Acrylic for a kitchen knife handle?

Z

Zanuha

Joined
Sep 27, 2010
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I'm going to be making a handle for an MG French kitchen 150 for my mom for christmas, and I let her pick out the size, handle material and pin material. She wants a purple and white acrylic handle and SS/B Loveless rivets. Will the acrylic stand being ran through the dishwasher?
acrylicpurple.jpg
 
I don't know if the particular acrylic that you have will withstand the dishwasher or not, but I hate running a good knife through the dishwasher because of the different coefficients of thermal expansion of the various materials involved in a knife. It will destroy a glue joint and possibly crack the handle as thing grow and shrink.
 
Acrylic is not a good idea in the dishwasher. They make some fancy looking dishes and other kitchenware from straight acrylic -- they're all recommended for hand washing -- even on top shelf, the straight acrylic will begin to craze and cloud after a few dishwasher washings. Some acrylic blends/variants such as SAN or NAS are pretty durable, but I don't think that's what you have in the scale material.
 
Cool material. Where from?

Any knife that you even care a tiny bit about is IMO a bad idea in the dishwasher. It's so easy to wash them separately, dry them, and put them back on the rack.
 
OK, thanks. The material is from Brisa, they have pretty much every handle material you can think of.
 
I'm working on a couple knives at the moment that are using a very similar material from Jantz. I can't decide though if I want the handles to be full on glossy polished or stop at a nice even 1000g satin. Both knives will be used by men, one more often than the other. I'm thinking that leaving them at a 1000g fine satin finish will help hide any scratches and scuffs the handles may get.

What's your opinion?
 
In my limited experience with acrylic handle materials, they are extremely soft and susceptible to scratches. They will seem to get cloudy and scuffed even just by handling them with gloves. For knife handles with striking colors and figure, professionally-stabilized wood is a much better choice. Even Corian countertop material is better than the acrylics I've tried, although it will scratch somewhat easily, also.

Use of a dishwasher automatically voids my warranty. The heat, moisture, and swirling abrasive cleaners can do nothing good for a fine blade or its edge.
 
I had no say so in the matter :) It was an order for Christmas presents. I have already warned to light handwash only. I wound up going with a nice 1000g wetsanded finish. Ended up with a very nice soft satin luster that both recipients loved.
 
I understand, Griz :) One thing about soft materials is that if they do get scuffed up, they're pretty easy to re-polish.
 
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