Need Your Handle Material Suggestions

[Architect]

I always have a hard time deciding on handle material as there are too many to go around and not enough money to have a knife with one of each material.

I just ordered a mini-skinner from David Manley. (2 inch blade, 4" OAL). It will be his first use of stainless damascus. Probably Devin Thomas Raindrop, but it depends on availablity. I am looking for suggestions on a handle material to best set off the damascus.

As I rarely get out camping these days due to having a year-old daughter, this particular knife will be 90% showpiece, 10%user.

My initial thoughts:

Mother of Pearl (white)
Sheephorn
Orange Osage (Bois D'Arc)
Gold Linen Micarta

I have never handled a knife with Osage, but have seen many pics. David does a lot of work with Stag, but I was thinking it would compete with the damascus for attention. Any specific thoughts on how you made a decision with a custom knife would be appreciated. Pic is from bladeart.com

 

[Joss]

Because you mention MOP, I suppose you're not esp. looking for "tough" materials. In that case, I would go for ivory above anything else. Outside of that, I'd go for a nice burled wood, ideally thuya, black hash, or even better, burled ironwood.

 

[LHKnives]

Personally I love burl, especially highly figured burls! but mamoth ivory is great, giraffe bone, Mother of pearl always looks good with damascus, sheep horn is nice stuff also. if it were me and If money wasn`t much of a problem, I`d either go with mamoth ivory, or the mother of pearl, and on the cheaper side of things, no question... amboynia burl or Thuya burl!

Just my personal opinion

 

[Boink]

KnifeArt's site is very big in very well done knives in outstanding looking materials. I personally have no experience with them - but they are there for the looking. You can see some pictures you could download and then compare with pictures of the damascus you have in mind, doing a mix and match on the computer.

 

[PhilL]

I have one knife by David Maley, a stag skinner, I picked it up at Blade 2001. He does beautiful work at a great price, and for me there would only be one choice. If he has stag, I would get stag, and trust David that it won't compete with the Damascus. I have 5 knives with stag & Damascus, but my Manley is mirror polished ATS 34.

 

[Megalobyte]

One word. Deep, blue, Mammoth Ivory...

Hmmmmm, that wasn't one word.

Something like THIS:

 

[Danbo]

For a little knife that size, I like pearl. You can get some really outstanding pieces of pearl if you dont have a big handle to put them on. Pearl is also less likely to shrink up like some woods or ivory.