Handle material - what drives your choice?

coaltrain

coaltrain

Joined
Jul 11, 2013
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I'm really getting into the traditionals - you folks have really helped me drive the obsession!

When looking at all the choices, as I have noted in some of my other threads, I'm starting to find more of what I like now as far as pattern etc. Then comes the choices of handle material. With a lot of models like current GEC offerings, I find different handle materials offered in each pattern - notably wood, bone, and stag. Myself, I automatically was drawn to the woods - must be something from living in the woods all my life - I just love the feel and look of the beautiful grain. But in some of my latest acquisitions, along with a great member who has lent me a couple knives to try, I am starting to see the draw toward the bone and stag also. I also see that the stag commands a price premium on some knives - as much as 25%.

And without doing an accurate measurement, it seems that the bone handles are most popular.

So I get to wondering - do you have a favorite handle material? If so, do you try to buy/collect mostly in that material? I'm curious as to what drives your choice.
 
Not really a traditional fan, but I think handle material is fundamental to all knives.

something that looks good but offers good grip.

in smaller folders I seem to like fairly smooth woods like cocobolo and honduran.

larger fixed I prefer grippy micarta or the like.
 
For me, I try to match the material to the use of the knife. The more work the knife will see the harder to break I like the material to be. Setting aside micarta, FRN, G10 and stag (for its brittleness) for traditional knives that leaves a lot of ground.

I have a CASE that I bought new in '76 and carried it religiously for 10 years or so as a work knife in my jeans as a mainstay to my carpentry work. It was spared no task. The scales were a nice deep mahogany red, but are now just brown. Pin heads have popped off and the jigging is really very smooth now. But the bone never failed regardless of how or how long the knife was used. So I am good with bone.

Same with an old two bladed CASE with delrin handles that is a two bladed jack that has seen a lot of work. OK with delrin for all manner or working knives.

I have couple of wood handled folders, and the wear on the scales is pretty apparent. The wood was some kind of unstabilized rosewood on a small Kershaw folder, and while it never failed it has worn quite a bit. I dropped an old large EYE brand soddie while working one day onto a concrete floor, and a chip of the wood handle the size of a nickel popped off. I was not happy as the knife only fell about 3 feet. So no more wood on work knives.

Had great luck with the pakkawood (or whatever Buck calls their laminated wood product) wearing like iron. Waterproof, abrasion resistant, and never shrinks. Not too pretty, but the utility value is huge.

For my weekend knives where the knife will be used for light cutting, I like stag if it is pretty. I am not likely to drop one of these on the concrete or get any kind of harsh solvents on it to clean it up. Stag is just gorgeous to me and good stag is a thing of beauty. But in my experience a bit fragile except for the days I am carrying a "gentleman's knife".

I think today's stag must be different than the stag of 50s and 60s as I have my grandfather's hunting knives that have stag handles. These knives were used really hard by him for all kinds of tasks, including those not usually assigned to a knife. Yet the stag on them is hard as a rock and has worn like iron.

Robert
 
I prefer stag by a wide margin, but it's very hard to find good stag anymore. After that, ebony.
 
I actually suspect that stag continues to 'mature'/change on the knife with age!

My choice depends on what the material looks like on any given frame, Barehead/Twin bolster, shield type no shield at all. This is what is so compelling about traditionals, it's an eternal quest.

Thanks, Will
 
Depends on the knife. For fixed blades, I prefer wood. Stag and bone for most slipjoints, ivory and pearl for dressy knives. I like G10, carbon fiber, micarta, and titanium as well, but leave those for modern designs.

- Christian
 
I just buy whatever looks nice to me, be it a particular wood grain/color, or a specific bone color/jigging. Don't over-think it; just buy what makes you happy.

-Greg
 
Some interesting replies so far. I'm not over thinking this for myself - just got to wondering what folks like and the reasons behind it.

midnight flyer - I like the way you think and have the purpose of the knife drive the type of handle material choice.
 
I have a lot of trouble deciding what my favorite handle material is, I enjoy wood for its warmth and simplicity, but find the smoothness and hardness of bone appealing, not to mention all the variety in color and jigging.
I do worry more about my bone handled folders more when at work due to the concrete floor beneath me, I fear of dropping it and cracking the bone.

Delrin is probably my favorite and most trusted handle material for work, I worry a little more about solvents dissolving it, but haven't had any problems so far. I love sawcut Delrin like on old timers and bucks, don't care too much for jogged Delrin however so my choices are limited.

I don't have much experience with stag, I hate really thick stag or unevenly matched stag, so I tend to stay away from it. I have only one stag handled folder, an eye brand stockman. The stag on that one is perfect for me. Not too thick and not too thin, I hand picked it from the bunch so I don't expect another so nice.

I do like the smooth yellow synthetics like the yellow Delrin on cases and bucks, they get kind of slippery when wet, but I don't worry about dropping them and they feel nice and smooth in the hand and pocket.

I dislike g10, it's too tacky, but do love a nice smooth micarta, especially in green.
 
For me it is purely about the way it looks. It's really hard to describe, there's a "rightness" when I look at a knife. It doesn't necessarily follow logic, probably based on memories and first impressions. For example - I typically don't like wood handles on folding knives. Ebony, Rosewood, Maple, doesn't matter, they just don't seem to generate that "wow" reaction. But I find wood handles perfect on Opinels. No logic.

In general I like bone handles, preferably in the warmer earth tones - chestnuts, browns, golds, darker yellows, darker reds, burnt oranges, ambers, and tasteful well done blends of them like GECs autumn, antique yellow, rust red. Some greens work for me, but it depends on the hue. I prefer them with interesting, well implemented, and mostly fully covered jigging patterns, with the right level of "random consistency". The right color with the wrong jigging can ruin it for me, and vice versa. Every so often with the right color variation, like in some appaloosa bone, I like a smooth bone handle too.

In general while I like the looks of *some* stag, it's usually not enough to get me to pay the premium over bone. I've got a few stag-handled knives but it was more because I liked the knife pattern and the knife was priced right.

The other oddity is that I like yellow Delrin. I don't know why, it just looks right on some types of folders.

So there ya go, no logic or reason behind it. Just something clicks when I look at a knife/pattern/blade shape/handle/jigging combo, or it doesn't.
 
My first choice is Always Stag, followed by Stag, followed by Ivory. I will get Bone and synthetic materials once in a while, but they are not my favorite, did I say I would pick Stag? Steven
 
For traditionals, I have a soft spot for interesting jigging and dye. Im a huge fan of old Schrade bone so anthing that is old school looking Im into it! As of late I have branched out a bit. Smooth bone and various woods. Im still not a huge fan of stag. The covers tend to be thick, kind of have to, to accomodate the deep tecturing etc. I like the look but for pocket cary, not my first choice.

For me, lately GEC has surpassed Queen/S&M for bone jigging. I have always loved how Queen does their bone but lately GEC has passed them up. Its a great time to be into traditionals!
 
I don't think I could ever pick a favorite. I like a little bit of everything, and they all have their pros and cons. I just go with what's most appealing to me out of the available options for a specific pattern/design. It's nice to have some variety.
 
I like the way stag looks however I just got my first GEC stag knife and I'm scared to carry it. The burnt stag falls off from my fingernail scraping it. It looks good but no more for me. I like bone and ebony.
 
Edm1 said:
I like the way stag looks however I just got my first GEC stag knife and I'm scared to carry it. The burnt stag falls off from my fingernail scraping it. It looks good but no more for me. I like bone and ebony.
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My preference is for the GEC Natural Stag. Steven
 
Another reason I guess I shy from stag is that I have seen so many poorly made knives here in Alaska that use Caribou and moose antler and they are just horrible pieces of junk so I subconsciously associated horn handled anything with shoddy....and I KNOW that is incorrect.
 
For traditional pocketknives I choose handles almost entirely based on aesthetics.

Variety plays a roll too - don't want all my knives to be the same.
And I stay clear of materials that aren't authentically traditional.
 
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