Knives Made of "Recycled" Materials?

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armedninja

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Dec 7, 2012
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I know Cold Steel makes plastic knives, but a friend recently told me that he bought a knife made of farrier's rasp, to which I said, "HUH?" He enlightening me about blades made of re-purposed materials (i.e. cable Damascus).

This got me thinking, is there really a market out there of knives made of "recycled" materials, and if so, where can I buy them? Can anyone help out a newbie by providing some insight? Thanks in advance.
 
Paperstone is a material sometimes used in handles made from recycled material.
 
Himalayan Imports, with a site here at BF, would be happy to sell you a khukuri made of a motor vehicle leaf spring, and they do have a market for their khuks.
 
Weird, I just finished a knife with Paperstone handles, at the client's request... before that I'd never heard of it. It works fine.

Anyway, as for repurposed rasps/files and cable damascus, there are lots of smiths who do that. A google search will turn up all kinds of interesting stuff. Even us stock-removal guys sometimes re-temper worn files and grind them into blades.
 
All kinds of customs and such are made out of re-purposed materials.

I personally think it's cool as all hell when someone can make a nice knife out of a file, saw blade, truck spring, whatever. That's my kind of reducing, re-using, and recycling.
 
Thanks for the feedback, guys. Quite enlightening.

Is there a particular advantage or disadvantage to using re-purposed materials other than the cool factor?

And as for the different materials (e.g. farrier's rasp, cable Damascus, paperstone, etc.), does it really matter which one? As in, does one offer better attributes than another? I'm guessing no since you're just recycling whatever material you get, but thought I'd just do my newbie thing and ask. Thanks in advance!
 
Is there a particular advantage or disadvantage to using re-purposed materials other than the cool factor?
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Historical interest and novelty mostly. The environmental savings is probably minimal considering the relatively small amount of natural materials used annually in the knifemaking industry.

There used to be some low-end knives with old computer motherboards in the handles.

Here's a knife (brother made from a kit) using wood from a barn my Grandfather built.
Kit.jpg


Albuquerque is famous for the tram that goes up the North Sandia Peak. I once saw a custom knife made with cable damascus steel from the old tram cable.

Canal Street Cutlery has an entire line of knives made from salvaged American Chestnut wood.
 
Another popular source is old saws. These are all classic materials for the budding knife makers or DIYers.
 
Here's a limited edition Opinel, made from the wood leftover from a the building of a reproduction of a historic ship:

Opinel-No-8-Hermione-folding-knife-1.jpg


The handle of this "Opinel Hermione" folding knife is fabricated from scrap wood (oak) from the current building of the frigate Hermione in the old maritime arsena at Rochefort, France
The Hermione was the ship that La Fayette obtained from the French government, after his successful mission to persuade the French to help the struggling American revolutionaries. In today's port town of Rochefort, where the French Royal Navy once built its ships, there is once again a shipbuilding project. The Hermione-La Fayette Association is crafting a replica of the ship which will re-enact the voyage of Lafayette in 1780, this time crossing the Atlantic to Boston in 2009.
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As others have stated, Buck offers several models that sport Paperstone handles or scales, and the 110 and 112 Buck Ecolites are prime examples IMHO, for someone seeking a "green" knife, I'm not going to lie, I purchased mine just because I felt like it was sturdier, and not much heavier than than venerable Bucklites.
 
armedninja said:
Is there a particular advantage or disadvantage to using re-purposed materials other than the cool factor?
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A lot of makers and buyers don't really see it as a "cool factor." It's just convenient for the maker, (since they often just have the steel laying around,) and cheaper for the buyer, (because the maker didn't have to pay for the steel, or if they did, the price is less than an equal amount of new steel.)
So, the advantage for the buyer is in the price.

armedninja said:
And as for the different materials (e.g. farrier's rasp, cable Damascus, paperstone, etc.), does it really matter which one? As in, does one offer better attributes than another?
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Those are all totally different materials. Paperstone is a resin-based handle material, a Farrier's rasp is a type of file, and cable Damascus is folded steel made with old cable.
 
i own 2 anza knives and love them.the maker worked for Buck for years honing his craft until he opend anza.all his knives are treated files.
 
I've always had a thing for knives made out of old farrier's rasps when they leave just a little bit of the rasp so you can see the pattern of up close to the tang. Looks amazing.
 
If you are interested in a khukuri, Himalayan Imports has a forum here at BladeForums with a link to their website. Specials appear on that forum from time to time.

BEWARE" Khukuri Pox is highly contagious.
 
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