FWIW, I'll mention that I also used ironwood on kitchen knife handles and almost never had any problem. The one time I did have a problem it was on a knife for a professional chef in a commercial kitchen. The ironwood developed some kind of thin white mold on it. He would clean it off and oil the handle but the mold came back every time. That kind of possibility is why health inspectors don't like to see wooden handles on commercial kitchen knives. However, the other knives I made for the same chef had stabilized wood handles and no one complained about them. I love ironwood and snakewood but I never used them on kitchen knives again after that ....
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