diff --git a/core/src/main/java/org/jruby/RubyFile.java b/core/src/main/java/org/jruby/RubyFile.java
index 23689f1..237fd90 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/org/jruby/RubyFile.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/org/jruby/RubyFile.java
@@ -785,13 +785,9 @@ public class RubyFile extends RubyIO implements EncodingCapable {

     @JRubyMethod(name = "expand_path", required = 1, optional = 1, meta = true)
     public static IRubyObject expand_path19(ThreadContext context, IRubyObject recv, IRubyObject[] args) {
-        RubyString path = (RubyString) expandPathInternal(context, recv, args, true, false);
-        path.force_encoding(context, context.runtime.getEncodingService().convertEncodingToRubyEncoding(get_path(context, args[0]).getEncoding()));
-
-        return path;
+        return expandPathInternal(context, recv, args, true, false);
     }

-
     /**
      * ---------------------------------------------------- File::absolute_path
      *      File.absolute_path(file_name [, dir_string] ) -> abs_file_name
@@ -1560,6 +1556,7 @@ public class RubyFile extends RubyIO implements EncodingCapable {

         RubyString origPath = StringSupport.checkEmbeddedNulls(runtime, get_path(context, args[0]));
         String relativePath = origPath.getUnicodeValue();
+        Encoding enc = origPath.getEncoding();

         // Special /dev/null of windows
         if (Platform.IS_WINDOWS && ("NUL:".equalsIgnoreCase(relativePath) || "NUL".equalsIgnoreCase(relativePath))) {
@@ -1613,7 +1610,7 @@ public class RubyFile extends RubyIO implements EncodingCapable {
                 // this is basically for classpath:/ and uri:classloader:/
                 relativePath = relativePath.substring(2).replace('\\', '/');
             }
-            return concatStrings(runtime, preFix, extra, relativePath);
+            return concatStrings(runtime, preFix, extra, relativePath, enc);
         }

         String[] uriParts = splitURI(relativePath);
@@ -1627,7 +1624,7 @@ public class RubyFile extends RubyIO implements EncodingCapable {
         if (uriParts != null) {
             //If the path was an absolute classpath path, return it as-is.
             if (uriParts[0].equals("classpath:")) {
-                return concatStrings(runtime, preFix, relativePath, postFix);
+                return concatStrings(runtime, preFix, relativePath, postFix, enc);
             }
             relativePath = uriParts[1];
         }
@@ -1745,13 +1742,14 @@ public class RubyFile extends RubyIO implements EncodingCapable {
                 }
             }
         }
-        return concatStrings(runtime, preFix, realPath, postFix);
+        return concatStrings(runtime, preFix, realPath, postFix, enc);
     }

-    private static RubyString concatStrings(final Ruby runtime, String s1, String s2, String s3) {
+    private static RubyString concatStrings(final Ruby runtime, String s1, String s2, String s3, Encoding enc) {
         return RubyString.newString(runtime,
                 new StringBuilder(s1.length() + s2.length() + s3.length()).
-                        append(s1).append(s2).append(s3)
+                        append(s1).append(s2).append(s3).toString(),
+                enc
         );
     }