Best Grip material????

babakanoosh45

babakanoosh45

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Oct 6, 2006
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Grips/panels/scales, basically the material your hand comes in contact with when you take full purchase of your knife. Which do all of you feel suit you best? For me, in most cases it's textured G-10. I would like to hear from all of you....~baba~
 
For me textured G - 10, micarta, textured CR - 10, carbon fiber, hard wood, for fixed blades stacked leather.
 
I'd say textured G-10. I've been babbeling alot lately about these Ontario RAT knives so I don;t want to wear that out, BUT, I noticed that the weaved fabric scales on some of the RAT knives are almost smooth and slippery. I like G-10 or aluminum.
 
G10 so far, though I hear Spyderco's textured carbon fiber is great in a similar way.
 
The best grip material, bar none, is the Trac-Tec that is used as inserts on some knives. The Kershaw Blur is on example. It's so "grippy" that too much of this on a knife would make it unusable because of the discomfort. It's the same stuff that one sometimes sees on a boat deck or seat. It's similar to very coarse sandpaper.

Regards
 
The Trec-Tec to which you speak I removed from my Blur because it was wrecking my pants pockets. I schmooed some red epoxy in the inserts and let dry under a heat lamp. That is the most grippy material, too grippy for me!!!
 
Textured G10. Of course it depends on the nature of the texturing. Done right, it provides a secure grip without being abrasive.
 
The best grip is a properly contoured handle. The Trac-Tec inserts on my Storm II are unnecessary, since the handle shape is such a good fit my hand wouldn't slip under any circumstances anyway.

I was surprised at how grippy the new CF Military is, as good as any G-10 I've got. But G-10 and carbon fiber, Micarta and Zytel are primarily valuable for their durability. Their grippiness comes mostly from texturing, not the material itself.
 
There is different grips and for different grips different materials is better. One thing is powerful impact when knife is used as an axe to pry like car door or chop redwood tree, and another thing is when do some delicate repair or surgery when you need flexibility and need to hold knife with fingertips etc.

G10 is not most comfortable handle material, just beause it is hard, it is durable, but for long work I preffer stacked birch bark or leather or rubber (kryton?) like KaBar Next Generation or Samurai Bowie has. For folders g10 is better because of durability and in general it is more tool for simple cutting jobs, repair etc. - palm-skin confort is not too critical for folders.

Thanks, Vassili.
 
G-10 is very versitile. It can go from benchmade, to emerson, to spyderco, to strider. Overalll, I like it best. Carbon fiber, seems to be similar. But not as many maker seem to use it, or use it to it's capabilities. Grip tape like on some knives is probablythe most secure in my opinion. On a fixed blade I tend to prefer most rubber -like handles.
 
babakanoosh45 said:
Grips/panels/scales, basically the material your hand comes in contact with when you take full purchase of your knife. Which do all of you feel suit you best? For me, in most cases it's textured G-10. I would like to hear from all of you....~baba~
Click to expand...


I prefer natural handle materials. For fixed blades and some folders, a properly shaped, highly figured hardwood handle is hard to beat (for me). The beauty and warmth of the wood is far more aesthetically appealing to me than any synthetic handle material. A good wood handle is one of the most hand friendly grips one could ask for. The same can be said for stag.
But, textured G-10 has it's place too. It has the ability to withstand most chemicals, it's tough, and it has fairly high strength for a handle material which is handy for folder scales which often have to be very thin for the sake of pocket portability. It also doesn't show cosmetic damage as readily as some other handle materials.
 
babakanoosh45 said:
The Trec-Tec to which you speak I removed from my Blur because it was wrecking my pants pockets. I schmooed some red epoxy in the inserts and let dry under a heat lamp. That is the most grippy material, too grippy for me!!!
Click to expand...

It was tearing up my pockets too but I had a different solution. I smoothed the part that was in contact with with my pants with a Dremel. I like the grip of it and didn't want to lose it. No more worn pockets now and I still have the grip.

As a side note, I wrote a comment about this on one of the Kershaw threads and the the Kershaw rep says this problem has been taken care of on newer lots and limited editions (i.e. the S30V plain Blur coming out soon).

Regards
 
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