Becker Grivory Handle Destruction

[DerekH]

Attached to the knife would be a good start. Maybe hit it in the air (not between two hard surfaces)

I think baton the knife into a piece of wood with the handle sticking out fairly fair horizontally, then hit it downward with a baton on the handle end as hard as you can.

 

[NikkiR]

alright, next time I'm in the woods, I'm going to do all of the above.

 

[noviomagus]

Becker scales could be a little slick ..... but they are nice and contoured. .the shape itself lends itself to a positive grip ...unlike some knives with flat slabs. The lack of texturing might be appreciated under long use and help avoid friction points.

I feel the same about these things.
Flat slabs thinking of a brand uhhh ESEE? Ontario RD Ranger series? Ontario Rat?
Block like flat handles with sharp edges sticking into the palm and fingers?
:- )
The shape of the Becker knives are very ergonomic. Like knife handles should be.
I don’t want a knife that when holding it feels like holding a 2x4.
I hate that in knives.
That’s why I just love the Mora knives.
Such wonderful ergonomically shaped handles.

If your location is particularly cold I can see that causing the issue. The Fiskars hatchets with supposedly "indestructible" handles have been known to break in extremely cold climates, I imagine grivory would do the same. Of course, for the rest of the world that generally isn't an issue most of the year at least, which would explain a vast difference in performance. As the video shows the grivory handles do break, but in a fairly extreme and unrealistic test. While attached to the knife any baton would hit the knife in a place where it should hit the metal handle portion first, dispersing a great amount of the energy and reducing the chances of the grivory breaking from impact. In proper usage, one would never have a reason to need to hit the scales full on with anything, so it is going to be a rare occurrence for anything of that nature to take place in any reasonable setting. Again though, extreme cold would skew any material closer towards breakage simply because that is what cold does. If that isn't the case in your area or the area where the gentleman claimed he broke the grivory during use, then I don't know what to tell you other than it shouldn't have happened, and I have a really hard time seeing a legitimate usage that would cause such an event.

Either way, the fact that aftermarket scales are available alleviates this, so for those with a different preference there are options out there. KA-BAR chooses to make them aftermarket instead of stock though which reduces the prices for the average user who has no need of micarta scales, and as they are the largest demographic they have determined that the grivory will remain stock and the micarta an aftermarket option, regardless of how much you may wish otherwise. Sorry for that, but it is what it is.

As far as the handle scales retaining moisture, that is true, but that shouldn't cause any issues unless the handle portion of your knife has been stripped and all the epoxy paint is gone. That stuff is there for that very reason (among others).

And the funny thing is that Fiskars is a Finnish made brand.
Though even in cold I think that these axes do well.
It’s not that you hear a lot about them breaking in cold.
It happens.
But what I read is that the far majority does very well ,also in cold.
And isn’t it in cold that many cut wood to make fire?
One of the better axe brands in my opinion ,Fiskars.
No rehandling needed. And if one might breaks they send you a new one.

I can imagine that a grivory handle breaks when someone is mistakingly batoning on the the plastic/grivory handle instead of the spine of the knife. The plastic might be forced against the screw causing a tear in the grivory.
But with some sane use this would not happen easy I would think .

The hollow handle storing moist and maybe even mud(?), Is in my opinion not the ideal handle slab.
The Becker BK15 to 17 series I like better with the solid slabs plus and extra pair of slabs.
And why not make to offers to buy,the ones with the micarta and the grivory.
The aftermarket slabs aren’t sold in the Netherlands.

 

[arizonaranchman]

I like the Grivory scales on my 2. The 14 wears the zytel scales by K-Bar. For typical use they're plenty durable and once Loc-Tited they're very secure in my experience.