Just curious what your guys thoughts are on stabilized vs unstabilized woods. Ive only used stabilize woods so far but its hard to find all the varieties stabilized, plus just regular kiln dried stuff is so much cheaper.
look at what the stabilize process does, you are filling the pores of the wood with resin. you no longer have a piece of wood, you have a piece of resin. weight is the other factor, most stabilizing sites say wood will almost double in weight after treatment. furniture grade woods, hard maple, walnut, oak, hickory, if properly finished with oil or varnish and properly cared for, will last a life time as a table or a knife handle.
there is something about the feel of finished real wood that is missing from stabilized wood.
you cover dishwasher damage in the warranty, just like some makers have the "striking bone or using on a glass cutting board voids this warranty." hard maple or walnut are fairly light and useful if you want to get your 8" chef's knife weight to 3oz. dogwood and locust are very heavy and useful for adjusting the balance point.I'm with this guy.
Every knife I've purchased since getting back into Japanese knives recently has had a hardwood, unstabilized (I'm pretty sure) wa handle. Two with rosewood handles (which can mean a *lot* of different things), and two with ebony handles (which I hope means just one thing). I just can't get into the look or feel of Ho wood handles. Probably a cultural thing, but it's my preference regardless.
Hardwood wa handles are already on the heavy side; added resin doesn't help with the knife balance. I know enough about wood from other hobbies, mainly musical instruments (including "wet" ones like wooden flutes), to know how they'll respond to wear and water over time. If the wood moves and a horn ferrule doesn't, I'll just sand smooth and refinish. I use a little butcher block wax now and then on the rosewood handles that are more porous than ebony, but that's about it. I like handles that show wear, aren't too slick under my hand, and look like wood instead of plastic. But that's just one end-user perspective. If I made and sold knives for a living, I'd probably use stabilized wood to avoid returns on long/lifetime warranties where the user did something dumb like throw it in a dishwasher.
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