I can not speak to how G10/ micart preform, but I do have several years as an exotic wood worker at a famous shop in LA. So lets see if i can help you find the best handle wood.
What we are looking for:
What you want from a handle wood is a few things.
Firstly, it must be attractive. There are woods that are strong, oily and have great characteristics for handle woods, but are ugly or overly plain.
Second, it must be strong. wood's resistance to dents or dings is measured in janka rating. The number listed is the number of newtons required to force a 11.28 mill ball half way into a sample of wood. hardness is key so that the handle will remain in shape after years of use.
Third, oily. This is often overlooked as many of the high end exotic woods used are oily, but the oils in woods have several benefits. Along with slowing cracking due to drying, the oils also keep the knife sanitary. Oils in woods like rosewood or ebony actively kill foreign microbes and pathogens helping keep the handle clean.
A last characteristic is heavy. Again often overlooked, the weight of exotic woods mean they can balance out a knife while still being sleek and thin.
Now lets get to wood choices. For a first few handles, we are going to be in the resonable price range "for exotics" as well as workability.
1. Bocote. It has a beautiful figure, really unmatched by any other woods. As the contours are formed, you get another dimension of of the banding. Strong and workable.
2. Rosewood family. Cocobolo, indian, honduran, bolivian rosewood as well as kingwood are great handle woods. Strong, pretty, oily as they come and smell lovely. Make sure you have a mask though as the dusts from these are very toxic.
3. Redheart. All around a great wood. It contains an amazing depth of color, combined with great workabilty and a nice figure.
4. Ziricote. Nice workabilty, a nice dark color combined with a very complex figure often called spider webbing. Its hard to find in wide pieces as the tree has very little heart wood with a lot of white sap wood. THe sap wood can be incorperated, but you have to be careful so it does not overwhelm the work
5. Figured maple. Simply classic, its easy to work, not very heavy or hard, but certainly strong enough for average use blades.
Woods to avoid the first time.
1. Ebony. Its a classic. Hard and able to take a great shine, but ebony cracks. Its so brittle its not even really a question of if it will crack, more when.
2. Ironwood. Dont get me wrong. Ironwood is probably the best handle wood in the world. But for a first timer in making handles, its hardness can make it to much.
3. Lignum vitae. See above. Often considered the hardest wood in the world, working it takes so much time and can be such a pain it is best kept till a later time.
4. Brazillian rosewood. While there is no working reason to avoid brazillian, the fact that it is illegal to harvest makes it a morally questionable wood. I have some that i pulled out of 90 year old furniture that was being scraped, but on the whole avoid this and the possible illegal activity that brought it to the states.
5. Burl woods. The heavily interlocked grain and twists mean that burl wood is hard to work evenly and has a tendency to not go where you want it to.
6. Snakewood. One of the prettiest woods around, its extremely high price, hardness and predisposition to cracking means it should be avoided for now.
"note that the above woods are still great for handles, but i would advise against using them your FIRST time for the issues i listed"
As for where to find them, If you are in LA i could help, if not you could go on ebay, find bigmikeyc1, and tell him Ben sent you. He sells great stabalized woods and I have been using him for years. Burl source on the forum would also stock many of these woods, so he is another candidate. Search around and make sure to compare prices.
I hope this helps, if you have any questions about any woods you have heard of, feel free to ask, at least before burlsource finds this and teaches me a lesson.
