Knife handle

tough question... leather is more durable in the sense that it won't crack and fail in any spectacular way, but it will degrade over time and use

a good ironwood is very tough, and will last a very long time
any stabilized wood is maybe even tougher, since it is usually done with epoxy (confirm this point) which is stronger than wood... but at that point you're touching epoxy and imho losing the real allure of wood (and also no longer using a purely natural material)

 

I'd really go with micarta, terotuff or busse's res-c for a chopper

 

I vote for Ironwood.

 

Stacked leather treated with SnowSeal will stand up to decades of hard use.

 

Black or brown leather? It matters.

 

Trouble maker.

 

I would go with Ebony or Ironwood

 

Seriously, the black or brown leather thing is gonna be like Bladeforums' version of the "pommel throwing" meme.

 

I voted for the less hard wood (trying not to make trouble here too) as I really like the stabilized Box Elder Burl/Maple type handles.

As for the leather, just looking out for all of our members

 

I used osage iron on this one, (a modified Western W49 ), which is reputed to be very strong and stable. I like the way the color mellows with time and sunlight. This handle will turn a mellow brown in time.

 

Unless you're going to seriously abuse the handle, you can use any of the options that you are thinking of. I'd worry more about the skill of the knife maker than the scale material.

The only chopper handle that failed on me was the result of the maker drilling holes in the tang too close to the ricasso, allowing a flex that caused the scales to separate from the tang.

Of your options, I'd go with Grade A desert ironwood. If you're worried about breaking or damaging properly mounted desert ironwood scales on a full-tang knife, you'll want to choose something synthetic. A good knife maker will know how to select and mount scales that will last you a lifetime.

The leather scales might soak up some of the vibrations from chopping better than harder materials, but your tang will also be weaker.

In any event, if your scales fail on a full-tang knife, you can easily rehandle it.

 

Grip? Water? Hope you have some strong phalanges around that slippery wood.

Very serious.

 

Ironwood/stabilized wood = durability.
Leather = gripability for xx years.

I'd honestly go with the previous recs of Terotuf (not pretty and so grippy that dirt n grime can stick to it during use) or Micarta canvas. I realize it goes against the natural material idea, but it's coherent when one looks at the choppers being produced by sought after makers.

I've read threads where people say elder and maple are susceptible to splitting, but in the same threads others swear by maple for axe handles. I've never split a wooden handle unless I accidentally struck the wood itself.

That's about all I got. Good luck.

 

I vote stacked leather, way better shock resistance than wood and better long term durability if treated properly.

 

what about bone or antler?

 

A little amazed no one has asked "In what application"?
Don't care what wood you use, on a diver's knife knife they will all go to hell pretty quick. Wet environments would have a similar, if slower affect. What if you are EDC'ing in an industrial environment? Exposure to solvents, acids and other caustic materials can ruin a handle quick. What about lots of sun exposure?
Then there is the "Bushcraft" crowd and their love of batoning firewood. Clobber the knife on the handle instead of the spine and boom, there goes a chunk of what used to be a nice handle.

So how about it? Do I get the second "trouble maker" to be awarded in this thread? lol

 

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The Busse Basic 11 and Basic 13 Bolo are "stick" tangs, and they hold up to abuse just fine... Hell, one guy hit one with his ride on mower and shot it over 20' and it just needed a sharpening and a new handle since the Res-C took some dings in the process. He was going to keep it as it was since they were not that bad (the Res-C), but since the folks at Busse liked the story so much, they wanted to check it out in person.

If done correctly, a stick tang shouldn't be much weaker than a full tang. If you do manage to damage it, you were likely using it hard enough to damage a full tang.