opinions on micarta handles

[ricky43]

i haven't owned a knife with micarta handles, but it seems like many of the new knives i've been looking at have micarta handles, like the ontario rat-7. can anyone with personal experience with micrata handles tell me their plus and minuses? thanks

 

[sceva]

Micarta is a great handle, especially on a user. It is almost indestructable, comes in many varieties and / or colors & patterns, is fairly non-slip, and looks great. It is very stable and won't shrink or swell to any large extent.

sceva

 

[brewthunda]

i haven't owned a knife with micarta handles, but it seems like many of the new knives i've been looking at have micarta handles, like the ontario rat-7. can anyone with personal experience with micrata handles tell me their plus and minuses? thanks

Micarta is great. It has an organic warmth to it that's similar to bone. It can be polished to a high shine or left rough for a field-style knife with lots of grip. When it gets wet, it gets grippier. It's made with paper, linen or canvas - and depending on the material will display different paterns when shaped - usually the look is similar to wood. It feels denser than G10, so you don't get that plastic-like feel of G10 or FRN or Zytel. It also is arguably safer to sand than carbon fiber or G-10, since you're not breathing glass.

The drawbacks are that it's more expensive than plastic, it absorbs a minute amount of fluid when wet (but dries quickly) and is slightly heavier than other materials.

I'm a micarta junky and go out of my way to look for micarta knives.