# What is the purpose of a ferrule?



## lapointeus (Jun 18, 2016)

I don't understand the point of the ferrule. A cheap little piece of plastic. The new Konosukes GS handles don't have them and now every knife I look at is ugly with the ferrule. I'm sorry but the no ferrule handle is much sexier in my opinion.


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## DanHumphrey (Jun 18, 2016)

Especially for the plastic ones, I'd love to know myself.


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## pkjames (Jun 18, 2016)

wood can split. The japanese way of burn in the knife causing the wood to sustain rapid heat and force can make the wood split easily, the ferrule holds it intact.


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## MAS4T0 (Jun 18, 2016)

Good for you.

It's for visual contrast so that it doesn't look like you snapped a broom handle and mounted that on your knife...

I'd also assume that it serves the same function as a fuchi; that is to help prevent splitting and and to hold the handle together in the event of a split.

I've seen many martial arts katana over the years where the tsuka was split, but the sword was still safe as the core was held together securely by the ito and the fuchi.


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## lapointeus (Jun 18, 2016)

pkjames said:


> wood can split. The japanese way of burn in the knife causing the wood to sustain rapid heat and force can make the wood split easily, the ferrule holds it intact.



Oh wow. That makes sense. I like the decorative type of wood ones, the plastic has got to go though.


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## DanHumphrey (Jun 18, 2016)

pkjames said:


> wood can split. The japanese way of burn in the knife causing the wood to sustain rapid heat and force can make the wood split easily, the ferrule holds it intact.



Of course, you do have your bubinga handles with just a little brass ferrule. Which, btw, I think looks very good, though I know you can't talk about them in this subforum.


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## LifeByA1000Cuts (Jun 18, 2016)

@MAS4T0 round plain ho handles with ferrule look like you didn't even bother to saw the hardware off the broom handle  j/k, love wa handles, maybe exactly because of that understatement.


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## MAS4T0 (Jun 18, 2016)

LifeByA1000Cuts said:


> @MAS4T0 round plain ho handles with ferrule look like you didn't even bother to saw the hardware off the broom handle



:lolsign:


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## Johnny.B.Good (Jun 18, 2016)

DanHumphrey said:


> Of course, you do have your bubinga handles with just a little brass ferrule. Which, btw, I think looks very good, though I know you can't talk about them in this subforum.



I think these look great, too.


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## pkjames (Jun 18, 2016)

DanHumphrey said:


> Of course, you do have your bubinga handles with just a little brass ferrule. Which, btw, I think looks very good, though I know you can't talk about them in this subforum.



Thanks  one thing to note is that little piece of brass doesn't really have the anti-splitting function (apart from a bit of glue) because it is not holding the wood together like a ring. Rather it is more of a decorative design. Likewise, a lot of wood ferrules seem on custom handles don't have the anti-splitting function, since wood can still split. It is not a big deal because we don't do burn-in during the rehandle process, epoxy is a more common practice; and most of the time, the wood on custom handles are stabilized.


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## krx927 (Jun 20, 2016)

MAS4T0 said:


> It's for visual contrast so that it doesn't look like you snapped a broom handle and mounted that on your knife...



ha ha ha


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