Help me rate strength of handle materials

T

Thirston

Joined
Mar 14, 2011
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I'm trying to determine which handle materials will perform better than others in regards to handling the test of time.
Would you kind folks help me figure out which materials are best suited for EDC and which are best suited for "Safe Queen" cotton glove handling.

I know there are probably dozens and dozens of materials used these days but of the most common, which are closer to a 10 (stronger) and which are closer to a 1 (more fragile) on a scale?

  • Woods: Cocobolo, rosewood, ebony, etc...
  • Bone
  • Genuine antler/horn
  • Manufactured Modern Acrylics
  • Mastodon, mammoth
  • Ivory
  • Mother of Pearl
  • Tortoise Shell

Thank you all for your help.
 
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Are you limiting "manufactured Acrylics" to materials like Celluloid, Delrin and Phenolic, or does that include G10, Micarta, stabilized woods and Diamondwood that have become common on modern offerings?
 
Chris,
Is it possible to simplify this for me and make simple categories like "plastics" and "wood" or is there just too much of a spread even within same material categories?
I'm familiar with G10 (glass layers with acrylic) and Micarta (hard plastic-like substance) but I'll need to research stabilized woods and diamondwood and get back to you.
 
In the simplest terms, materials like Micarta, stabilized wood and Diamondwood (dymondwood) are often made up of natural materials like cotton canvas, laminated wood or just natural wood that is treated/impregnated with resins or epoxy like material or treated with chemicals that leave them very durable and strong but not exactly "traditional".

I guess what I'm asking is, are you looking for information on which handle materials will be the most durable today, or which materials were the most durable 50, 75, 100 years ago that are still on the collector market today?
 
Thirston said:
I'm trying to determine which handle materials will perform better than others in regards to handling the test of time.
Would you kind folks help me figure out which materials are best suited for EDC and which are best suited for "Safe Queen" cotton glove handling.

I know there are probably dozens and dozens of materials used these days but of the most common, which are closer to a 10 (stronger) and which are closer to a 1 (more fragile) on a scale?

Thank you all for your help.
Click to expand...

From durable (top) to delicate (bottom), here's how I'd rank your listed options:
  • Woods: Cocobolo, rosewood, ebony, etc... (with just a little TLC, holds up a VERY LONG time)
  • Manufactured Acrylics (some shrinkage over time, might eventually crack; laminated acrylics, like micarta/G10, much more stable AND durable)
  • Genuine antler (might crack some)
  • Bone (pretty durable, but I've seen a LOT of cracks/chips in old bone handles, especially at the pin holes)
  • Ivory (considering what it was ORIGINALLY used for, I'd think it'd hold up pretty well; might be prone to some chipping/cracking)
  • Mastodon, mammoth (fossilization might make it more brittle, but it has already held up for 10,000+ years or so; that's impressive :thumbup:)
  • Mother of Pearl (brittle)
  • Tortoise Shell (brittle)
 
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Any of the plastics or alloys thereof should be around awhile. For organics I beleive bone
to be one of the oldest things we're digging up. Stone-Meteorite ad infinitum.
Ken.
 
Well, here is my 2 cents. G10 or Micarta for everyday use. Micarta will take on moisture to some extent, and also oils. G10 in my experience will not. There are certainly examples of wood, stag, bone holding up for 100+ years. But even with safe queens, the natural material will expand and contract if you don't keep an eye on the humidity levels. I have owned, or own, all of the materials you listed. In my experience, I have had the most problems with Ivory. Mother of Pearl is a surprisingly tough/stable material in my book. Stag will shrink/expand more than bone, but stag is also more durable than bone (from a chipping/cracking standpoint).

This is just my experience. Others may have different thoughts. But I can say that I've broken scales with every type of handle material you mentioned. If you take care of your knife and properly maintain it, you won't have anything to worry about.
 
Whoah. Thank you all for your replies. I think my original question has been answered. I'm sure I'll have more as we progress.

For the purposes of the question I was only interested in modern day offerings. I guess I could have left ivory off of my list.

I'm in the process of finding myself a few newer production 'traditional' slip joint folders. I jumped in head first and recently purchased a few starter pieces, but now I'm trying to keep myself from buying knives that won't see the light of day. I like more traditional ingredients on a slippy so I might leave the G10 and micarta to black/tactical knives.
 
GEC, and some others, has been making some great traditional patterns with both traditional and modern handle materials. But I really want to try out one of Case's G10 back pockets. I typically like my slippies with traditional materials, but I'm starting to make more and more exceptions.
 
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Davids list looks pretty good to me, but I would lump bone and antler together, tortise shell with MOP and include others like abalone and other shelled animals. Looks like your list is oriented to folders but I think I would incude stacked leather, and also various metals to include Cu, Al, Ti, etc...


-Xander
 
I was thinking, with regard to mother of pearl specifically, modern versions of it might be more durable. If I'm not mistaken, most is a combination of the 'Nacre' itself (the actual 'mother-of-pearl' natural material, ground or crushed into chips or powder) and some sort of synthetic laquer/acrylic, to bind it and make it machinable and durable. Newer makes of it, I assume, would use more modern synthetics in the mix. That might make it more durable than the 'old' MOP. Same as would be expected of any of the newer synthetics; they've become more durable as their 'recipe' has evolved.
 
Stag seems somewhat more 'springy' or flexible than bone. But, as with all materials it all depends how it was treated/processed at time of manufacture.

Ebony knives certainly show good evidence of longevity. I've had poor results with Bocote (but I think the stabilization was rubbish)

G-10 and micartas must rank as major toughs. They can look very good on Traditional knives too in my opinion.

Don't know about the modern acrylics that GEC uses, they often look stunning but unsure of their durability. Probably tough as they don't scratch easily.

I suspect that anything that is tooth/tusk/horn/shell is weaker and more susceptible to shrink or flaking.

How about Abalone though?
 
ditto to obsessed with edges, might i add that horn can be attacked by some bettles & antlers can be gnawed on by rodents.--dennis
 
willgoy said:
How about Abalone though?
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I'd think it might fall into the same durability category as Mother of Pearl. As used on knife scales, it's a mix of shell and synthetic material. I'd think it'd wear similarly. I have a couple of abalone-handled folders, and the surface finish essentially looks & feels like an acrylic material, same as with my MOP-handled knives.
 
Just to point out, Mother of Pearl, and natural Abalone although brittle, are VERY stable. It's essentially a mineral, and will not expand, contract, or warp, at least to my knowledge. Just sayin' :D
 
I don't know what kind of wood it was on those old WW2 era TL-29's, but it was some very rugged stuff. My Uncle Charlie carried the same one he was issued before going on the Normandy invasion, until he was an old guy and I gave him a new one from our company supply room. Of course the new ones all had some sort of plastic. All the ones I remember from my boyhood that we got at the surplus store for something like 75 cents a pop, were all some sort of very dark wood.

I think the most indestructible scales are the delrin they put on the Schrade Old Timers and the Buck 300 series pocket knives. I put a 301 through hell for 25 years, and aside from the saw marks being worn off, and some dings, they're still all there. Synthetics seem to have an edge in longevity.

Carl.
 
Daniel Dorn said:
Just to point out, Mother of Pearl, and natural Abalone although brittle, are VERY stable. It's essentially a mineral, and will not expand, contract, or warp, at least to my knowledge. Just sayin' :D
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No argument there. Pretty much like stone, in that regard. It's the brittleness I'd be concerned about, at least with the raw material. If not stabilized in acrylic or some other synthetic, it'll break like glass if dropped.
 
jackknife said:
I don't know what kind of wood it was on those old WW2 era TL-29's, but it was some very rugged stuff. My Uncle Charlie carried the same one he was issued before going on the Normandy invasion, until he was an old guy and I gave him a new one from our company supply room. Of course the new ones all had some sort of plastic. All the ones I remember from my boyhood that we got at the surplus store for something like 75 cents a pop, were all some sort of very dark wood.

I think the most indestructible scales are the delrin they put on the Schrade Old Timers and the Buck 300 series pocket knives. I put a 301 through hell for 25 years, and aside from the saw marks being worn off, and some dings, they're still all there. Synthetics seem to have an edge in longevity.

Carl.
Click to expand...

Delrin is the best example, I think, of the improvements made in synthetics over the years. It's been through a whole bunch of recipe tweaks, and there are different variations of it, depending upon the intended application. As used in the Schrades, Camillus and Bucks (and Case too, I think), there's a certain 'softness' to it. Makes it scratch easily, but also helps to keep it from cracking, even on some of the older knives. That softness also makes it very easy to polish & buff out the scratches. Maybe shrinks a little bit, but seems to avoid getting brittle over time, unlike some other plastics.
 
I prefer natural handle material with stag at the top of the list.With very little ordinary care it holds up very well.But id have to say G-10 is the toughest, most durable material ive ever used or had experience with.It dulls saw blades quickly and hammers hate it!:)Properly stabilized wood ,especially the burls are also super hard and tough.Modern plastics and delrin are very durable,i just dont like them.
 
A friend of mine grew up with an ivory handled carving set, a family heirloom. (This was before the ivory ban.) His parents were away. He made some roast beef and cut himself a serving. Then he put the roast in a warming oven, leaving the knife and fork with the meat. The next time he checked, the ivory grips were falling apart.

That’s probably one reason Randall Knives gave up on using ivory, a “beautiful but unstable material”.
 
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