First, talk about some beautiful knives! Wow! I have seen things on this thread I have never seen before.
For me, I appreciate bone/wood/stag/horn for handles on my traditional knives. I guess probably because that's what I grew up with the 60s. Those materials tend to make a knife more individual, especially when you are talking about stag, horn, or some woods.
But on my work knives, G10 first. I can wash the scales off with charcoal lighter fluid, Goof Off, and even gasoline to get off adhesives, butyl caulks, sealants, tar, etc. and there aren't any ill effects. Micarta draws in the discoloration from the solvent/cleaner, so the handles look pretty bad after a douse in solvent, although it doesn't seem to do any structural damage. Also, when cleaning something like tar off Micarta, it seems to stay sticky and smell like the solvent of choice for a while.
Micarta if doing dry work is OK. Have a few with good quality Micarta (not the backyard stuff) that look and feel great. No metal, though. For me, too slippery in my really sweaty hands in the spring summer here in S. Texas, too cold when we have an occasional bout of cold weather and even then, most are too slippery. I know there are a few knives with milled scales that are like alligator hide, but they aren't for me. The exception of course, SAKs.
). Micarta, not so much.
