Is Kirinite beautiful, just ok, or ugly

Stand Straight

Stand Straight

Joined
Oct 11, 2013
Messages
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Here's some pics of my first and only custom knife done to perfection by BellaBlades. Matt, you did a 10.
IMO the kirinite is a 7 on a 10 scale for beauty; a 5 for grippability; I think it is rated high for workability. Certainly smooth in texture. I don't think my next custom will be in kirinite. I want some variation.
How do you judge it?





 
Its all three. It can look amazing as it does here or cheap and ugly. This knife looks terrific imho.
 
Quite frankly, it reminds me of "mother of toilet seat".
 
I like it, there are some colors I don't like tho. Your Manix looks fantastic :thumbup:
 
While the fit and finish appear to be top notch, the Kirinite just doesnt do anything for me. Never been a fan. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and to me Kirinite is no beauty. Guady, maybe. Purdy, not to me.
 
Lol, I will say kirinite can be harder to work due to it can be brittle if you do not use a sharp drill and bore. G10 and Micarta, I make far fewer mistakes. Alot of kirinite looks cheap. If you put the time into it. It can do amazing things. I am only a fan of the toxic,lava and desert. But it has been crazy popular. 50% of my handle requests are for kirinite. That said a kirinite handle will take me about 10% longer than other materials. It sure is easier on the router table and band saw tho. It has to work as whole unit. Without the polished liners, it would not look as matched as it does in hand. Both the lava and desert will pop with a black blade as well.
 
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It has good workabiility, but a lot of handle materials do these days. lol @ "mother of toilet seat" - that was always my problem with it. I remember seeing a set of custom scales a few years ago that was the blue/yellow kirinite on a knifemaking website, and I loved the looks of it in an online picture; I ordered some to do a knife in and it just looked so cheap in hand. I still have it somewhere.

I have saw Bella Blade's kirinite though, and I think he picks the best patterns to use. For the knives I have saw from him in kirinite, I think it's at least an acceptable material choice for the knife. He does some very good work as well, and any scale material is 10x better when it is finished properly and form fitted to the knife at a very high level of finish. For example, I'm really digging the desert kirinite and your Manix. I also like the lava sometimes (I would love to see it on a Spyderco PM2 with a PVD coated blade). If I were to do a knife in Kirinite, I think I would probably send it to Bella Blades for his proven touch. There are just so many other things I would want to invest in, even though I sometimes find it attractive it's pretty far down on my list of things I just gotta have.
 
I haven't seen it in person, but every time I see a picture, I think of a bowling ball.
 
I have a custom that has kirinite scales and it looks great, my fear is that it will get scratched up very soon. Every time I carry it more appear. Russ
 
Quite Frankly, that is a great idea. How would you like my first custom " Glow in the dark Kirinite Toilet Seat" on the house? That is after my knife career kicks off though.

james terrio said:
Quite frankly, it reminds me of "mother of toilet seat".
Click to expand...
 
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BellaBlades said:
Quite Frankly, that is a great idea. How would you like my first custom " Glow in the dark Kirinite Toilet Seat" on the house? That is after my knife career kicks off though.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I'm sure it will be quite a collector's item :)
 
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