I make 100 or more oyster knives every year. Currently I am in negotiations for supplying them to a local oyster bar for selling to customers as souvenirs. More on that soon, I hope.
I have learned that pretty handles sell oyster knives, but the wood needs to be solid and non-absorbent. Redwood and Buckeye burl looks great, but will absorb and retain a lot of stuff from the oysters that won't come out. The knife would get stinky and unsanitary fast. Add to that the problem of most burl not being happy with being in continuous contact with water, and washing repeatedly. One trip through the dishwasher can ruin a burl handle.
The woods I have settled on are mainly hard and solid ones that work well in the kitchen. Olivewood, hard maple, bocote, cocobolo, black and white ebony, macasser ebony, African blackwood, persimmon, and Micarta are the ones that have held up. With the exception of cocobola and Micarta, all the wood gets stabilized. I make some in pretty burl woods for folks who want the knife for the looks, and won't really use it much. For those who really use these knives, canvas Micarta is the number one choice.
As to the handle....simple work best. Unless everyone in the world decides to have an oyster shucking convention and determine that only one grip style will be allowed, the handle needs to be versatile enough to allow the different grips used. A somewhat straight or a bulbous handle seems the most favored shapes. The one you made looks nice, but would be a task to manufacture in quantity and still sell the knives for $30-40. I also would expect the shoulders on the ricasso end to get damaged fast. Smooth curves and no corners or edges on the handle works best when a tool is used repeatedly.
As to adding the bottle opener on the handle butt...it does look cool. However there is always a tradeoff when you take two different tools and try and combine them into one. Remember those combo tools you used to get for Christmas....bet they never got used much.
The opener will be dirty if you are shucking oysters. Since I eat em' raw, I wouldn't care if mud , salt water, and oyster juices were on the mouth of my beer bottle...but some folks might not think that was appetizing ( or safe).
