Has anyone had luck with leather scaled handles?

[Truelove]

I've been thinking deep thoughts on using thick cow leather scales for a knife's handle held with epoxy and rivets, but I know how slick leather can be when wet. Has anyone had good success with this? Any good finishes to use? Tricks-of-the-trade to share? How about rawhide? Stingray skin? Pics?
Thanks for any insight!

 

[Hankins]

Period knives and throwers would work...
Stacked leather has been used since the begining. This material has a limited life as a handle material. You will need to do some serious testing to preserve the handle integrity. Mainly keeping moisture away from the tang!!!

 

[J. Doyle]

Rick Marchand makes some SWEET blades with leather scales for handles. Does a really nice job of it too.

I'll bet he'll chime in with photos if we're lucky.

 

[STR]

I used leather once just this year just trying to play around in the shop with some of the textured titanium plate I had. It turned out pretty well. The customer that bought the knife said he bought it for the leather and the uniqueness of it so I guess in that respect it was a success. I've made overscales on this model folder for a while now as an option. The leather was textured basically by using the textured titanium plate and the imprint it left in the leather did add enough grip to give the thumb a bit better purchase of the handle to extract the folder from the pocket. I thought it looked pretty good too. :thumbup: http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=732000

STR