Recommendation? Best knifehandle ergonomics?

[MP Morgan]

Hi, I am looking for recommendation for best handle ergonomics for my next knife project. I would like to hear your experiences and see what you think is the best handle on a fulltang knife.

I am making an outdoor knife, but would like inspiration from knifes you find are having a good handle.

Going to make it from a 5,2 mm piece of Vanadis 4e, so it's gonna be a solid knife, able to take a beating.

I will post pictures of my current project tomorrow when I pick it up from hardening. It's an outdoor knife, also in Vanadis 4e. It's hardened to 62-63 hrc, and I will fit some 3D-printed scales to test the ergonomics before making the micarta ones.

This is the current project before flatgrinding and hardening. The next will be roughly the same size.

 

[kvaughn]

Dalibor Seckar-"Daado" on the knifemakers forum, has some of the best ergos I've handled. He's a Croatian maker who works a lot in 52100. Great knives at great prices if you can get one. They go quick.--KV

 

[MP Morgan]

Dalibor Seckar-"Daado" on the knifemakers forum, has some of the best ergos I've handled. He's a Croatian maker who works a lot in 52100. Great knives at great prices if you can get one. They go quick.--KV

Thanks, I'll see if I can get inspiration there.
I won't be buying any knives, I want to make them myself. Not because I can do better, but for the fun of it.

 

[Munzer]

Becker handles are very comfortable and ergonomic as are the Bark River Bravo handles. A Bravo style handle might be a decent choice for the knife you pictured.

 

[bikerector]

I like LT Wright's handles a lot. Simple flowing lines without any abrupt size changes. For a bushcraft/woodscraft knife, I prefer a straight handle as a curve at the butt is uncomfortable in a chest lever grip. For something bigger that might see some chopping, a little pinky ramp is nice. For something that will be a pure slicer, I like a nice rounded back to the handle.

LT GNS-like (custom) on the top and genesis on the bottom. The genesis is your standard broomstick style handle.

Usually a swell at the palm is nice, with the thinnest parts of the handle's diameter being at the forefinger and pink spots. Becker does a great job with this on his tweener knives and the bigger handle is pretty good for a big knife handle. I like more grip than the stock handles but after some grip tape, they're nice.

I think I tend to like thinner handles that are tall/wide in the hand, think the becker bk62 based on the original kephart. I like slight to moderate thumb ramps on the spine too for harder use knives. The swamp rat ratweiler is a favorite big knife of mine.

Here's one me and forum maker worked out together that I really like a lot for a general purpose woods knife. The handle is his design, the blade has a lot more input from me.

Those are my tastes at least. The biggest thing I've found is that heavily countoured grips rarely work out well for me when using the knife a lot and if they are contoured, the transitions need to be smooth and flowy, like the Busse and kin. Still, I think LT's simple handles have been the best for me, with Becker, esee, and Busse and kin (ratweiler and ratmandu especially) being close behind, depending on the model of course.

 

[Seesteel]

I really like Bradford Guardian 4.5 and TOPS HOG 4.5 handle ergonomics.




I still don't know about the Tex Creek, but It looks good/great to me.