Humidity vs. Stag and shrinkage?

[Sid Post]

I live in Tucson, Arizona, which is pretty dry (not the driest place on earth but, definitely low humidity most of the year). I have several stag knives, which were acquired from the East coast. What I am noticing now, is that the stag slabs appear to be shrinking slightly.

If I stored them in a higher humidity environment (like my bathroom and the high humidity from the shower) would they return to their original size or, would this stress the stag too much?

The other option, as I see it, is to send the knives back to the maker and have them “repolished”. Normally, I would worry about this but, the sharp edges of the tang stick up about 1/32nd of inch and I don’t want to cut my palm or fingers on the tang. I learned this lesson a long time ago using a Henckel’s Cleaver where the spine edges weren’t broken, causing me to split my thumb on my first relatively light use of the cleaver (a perfect 90 degree angle in steel can be very sharp .

My only real reservations about sending the knives back to have the tang and stag refitted would be the reverse effect if I moved back to Texas or Georgia at some point in my life.

Do I need to consider some sort of Stag maintenance like you do with leather to preserve it?

Thanks in advance for you help!

 

[tmickley]

A coating of mineral oil will help. Maybe even a soak depending on how dry they are.

 

[Wild Rose]

I had the same thing happen when I moved from western Wash State (very high humidity) to Durango, Co (very low humidity). I used mineral oil, etc, but they still had a small ridge of metal sticking up with very sharp edges. So I took a curved needle file and very carefull and patiently V-eed the edge. The metal still sticks up a little bit but it's no longer got those very sharp edges.
Since then I've had a few knives sent to me for sheaths that the same thing happened to. After sending them back to the owners thay apparently re-swelled with the moisture, but don't seem to crack. Still it's a good reason for stabilizing the grips especially with exposed tangs.
I don't seem to see any stress on the knives with hidden/stick tangs -no pulling away from the crossguard or cracking or anything like that.

Hope this helps

 

[Mike Hull]

Stabilizing is great, for sure. But when it's already on the knife, I think the best thing is what Tracy said, soak the handle in mineral oil. Just get a soup can, or similar container, put the knife in, handle down, and fill with oil. Leave for a few hours. Some have said doing this twice a year for horn, and ivory, stops a lot of problems before they start.

 

[Sid Post]

THANKS! I'll give the mineral oil trick a try. I figured something like that was going to be the thing to do.

 

[C L Wilkins]

Just for a little more information...

Water buffalo is about the worst I have seen as far as this happening. I made a knife a few years ago for my father and used water buffalo scales. I have seen that knife on numerous occasions, sometimes the pins are recessed, other times they are protruding. That stuff moves! He lives right on the coast.

C Wilkins