Most durable handle material

P

Primordial

Joined
Jul 8, 2013
Messages
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Hi all, after much tinkering around with mild steel/lawn mower blades and the like, I've started planning my first serious knife. It'll be used for camping and other outdoor tasks, so I want it to be as durable as possible. I've read that certain hardwoods (the nearly legendary lignum vitae) and canvas micarta were both extremely durable. Any opinions/suggestions for other materials?

Thanks,

Matt
 
Fulltang?

Very hard (Shore A 90 and up) polyurethane rubbers are very durable. Might be not so nice looking though.

Paracord handles are sort of durable too, and serve as an emergency thread storage.
 
Primordial said:
Hi all, after much tinkering around with mild steel/lawn mower blades and the like, I've started planning my first serious knife. It'll be used for camping and other outdoor tasks, so I want it to be as durable as possible. I've read that certain hardwoods (the nearly legendary lignum vitae) and canvas micarta were both extremely durable. Any opinions/suggestions for other materials?

Thanks,

Matt
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Most durable handle material is steel. It's not the prettiest or the stickiest but you're asking about the most durable, period. And it's steel, period.
 
If you are making it out of lawnmower blades and you want the knife bullet proof and tough then get some horse stall mat material and make handles out of it.

You will beat the shit out of that knife outdoors and it will take the abuse
 
For a cheap material diamond wood or pakkawood. Very tough and at a good price. If using I would use the sold colors like walnut . There are others and great price.
 
I would say for durability canvas micarta or some G10 should do what you want while still looking good. If you want grip, durability and comfort with a bit less beauty, I think horse stall mat would be hard to beat.
 
Thanks for all the advice guys! Yes, it will be full tang for sure. AVigil, this one will hopefully be made out of better steel than lawnmower blades, but the horse stall mat idea is intriguing, I'll look into it. This was exactly what I was looking for, this one is purely functional and aesthetics are taking a bit of a backseat (or at least that's what I'm saying now so it doesn't look too bad when it's eventually finished, haha).
 
Solid Diamond.


Seriously, put your money where your mouth is, or stop worrying about it. :p

People are so concerned with having the "most durable this, bomb proof that, blah blah blah", when the vast majority of the materials most people are using are about 1000x more durable than necessary. Any synthetic composite materials, are practically indestructible for all reasonable, and most unreasonable *knife* tasks.

Here's a hint: If you break it, using *real* knife steel, and reasonable handle materials, it's a maker error, material flaw, or egregious abuse.


P.S. hope you take this in the way it was intended, which is; "sarcastic as hell, but keep'in it real" ;)
 
MOST durable, BEST steel, HARDEST edge....are all nearly useless terms. There is no empirical best of any knife material. They all have realms where the excel, and places where they are not the best choice.

For a TOUGH handle and blade for a camp knife, use 5160 and canvas Micarta. You can certainly spend more on the steel and go with something like 3V, and make the handle out of the latest G10/11 laminates or Texalium....but the increase in durability will be small for the increase in cost and difficulty in making the knife.
 
AttilaTheHun said:
Most durable handle material is steel. It's not the prettiest or the stickiest but you're asking about the most durable, period. And it's steel, period.
Click to expand...

Carbon steel wouldn't hold up to the oil/sweat from your hands and would rust horribly. You can buy a 304 stainless handle from USAKnifeMaker. It's an awesome looking hollow handle for a survival knife. Early on I made a knife with a titanium handle. Much more durable than steel, being that it won't rust or corrode. Anodized titanium can be very pretty.

As far as regular handle material goes, I think kirinite is one of the better materials for looks AND toughness. I talked to the manufacturer and tried to convince him that we need solid matte colors for knives, not just the shiny multicolored pearl looking stuff.
 
Lignum vitae is a really hard wood but it has a tendency to crack
 
Ok, thanks again guys. Don't worry javand, I took that exactly as intended haha, good advice which I'm sure my tools will thank you for while they're cutting rubber or micarta rather than hardwood or diamond ;)
 
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