Is mother of pearl a fragile knife handle material?

robertj298 said:
Just by looking at it seems it would break easily.
Click to expand...

If you use the Search function, you can probably find some prior discussion on this subject :thumbsup:

I have a lot of old MOP-handled knives, and have been surprised how resilient a material it is, compared to what I would have thought. I regularly find examples of around 100 years old with intact MOP handles, even though the knives have clearly been used hard, and may even have broken blades. It will chip or crack if you drop it on a hard surface from a height, but the same can be true of bone. For use on a penknife, it's a reasonable choice, and certainly tough enough for pocket carry. Certainly not a tough handle material, but not as fragile as many people suppose, I don't think :thumbsup:
 
I don't know if it's subject to humidity changes like Horn or less, Stag can be? It used to appear on fruit-knives with silver blades or more Gents orientated or dainty styles of pocket knives, always expensive. I can't say I like it or understand its allure really.
 
Fragile before mounted. Not so much after, I think.

Look at all the 75 - 100 plus year old knives with undamaged original MOP covers.
I suspect it were fragile after mounting, there wouldn't be near as well many used up/"sharpened to a toothpick" old knives with undamaged original MOP covers.
It probably would not have been such a popular cover material on all types of knives back in the day, either.

I may be mistaken, but that is my thought... :)
 
I've seen a lot of cracked MOP covers on old knives. Often at the backspring pin. Cheaper MOP knives are glued w/o pins through the pearl.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top