a month ago and i was looking at it yesterday and it looks like the handle is srinking, right now you can hang your fingernail in the tang.
Now i think the wood is walnut burl, i bought it at woodcrafter, it was in a bag of other wood, all the wood was dipped in wax so i thought it would be stabilized, would this be true about the wood in wax?
if not what do i need to do to stabilize it.
thanks dana

[Doug Campbell]

More than likely the wax was just to keep it from drying too quickly and cracking Dana. Any time I get new wood I let it sit as long as I can then "stabilize" with thin ca glue. Or better yet do like Karl and send it off to be proffesionally stabilized.

Been soaking some in the Minwax wood hardner lately but don't have enough "experience" with it to comment yet...

[DANA HOLMAN]

thanks doug
this is the first time i have incountered this, it happened on knife number 10, but its the only time i've used this wood
dana

[skullworks]

My understanding of the wax is to keep it from splitting when drying also. If I get wood that is not stabilized then I let it dry for awhile or try to get wood that has been kiln dryed.

[DANA HOLMAN]

skull
thanks for your info. i guess there is only two thing i can do, one is to replace the handle, or file the tang down alittle.
I think I'll do the second one.
thanks again
dana

[kbaknife]

Ever look at a pile of firewood?
Nearly all of the logs are split on the ends.
Since wood grain is practically like microscopic tubes for liquid flow, the internal moisture can leave the ends quickly and easily! This causes the ends to go dry before the internal areas. This uneven drying causes stress cracks.
When wood ends are waxed, this closes off those "tubes" and forces the internal moisture to vacate the material laterally and SLOWLY, which results in even drying.
Waxing wood ends has nothing to do with stabilizing. It just promotes even drying.
Of course, when you close off those ends, it then may take 6-8 months for a small piece of handle material to get to 6-8%, which is about what you want.
Burl is notoriously irregular in structure and drying times.
It's the irregular structure, which make sburl beautiful, that is also the worst enemy of stability. It causes drying irregularities and weird stress all through the material.
That's whay burls should be dried whole and not in small pieces.
A full burl from a tree will take about 4 years to dry.
Get your unstabilized material cut up oversized, dip the ends in hot melted wax to promote even drying, and then place up in the rafters of your shop for 6 months. Then send them off to have them professionally stabilized.
Unless you have high pressure and vacuum capabilities - this is my personal opinion from experience - you're just wasting time and $$.
Soaking woods for long periods of time will never reach the center, and then once it dries on the outside, how will it ever cure on the inside?
I can't say this enough - I sent off 12 pieces on my last batch and it cost me $84.00.
That's 7 bucks a piece!!! Almost irrelevant to the cost of even a 100 dollar knife.
And it's professionally done and you will never need to worry about it again.
Start finding and drying materials that you know you will like and use.
Pick your own pieces!
You don't even need to buy stuff sight unseen and then not like them.
If you don't like them when they get dry, throw them in the wood stove.
I may have as much as 30 or more pieces that are ready to be used and as many more in the celing drying.
Always be on the lookout for unique blocks of this or that and keep a rotation going.
Plus, it's a lot of fun waiting for the next batch to come back from K and G!

[DANA HOLMAN]

Thanks you Karl
i understand now, what is the best way to fix this problem, replace them or file down the tang? do you think the wood will srink much more?
thanks dana

[kbaknife]

I have no idea what it's going to do.
If it's bad and you don't like it, knock 'em off and do something else.

[DANA HOLMAN]

10-4
thanks dana