Does anyone ever notice scale shrinkage? I pretty much finished a knife about 2 weeks ago. All that is left is etching my mark and sharpening. The tang, pins and guard were all perfectly smooth with the wood but the past week I've been noticing the wood slightly shrinking. It is at the point where I will have to refinish the handle. The scales are cocobolo and were already cut into knife scales when I bought them and seemed to be nice and dry ready to use. I have had this happen a couple other times with ebony macassar which was a small board and seemed fully dry when I bought it. It even sat around in my house for almost a year before I even used it. Any input would be greatly appreciated because it is driving me crazy.
Yup, noticed it when I took a knife out of a previously whetted sheath, after a few days. The wood must have shrank. The pins are now slightly higher can be detected with a finger nail. The wood was unstabilized maple. Dan
It is just environmental and if it's not been stabilized, it's noticeable. I have a knife that I made a year and a half ago with a ziricote handle (no finish), the wood was kiln dried and sat in my shop for 3-4 years and I've notice a very slight amount of shrinkage too. Unless it's 100% sealed or stabilized wood will always absorb moisture or dry out to regulate itself to it's environment, constantly shrinking and expanding, but very small amounts thousandths of a inch type. The winter is always very dry and causes wood to shrink slightly with the opposite happening in the summer when there more moisture in the air. Hope that helps. Joel
Stabilized wood will even shrink I have had it shrink along the horizontal axis to a point you could see daylight between the wood and butt cap. I almost refuse to use horn anymore because of that problem. Shrinkage is the number one reason I have gone to hidden tang knives or use G10 and micarta on full tang blades.
Lol. I was wondering if anyone was going to mention it Myth. Lol I have also noticed slight shrinkage even with stabilized wood but this particular handle is the worst I've seen. I will fix this one up and see if at moves any more in the next couple weeks.
I made a chef's knife about a year ago and under normal kitchen duty the stabilized maple scales have expanded. I did not seal it at the time as I wasn't expecting any noticeable change in small pieces of acrylic stabilized wood. At the pins it wasn't so bad, but the at joint with the SS bolster there was quite pronounced jump that could be easily detected in hand. I've since lightly sanded the scales back to the pins, but it could possibly go the other way. Humidity changes will always be occurring. Dan
I have a chef knife that we have been using in the kitchen since around Aug 2013. The scales are dymondwood and I noticed that they shrunk slightly. My biggest worry is if scales shrink after someone takes possession of one of my knives. I am considering holding on to every finished knife for at least a couple weeks just to be safe.
Sorry to hear about your shrinkage Icho !! Still cold back east ?! I've found sticking with "good quality" stabilized products performs best.....stabilized by reputable experienced companies, like most things you get what you pay for I've also narrowed down my natural hardwood inventory to certain species that tend to have the least amount if any shrinkage.......
