Handle material boredom

hardheart

hardheart

Joined
Sep 19, 2001
Messages
8,968
I feel very much 'over' G10, carbon fiber, and titanium. I don't avoid them, but they are in no way a selling point any longer. Nothing else has taken a top spot, be it micarta, frn, corian, rubber, cordage, delrin, celluloid, stone, glass, wood, leather, same, mother of pearl, abalone, bone, ivory, antler, horn, steel, aluminum, brass, etc. I just care more about appearance and ergos now than what the stuff specifically is.

Anyone feel similarly, or do you have particular needs/wants for specific handle composition?
 
I'm very tired of black G10/FRN to say the least. I'm starting to get into traditional slipjoints to experiment with different handle patterns. Albeit, if I want a grippy handle material for an actual prolonged hard use scenario, I look straight to G10 in a heartbeat.
 
Handle materials aren't as important as ergos. I do hate the feel of FRN though. Can't deal with the cheap plasticy feel.
I do like micarta more than other materials. I like it better in my hands. So i can't say handle materials aren't a selling point to me
but I'm sure i'd prefer a very ergonomic FRN handle to a sucky micarta handle.
 
I think you should get a knife with solid platinum handles and some expensive blade steel. Maybe you will find that to be interesting.
 
I used to be impressed with synthetic and metal scale materials, but I now find the variety and intricacies of wood & horn and bone to be much more interesting. There are exotic woods that you can get lost in by staring at the grain. Mammoth bark is also freakin' sweet to just stare into.
 
As long as the material is reasonably durable for what I'll be using it for, I usually couldn't care less as long as it doesn't look like butt. :p My preferences are for canvas micarta, polypropylene, or FRN, actually. Poly and FRN are both tough and light. If I'm going to have wood as a handle material I usually want it to be something simple--I don't need it to be exotic as long as it's tough. I actually wonder why you don't see more knives out there with hickory or ash handles.
 
I'm not a big fan of those three either and love micarta. I really wish more production knives came in it, of any type.
 
I'm not totally committed to any one material.
For a user/my work horse, Canvas Micarta is my preference.
For looks/my urban EDC, I like these two Juma patterns (Golden Dragon, Ivory Snake) or a blue twill.
Truth is, I like finding new materials to work with.

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Keyman said:
I'm not totally committed to any one material.
For a user/my work horse, Canvas Micarta is my preference.
For looks/my urban EDC, I like these two Juma patterns (Golden Dragon, Ivory Snake) or a blue twill.
Truth is, I like finding new materials to work with.

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Wow, ivory snake looks amazing!!
 
marcinek said:
There's always oosik.
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The OP said he was bored with bone... :D


Personally, I also grow bored of flat G-10. I like carbon fiber, especially when the maker of it doesn't follow the traditional weaving method and tries something else. That marbelized carbon fiber is beautiful to me. Differen't burl woods really impress me, especially when given a really fine polished finish and there is a glowing look to it. Stag is also beautiful, but some makers don't really know how to bring out the beauty in it and it can fall flat sometimes.

Different shell materials are some of my favorite, but expensive and not the easiest to find. Mother of Pearl is probably the easiest for makers to not only find, but to work with as well. I know that Black Lip, Gold Lip, and Pink Pearl are not easy to find and are subject to many natural small holes, cracking, and actually just crumbling during any kind of processing. Abalone is very beautiful, but probably harder to find in large pieces than any of the others. I have also heard that abalone is a nightmare to work with which is why you see so many inlays done in the mosaic style. Abalone is also plagued with the small worm holes and is extremely fragile, but damn is nice to look at.
 
For a using knife I'm not very picky with materials as long as it works. I tend to like composites...often coarse textured ones.

For aesthetics, I have always had a thing for stone...especially ones that exhibit chatoyancy, such as labradorite and tigers eye, but I like regular stone like malachite, jasper, etc as well. I'm also fond of woods with lots of character and dyed bone that has a nice crack pattern.

You know how kids find neat rocks, birds feathers, etc and carry them around in their pockets? Well I never grew out of that one, I often carry small scrap pieces of stone or burl wood I've polished up and toy with it when reading a book, watching a movie, etc.
 
I've decided to play around with different materials for handles. Recently made some new scales out of red gum (Australian hard wood) and also stag horn. Im moving back to the more traditional materials.
 
I am not particularly obsessed with aesthetics on materials for knife handles.

I prefer synthetic materials such as G10, linen micarta and FRN as they offer good to excellent grip, resistance to solvents, ease of cleaning, resistance to temperature and humidity changes.

Sticking to what works and easy to maintain.
 
i'm open to pretty much any material as long as its not FRN or simple plastic, i don't mind g10 but wish there were more color choices like purple.
 
hardheart said:
Anyone feel similarly, or do you have particular needs/wants for specific handle composition?
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I feel similarly to you. Materials are one of the last things I care about. My main concern is that the maker created a good useable knife -which to me is based almost entirely on its overall design. We often talk about functional beauty, and it is truly a serendipitous phenomenon, that when a knife looks good, it feels good to use. Maybe we train ourselves to see this kind of beauty, and therefore admire it, but I guess that does not really matter.

The "overall design" encompasses everything about the knife, and there is a hierarchy to what that is. Things like ergonomics, overall profiles, geometries, and mechanisms (sheath and lock types) come first. To me, those things are the knife. Everything else, including materials, should be considered "dependents" in my mind.

Once I have decided if I like the design, then I look deeper into the materials used.

When everything lines up just right, I know the knife will not "bore me.":thumbup:
 
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You ought to check out the stuff Jay Fisher makes. He likes to use gemstones for his handles, and they typically turn out quite stunning and very much unique. The only problem is they all cost $1000+, too :grumpy:

This is one of his current knives:
FOSargonFossilizedStromatolite1.jpg
 
G-10 with women impregnation is THE $hit IMHO :D
Not all the time is how it feels but how it smells LMAO..... just sayin'
 
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