Sorry gentleman but I really find it hard to believe the lack of materials knowledge as far in this wood & leather vs composite debate so I had to put this together..This is really plain as day...Just because something works for you or for ancient tribes with no other options doesnt mean it is the best..Advances in materials and products happen for a reason...But I guess you non-believers are still using your green screen apple computers to do all your online knife buying...And carrying brick sized beepers...
No, what you have been overlooking is that many of us found your dismissal of wood and leather, as used for an outdoors knife, overblown. It's not an either/or thing with me. I have a slew of wooden handled puukkos with leather sheaths. I also have a boatload of plastic handled Moras with plastic sheaths that won't rot after centuries in a landfill, a RC-4, and a RC-6, with eventually failure prone from UV damage nylon MOLLE backers, and a Skookum Bush Tool in CPM3V that has micarta slabs, a full tang, but this next to indestructible knife is saddled with a "weak" leather sheath that happens to be pretty damned tough and waterproofed.
Do a general materials tensile and elastic strength comparison..Then find out about impact strength over varying thicknesses of these different materials..In your searches you will find that wood requires a much thicker overall size to compare to the strength of certain composites..Wood also is a varying resistance material and does not hold the same qualities day to day with varying weather conditions and changes..Wood also has the ability to warp and expand/contract with frequent temperature and humidity changes..With wood you are also relying on the natural grain layout that because of nature is not a repeated consistent pattern.. Inconsistent pattern and grain consistency lead to weak spots and can result in unseen failure..
All of this is true. It is also true that in "northern" knives from which the admittedly overpriced Helle Temagami draw much of its design influence has worked with arctic curly birch for centuries. That natural material is tightly grained yet elastic enough, so as far as woods go, it's pretty bomb proof, especially when a stick tanged blade is put through it and peened over at the pommel. Sometimes, having "no choice" in the wood used by a culture turns into a happy coincidence of having on hand the best natural material one could have hoped for in regards to the application.
I have been building wood recurve and long bows by hand for over 10 years now since a teenager as a hobby..Have been working with composite bow materials for about 8 years..I also make gunstocks and grips from exotic hardwoods for firearms and custom air guns..I have computer programs to layout the appropriate planing thicknesses and overall tapering requirements for each variety of wood when building a bow..The difference between a solid wood bow a fiberglass backed style and a laminate are staggering..The transition to composites used in modern compound bows are even greater in overall numbers...Doing things not even imaginable with wood..These same rules and numbers transfer to woods use in knife handles and anything else....Pretty much every "Hard Use" firearm I can think of besides the 3rd world friendly AK uses composite grips and stocks over wood as well...
I agree with you that in high stress applications like bows and in accuracy demanding applications as in rifles, that wood has largely been surpassed in everything but the looks department. However, I do not agree that "the same numbers" translate into knife handles. The knife handle sees nothing like the flexing stresses placed upon a bow, nor do they generally sport the sort of length a rifle stock does that makes the stock more likely to warp in changing environmental conditions.
That is why I think you were asked what "hard use" is. It's not like people are summoning up the hand strength to shear their wooden knife handles off of hidden tang knives everyday. Micarta holds up better to
cosmetic insults than when nice wood takes a ding, but even in slab sided construction, the same forces that would take the wooden slabs away from their epoxy and crack them around the bolt holes, is probably going to screw up a synthetic handled knife too. It's not as if micarta and the like are indestructible.
As regards water, I am not aware of any wooden handled knife left "in the raw" where total immersion is going to even impart significant moisture to the handle. They are all deeply penetrated by various oils and the guy who knows how to maintain such a knife doesn't allow the oils to dry out. Just like one does not put wooden handled knives in the dishwasher, one does not stand idly by as the handle loses its waterproofing. One reapplies a conditioning treatment to it, same as with leather.
Leather has also been upstaged by the invention of composites in knife sheaths, holster,shoe soles, belts, air pistons and tons general purpose gear..I dont know of to many police officers, military operators or professional shooters that still use or are issued a leather holster....
Leather still has its place in many applications. It is still the standard sole on dress shoes. Many folks, say as in the EESE community, ditch the kydex for leather oddly enough. High quality gun belts are still made of leather and so too are most concealment holsters. You are conflating the suitability of a material to a particular purpose and the convenience of having gear that is more amenable to neglect. Leather serves just as admirably as wood does in knife applications, from handles to sheaths, but it demands more attention from its owner than plastics do. Whether one wants to take on that level of responsibility is really why leather has been supplanted in many of the applications you described.
When in doubt look to what the military and LEO community is using...Millions and billions of dollars are spent in R&D and testing of products...Way more than a guy on youtube with a knife and a 3" sapling can prove...If tomorrow every set of boots with a gun has a Les Stroud knife issued I will change my mind..But I carried a ESEE 4 in kydex with G10 scales and that never died for five years in Iraq and Afghanistan....Carried a composite and aluminium primary weapon...And a synthetic polymer back up in a kydex holster..I dont remember ever seeing a single wood handled leather sheath
anything being issued or carried by one of our boys...But the bad guys in the mountains and caves had outdated wood and leather tools..Because of their advancements thats all they have...Maybe thats why I made it home and they didnt...
You can bet somewhere in theater someone was carrying an old school polished leather washer handled Randall. Yes, the military and and most police
issue nothing that is wood or leather as duty gear anymore, but I don't look to that community for cues on anything as regards what I prefer to take care of. They are in the business of assuming that the soldier will abuse or neglect his equipment rather than give it the attention it may otherwise deserve because that is the nature of "community property." If I might be charged for the loss or damage to my holster, I certainly want some Bianchi nylon contraption than one of those old school black or brown polished leather flap holsters. That said, such a holster can and has been made to campaign without falling apart, even in the jungle. One just can't neglect maintaining it.
In fact, why are you carrying an old school 1095 carbon steel blade into harm's way when stainless has, without doubt, proven more resistant to environmental degradation to its edge?
The numbers don't lie after all.
Didnt mean to go on since I just started with an opinion on my thoughts of a knife..Dont know why people made it personal over my views...But people that dont know me making inorrect claims about both my experience and proven scientific facts sometimes need things spelled out for them..Hope this can be taken maturely and not personally....I love wood and the way it looks as much as the next guy...Looks wise I would take a beautiful burl section of Muminga on my knife handle or gunstock any day over composite ..But facts are facts boys..Numbers unfortunately dont lie...
It was your dismissive attitude towards "traditional materials" that got you embroiled in this little "controversy." Your "numbers" and appreciation of synthetic materials in no way diminishes the fact that guys who know how to take care of their stuff can totally make wood, leather--and bone, horn, and antler--work while lasting a lifetime of field use to boot.
