G10 quality

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paulwesley

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Sep 5, 2005
Messages
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i used to have a s&w with 10 scales...very rough around the edges, and, I read somewhere that G10 was cheap stuff but my al mar nomad is G10 and the quality is superb. Are there different quality levels of G10??
 
Obviously a S&W isn't going to get the finish on G-10 done as well as Al Mar.

G-10 is G-10, but the finish can vary greatly.

Benchmade's normal G-10 (on the AFCK and 710) feels like plastic to me. Spyderco's G-10 is very grippy and I love it.

I am not sure exactly how G-10 is made, but being a composite, there is more to it than just buying a can of it and pouring it in a mold. I am sure there is more hands-on time requires to set it and finish it.

It may be cheap stuff to purchase in bulk, but I am fairly sure it is expensive to do well. There is a reason most of the knives with G-10 are fairly expensive, and all of the knives with good G-10 are expensive.
 
Certainly. G10 seems to be machined into the certain patterns and shapes, which is apparently a very difficult process on the machinery. Most G10 handles seem to occur in the slab design, but more recently 3D scales are being made. For the first time that I know of, complex designs and patterns are being put in G10 with the new S30V Spec Bump.

A lot of G10 "quality" though is preference. For instance, how rough do you want your G10 to be? Benchmade tends to do very smooth G10, which isn't to my taste. Spyderco does fairly rough G10, which is about right for me, but Strider uses even grippier patterns.

It appears that fit and finish mistakes among g10 scales are extremely rare.

I'm not sure what you pay for with G10 is the actual material...I suspect a significant portion goes to the actual machining of it.
 
From what I've heard, G10 is available from different manufacturers so there may be differences in the quality of material. I think the majority of it has to do with how the knifemaker handles it. 4-500 dollar knives have G10 handles and so do $8 Mtechs. If you take 2 steaks of the same quality and give one to a fry cook and one to a seasoned 4 star chef, which one do you think will taste better?
 
Hair said:
I am not sure exactly how G-10 is made, but being a composite, there is more to it than just buying a can of it and pouring it in a mold. I am sure there is more hands-on time requires to set it and finish it.
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure I read a post by Sal Glesser in the past day or two where he said that G-10 finishing has to be done by hand.
 
Hair said:
Benchmade's normal G-10 (on the AFCK and 710) feels like plastic to me. Spyderco's G-10 is very grippy and I love it.
Click to expand...

i was considering my 710 few minute ago and i was exactelly thinking the same ! A friend has let me play with his Spydie Uk penknife, and i realised that his G-10 was much nicer to handle:confused:

I suspect G-10 being a mix of fibers, BM on is different from spydie one?
I am a BM guy, but i should admit that the Uk penknife handle was really nice.
 
From what I've seen, all G-10 comes as a smooth-surfaced sheet. The difference in texture comes from bead-blasting, which removed some of the softer phenolic matrix (the stuff between the fibers) and leaves the harder impregnated fibers as a raised texture. Apparently, different makers blast their G-10 to differing degrees; I agree with the other folks, Spyderco tends to go for a more aggressive texture, whereas Benchmade likes their's smoother. Other makers run the gamut between those two extremes.
 
I have no idea how Spyderco does their G10 or if they buy it that way but it is by far and away THE BEST G10 ever done in my opinion.

The G10 on the Paramilitary, and the Yojimbo is tops. :thumbup:
 
According to Sal all G10 is not the same. I have never worked with it and probably won't. But I have noticed that I like the canvas look of what Ernie Emerson uses, especially in the green G10 on his knives. I much prefer that look over the hard plastic look of others being sold out there.

STR
 
I have to agree that Benchmade, although they make some of the best tools on the market, tends to finish G-10 a little too smoothly for my liking.
Never having owned a G-10 Spyderco, I can't say that I like or dislike it. However, my Emerson 10 has some super-grippy G-10. It even looks different (of course). This obviously has to do with the way the surface is finished, whether finely or coarsely polished; carbon fiber can be the same way, either grippy or smooth depending on the degree of polish.
Micarta is very similar, since its construction is very similar. The major difference is that with micarta, the fibers are much finer than those of G-10. This means that when it's left coarsely finished, it isn't as grippy as coarsely-finished G-10; it just looks dull instead of shiny, as opposed to looking grippy like G-10.
Hope that's not too garbled, and actually makes some sense...
 
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