Meerschaum knife handle / pommel

[St33L]

Just wondering if anyone's done a meerschaum knife handle, with the same material used to make meerschaum pipes.

I was thinking you could carve out a bust of, say, Einstein with his tongue sticking out, and put it on the pommel. Then, the same wood used on the pipe can be used for the handle.

Maybe the meerschaum is too brittle? But, meerschaum pipes are meant to be handled often, so maybe that's not an issue. Just some random thoughts.

Random meerschaum pipe image.

 

[Bhamster]

Meerschaum varies a great deal. It can be very fragile or less so. It is magnesium silicate and pretty soft in general. It is just not durable enough to be used for a knife handle on a knife that would actually be used.

 

[leghog]

Even if from natural block form vs. "reconstituted" pulverized form, I wouldn't buy a knife with a meerschaum handle. Bring it in from the cold to the warm indoors or the other way around, and it'll crack sooner or later. Drop it, and it'll most likely fracture. It's also super easy to scratch as it is only 2 on Moh's hardness scale. Definitely not a material I'd want on a knife.

As for handling meerschaum pipes, they need to be handled with a gloved hand or with a rag in hand so as not to transfer the oils of the hand from the hand to the meerschaum.

Just not a good material for knife handles.

 

[St33L]

Even if from natural block form vs. "reconstituted" pulverized form, I wouldn't buy a knife with a meerschaum handle. Bring it in from the cold to the warm indoors or the other way around, and it'll crack sooner or later. Drop it, and it'll most likely fracture. It's also super easy to scratch as it is only 2 on Moh's hardness scale. Definitely not a material I'd want on a knife.

As for handling meerschaum pipes, they need to be handled with a gloved hand or with a rag in hand so as not to transfer the oils of the hand from the hand to the meerschaum.

Just not a good material for knife handles.

Yeah, that makes sense and I was thinking it would crack easily. I guess it would have to be a wood carving, ivory, bone, or the likes instead of meerschaum.