Questions about yellow delrin

[MunroClansman]

I just bought a few knives with plastic yellow handles and it got me wondering about their history. A while browsing google has not yielded much so I thought I would ask here.

How far back do synthetic handles (specifically the yellow ones) date?
Was yellow plastic the first synthetic material commonly used on knives? If not why has it survived so well?
What was the first company to use this handle material?

And any other historical information that any of you might know. Thanks in advance!

 

[Obsessed with Edges]

I'm pretty sure Case has used yellow 'composition' handles as far back as the 'Tested' era (1920-1940). That material wasn't actually Delrin, which Case first used in 1967 on the black-handled Sod Buster (pattern 2138). 'Delrin' specifically, as named and trademarked by DuPont, wasn't invented until sometime in the 1950s.


David

 

[Humppa]

Here´s an interessting article about Delrin itself. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyoxymethylene

Maybe it can help you a little bit.

 

[knarfeng]

Synthetics go back to the 19th century. Try looking up "celluloid", which was one of the earliest plastics.

Yellow would not have been the first color used.

"Black composition" handles became prevalent during WW II due to material shortages. Gutta-percha, while derived from trees, has similar properties and was used for such things as handles in the 19th century.

Edited to add:
I dare say yellow remains an available color because it is still very useful for an outdoorsman to have a knife which stands out against the background when he lays it down for a moment while working. The yellow color makes it easier to find most of the time.

 

[coffeecup]

I dare say yellow remains an available color because it is still very useful for an outdoorsman to have a knife which stands out against the background when he lays it down for a moment while working. The yellow color makes it easier to find most of the time.

This may have been a regional preference: where I grew up a yellow-handled knife would disappear in the dried grass. This wasn't just a high plains problem either: I have a Schrade 293Y that was found in the spot where my father lost his knife field-dressing a moose a couple years earlier.

Some of the old-timers back home referred to them as "girls' knives" (because a girl likely wouldn't be out in the field where they would be lost). The only exception was fishing knives (usually referred to as "toothpicks").

For whatever reason, I seldom saw them at estate sales etc while growing up.

 

[edbeau]

Yellow Delrin was used by Imperial for its Frontier series in 1976 only.