How resistant is Stag to every day use

D

DocGP

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Feb 22, 2009
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I have fallen in love with Stag handle knives, and have a couple of Sambar Stag handles in my collection. How resistant is stag to every day bumps and bruises? Blood stains? Any problem as an EDC knife?

Doc
 
I carry a Stag Peanut in my watch pocket it shares the space with my spare change. I don’t notice that its any more or less beat up then the day I bought it.
 
Stag is a reasonably durable handle material. By that I mean that it's not Micarta or carbon fiber, so you have to "baby" it a little. But only a little.

I agree that it's about equally as durable as bone, and far less delicate than ivory. All three are prone to cracking (ivory much more so than stag or bone). What seems to trigger cracking is a drastic change in temperature, humidity, and even atmospheric pressure. Try to insulate them a bit from these sorts of changes (keeping them close to your body is a big help). This can mean coming into a warm house from freezing temperatures outside; it can also mean walking into an air-conditioned building when the temperature is 100 outside.

Humidity is stag's friend. Very dry air is its enemy. I know serious collectors who keep their stag knives in humidors for this reason.

The best preventative medicine for all of the above? Coat them down with a light coat of mineral oil three or four times a year, particularly during the change of seasons. This will accelerate the normal yellowing of the stag which comes to all stag knives with age, but that's going to happen anyway sooner or later, and it does seem to work.

If you do get a serious crack and decide you just can't stand it, I've known people who have taken their knives to dentists to have them repair the crack with dental amalgam, just like filling teeth. Obviously, this is too expensive for all but the most valuable knives.

To sum things up, exercise a little care and you should be fine. They're not indestructible, but the enjoyment of carrying a beautiful stag knife more than makes up for the slight chance of encountering a problem.
 
I got a stag-handled Puma that has seen 25+ years of use and it has held up great. It's purely used for cleaning game. However it has spent its whole life down here in South Texas and if there's one thing we have plenty of it's humidity. I never thought there would be a benefit to it, maybe I should buy more stag knives. ;)
 
I have an older Puma Duke that was my EDC for almost 20 years. Other than turning a bit yellow, the handle does not show any wear. For a natural material, stag is quite tough. IMO, you'd have to go with Micarta or G10 to get anything tougher.
 
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