Segmented Handle fit and finish

[David Mary]

Good afternoon friends, I have a question about getting segments flush on a segmented handle build. Let's say you make a knife with both synthetic materials and stabilized wood, such as a stabilized wood front and rear segment, with an inlay of carbon fiber sandwiched between G10 spacers. Is this type of build inherently destined to develop slight surface height variance between the stabilized wood and synthetic materials?

I made a knife similar to above, and after sanding to a 400 grit matte finish, everything felt flush. Now a week and a half later, the "bump" between segments can be felt immediately upon taking the knife in hand. I thought that using stabilized wood instead of natural wood would prevent this (the wood is stabilized black palm, inlaid between carbon fiber). If I sand everything flush again will this permanently resolve that, or will the stabilized wood continue to swell and/or shrink with environmental fluctuations leading to the issue all over again?

Thanks for any advice or suggestions.

 

[Scott Hanson]

Just about anything I've used as spacer material between a guard and metal spacers seems to shrink or expand even Micarta a little bit. G10 seems to move the least, but I can still feel it a little bit with a finger nail on some older knives I have sitting around. I think stabilized wood will be much better than un-stabilized, no matter what you use I think there will always be a little bit of a transition line between dissimilar materials simply because they will tend to expand and contract at different rates with changes in temperature and humidity.

 

[A.McPherson]

Yeah, stabilized wood is still wood. It is more stable, but it'll still move a bit.

 

[David Mary]

Understood, thank you gentlemen.