Favorite Natural Handle Material

M

marlin39d

Joined
Sep 26, 2004
Messages
68
I would love to hear from some of the custom makers (both hobby and professionsal) of what their favorite natural material is when it comes time to put that "perfect" handle on their knives.

Of the custom knives I own personally I have stag, elephant ivory, sheep's horn, Desert Ironwood, and Cocobolo.

My favorite.....Ivory by a good margin. I just like the looks and the feel.
 
Stag
Mammoth Ivory
Walrus Ivory
Premium wood.

I like blacklip pearl on folders.
 
Stag
Premium wood
Ivory (hidden tang construction only)
Tagua (SP) nut
 
Walrus ivory, followed closely by mammoth ivory. On fancy folders I really like white and gold lip MOP. Stag is still a favorite, but at its current price I will pay the extra for ivory. Then Stellar's seacow bone and oosic. Some of the hardwood such as ironwood, African blackwood and a lot of the burls would come next.
 
I do love that ivory, mammoth and walrus.
Blacklip pearl is sure nice on a slipjoint, especially when piqued.
I love that oldfashioned tortoiseshell too.

Now all of that being said, I have at least one custom folder coming in ironwood, and my ironwood Razel is about to be shipped.

I always say that I'm not a big fan of stag, and then I see some knife with stag handles that I just have to have----

what's wrong with me?:D
 
1. Sambar Stag
2. Elephant Ivory
3. Walrus Ivory
4. African Blackwood
5. Ironwood Burl
6. Buckeye Burl
7. Black Walnut
8. Curly Maple
 
1. Black Mother of Pearl
2. White Mother of Pearl
3. Sambar Stag
4. African Blackwood
5. Desert Ironwood
6. Wenge Wood
7. Walrus Ivory, although I don't own anything in it, nor would I(local climate is unfavorable)

I like working with stag the best. I love the smell of grinding stag, I don't know why. It shapes like a dream.

Best Regards,

Steven Garsson
 
1)Sambar stag.
2)Blue Green Mammoth
3)Ironwood Burl
4)Desert Ironwood
5)Walnut
6)Curly Maple
7)Cocobolo
8)Impala and Antelope horn and bone
Don't have elephant Ivory but I'm sure I'd love it.
Have also liked the looks of some Buckeye Burl I've seen,especially the California Buckeye Burl.:)

Doug
 
A collector's perspective:

1. Antique turtle shell (although I don't own anything in it)
2. Fossil ivory, both walrus and mastodon (and I suppose elephant ivory too if harvested responsibly or pre-ban)
3. Stag, but only if absolutely premium quality - less than 5% of the stag I see currently on handles would qualify
4. MOP (although I don't own anything in it)
5. Premium oosic
6. Premium ironwood, walnut, cocobolo, Thuya burl, spalted maple, and other super-premium woods
7. Run off the mill stag, bone, giraffe bone, and other woods
 
Seems to me it would be hard to mess up a great blade by a competent maker with the majority of the materials listed in this thread...but, my top three would be:

1) Walrus
2) Walrus
3) Mammoth
 
Well I like lots of different woods but if I had to pick I would say:

1. African Blackwood
2. Maple Burl
3. Nicely figured Ironwood
4. Box Elder Burl

Those are the ones that I really like.

Sean
 
I like most of the natural material as long as it's premium quality, but my favorites are:

Fossil walrus ivory
Black lip pearl
Mammoth ivory
Premium stag
Highly figured black walnut (on bowies, not folders)
Old elephant ivory
 
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