Favorite Handle Material?

JK Knives

JK Knives

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For me, it`s either black canvas micarta, or ironwood. What`s your favorite?
 
For a "work" knife I prefer G10 or micarta. for my collectables I have multiple favorites, mammoth ivory, mother of pearl, abalone and paua and teak wood. I much prefer organic scales as opposed to inorganic or man made material for show and tell knives.
 
Natural Material - Ebony wood, love this stuff. I'd also love to have some sort of ivory someday, if it isn't illegal now. :\

Manmade - G10, have got a few knives with this lately and it rocks. Feels really good in the hand.
 
I really like micarta. Especially how yours is finished. It gives a nice textured grip when dry and seems to be even greater when wet for some reason.
 
My go to material is either Rosewood. Or stabilized spalted maple. And if I have none of either in stock I would fall back onto buckeye burl.
 
I'm rather fond of ebony.
 
i prefer a wood handle on my knives. i understand (and agree) with the concerns of shrinkage, etc. but, the look and feel of a nice wood handle outweigh those concerns for me.

i like the dense woods, for obvious reasons: ironwood, cocobolo and rosewood. i also am really starting to dig Osage. i know it has a lower relative density than what i just listed, but i really like the look. i don't expect any of these woods to crack under normal use. there will be some shrinkage, but i can touch them up.

with all of that said, i also do like the canvas micarta. and, i also like the burlap "mycarta" that i make (not to toot my own horn).

oh hey John. did you ever use those burlap slabs i gave you a while ago? i'm curious how they have held up.
 
I'm partial to micarta, usually black linen, canvas, or paper. Especially if the knives/tools are going to have a significant amount of hand time.

But my ultimate fav is genuine Hawaiian curly Koa. It's what we used in the high school woodshop class on my island. We kind of took koa for granted then though, as it was plentiful.
My fav HI khukuri was made with a koa handle.
 
oh, and i will add a twist to your question John. i think my least favorite handle material is stabilized wood. i will not buy a knife with stabilized wood.
 
While most of my working knives have micarta, my best looking knives these days have koa and amboyna burl. I used to favor desert ironwood but every ironwood burl handle I've had eventually cracks in this desert heat. About every 4 months I soak all my wood handles in mineral oil for 48 hours but even that hasn't helped ironwood so I guess I have to give up on it.
 
I don't know that I gave an actual favorite. I like black and green canvas mircata but have seen very nice zircote, ebony, stabilized redwood, and stabilized box elder burl. There are some really vibrant G-10 colors also.
 
Any ""GOOD LOOKING BURL"" like looking at 3-D Scales ~~ stands out and makes people say dxmx that is a beautiful set of Scales you have on that Knife.!**
 
I'm a it depends on the knife kinda guy. For hunting and woods I dig orange g10. I also love the way Ironwood looks. black canvas micarta is a great one too lol. to many choices these days
 
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