Rick,

Do you think this would qualify for handle replacement??

Tom,
Wow... that's bad for sure. Of course most folks know that Snakewood is an extremely dense hardwood that can crack if not cared for properly. As we have discussed, any natural handle material is subject to cracking but that particular piece of Snakewood certainly looks like it was exposed to some radical changes in heat and/or humidity. That's one of the reasons the stuff isn't guaranteed, you can't control what the customer does with it.

That would be about as good a reason as any for me to want to stay as far away from Snakewood as I do from Musk Ox. What'd you do with that knife Tom, take it in the sauna with you, and then go running out and roll around in the snow with it afterwards

Michael, Tom didn't do it. He didn't own the knife. Its a crying shame though because I had that knife in my collection for a year and a half before I sold it and it was flawless when it left here.
Tom, I apologize for not addressing your original question. Yes, that handle indeed qualified for a replacement handle. Of course you knew that as it was replaced some time ago. Oops... we seem to have gotten off the topic of Musk Ox shrinking.

Rick,

My question was in regards to how significant a material crack had to be to qualify for replacement through the RMK Shop. Your reply was:


I was simply trying to define what might be considered a catastrophic failure and I feel confident that this is valuable information for anyone who might submit a piece of CW for handle material and it is just as important for them to know what the repercussions are if problems develop, and what their options might be and at what cost. Musk Ox material certainly applies here as that is the main theme of this thread but the same can be said of any customer supplied exotic handle material.

If you think some of these issues should be continued in a new thread that's fine and quite possibly appropriate cause there is more to come. I think a lot more needs to be said about the reliability of some of the less familiar and newer exotic handle like Musk Ox.

Rick,

Where the knife originated is immaterial. I deliberately cropped the photo in such a manner so it would be impossible to know which Randall model it was.

Tom,

I'm sure it's fine if you'd like to talk about handle failure and replacement. However, the shop defines what handles they will replace not me or you. If you have a knife with a cracked handle you can send it to the shop. If they determine that the handle warrants replacement you will receive a quote before the work is done.




You already know the handle on that Skinner was replaced by the shop therefore you knew the answer before you asked the question. Perhaps your image could be more helpful if it were used to illustrate the condition of a particular handle that was accepted by the shop for replacement. Once again, the shop does the final assessment.