Scale choice in a working knife - natural materials only

Sid, don't forget ram's horn for a fixed blade, either!

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For work knives, or any knife that would see rough use, I prefer Wood or Delrin handle cover material.
Since you prefer "natural" materials, I would have to narrow it down to wood. Ebony and Rosewood are both nice.
This African Rosewood Lambsfoot fell from an 8 foot ladder onto concrete and barely had a scratch. "Tough as Nails" as they would say.
 
JohnDF said:
For work knives, or any knife that would see rough use, I prefer Wood or Delrin handle cover material.
Since you prefer "natural" materials, I would have to narrow it down to wood. Ebony and Rosewood are both nice.
This African Rosewood Lambsfoot fell from an 8 foot ladder onto concrete and barely had a scratch. "Tough as Nails" as they would say.
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Arthur Wright seems to make good 'working knives' so, I'm not overly surprised. If the Rosewood will take that kind of impact, it must be a solid choice in a working knife.

Hmmm, Lambsfoot in Ebony or Rosewood ... tempting!
 
For a worker/beater, I would get a decent stabilized wood, but not a real high end pricey type.
 
High quality Stag or Ebony, black paper micarta looks very close to ebony. I prefer micarta for my knives, even the Bose.
 
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OP, I'm a fixed blade maker that almost exclusively uses natural handle materials. I've made many thousands of knives that are used very hard as working cowboys/ranchers etc are my market. I also back my knives and will fix them if ya break em. The number one handle material that I've seen needed fixing is smooth camel bone, (4 or 5 out of several hundred). Enough that I'm working with a stabilized camel bone now and so far so good. Second has been jigged bone but thats been two or three out of probably a couple thousand. One was dropped on a tile floor and another had kind of a cool story. Belonged to a charter fishing boat Capt down in FL. Had a line break, the fishing rod snapped back and smacked the handle of his sheathed knife and knocked a big chip off of it. This guy doesn't care, I fixed it for him and have made him probably 20 of the same knife always with the yellow jigged bone handle.

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Heck even made him the only machete I've ever made but he went with yellow G10 on that.

My most popular single handle material is sheep/rams horn. I have never repaired one that I can recall. Thats out of several thousands of knives. Sheep horn is very grippy and its not just the texture that gives you this. Smooth sheep horn will get more grippy when wet too, its just a characteristic of sheep horn. From a knife making standpoint it does have a tendency of wanting to go back to being curved. The darker Himalayan Rams horn has less of this tendency. Merino sheep horn:

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Himalayan Rams horn:

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Buffalo horn, I've repaired several with the scales wanting to lift. Fact I've pretty much quit using it for some years now. I use to use it so much I was importing it from India myself. Nowadays I'll only use it with Loveless bolts or Corby bolts. Tough stuff though I don't ever recall one breaking. I just finished re handling one of my ancient history knives, I mean old, and pretty crude, looked like Freddy Flintstone made it. It had buffalo horn scales that were separating from the tang. Replaced them with sheep horn for the guy.

Woods. I've used lots of different woods and I don't recall ever repairing one except one ironwood one that had cracked. Pure durability I like cocobolo, a rosewood.

I've made thousands of knives with Sambar and now probably the last decade, strictly American Elk. I have never had an antler handled knife break that I know of. Sambar was the preferred antler for a long time because it had a single vein hole down the center of the antler whereas our elk or your red deer have a lot of pith. Doesn't matter really though because the exterior is the same as far as hardness and durability and I cut the pith off while making scales. Done correctly there is no difference between Sambar, Red Deer or Elk. Lots of folks say that Sambar has better color but its been dyed. They use Potassium Permanganate as a disinfectant and a bye product of this treatment is the color. I do the same with my elk. Meanwhile part of the problem with getting the really "good" sambar is that this particular species has been interbreeding with other species and the sheds are not so solid anymore. They are having alot more pith in them too. Pith on an Elk shed:

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But I cut four scales off of that:

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After the PP treatment:

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Sambar. I can't tell the difference:

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And there is none practically. Anyhoo thats my experience regarding durability in natural materials. I certainly wouldn't discount stabilized woods either. Sometimes the best of both worlds and way more soul than micarta or G10:

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Sid Post said:
G10 I run 'hot and cold' on depending on the specific item and the scale finish. I do generally prefer Micarta if that's an option. In the European slip-joint knives I'm looking at, those aren't options. The other slick colorful synthetics don't generally appeal to me now because they don't seem to last in my pocket or in my uses. Plus they seem a bit 'slick' most of the time which isn't too dangerous with a dull blade but, on a freshly sharpened one is something I want to avoid.
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Personally i stick to Sheffield made knives with bone or wood scales but have you looked at the Maserin scout, Italian made, D2 steel Micarta scales - runs at about £40
 
I have considered the Maserin Plow model which is similar and in the Sodbuster tradition. I think it may be exclusive to the USA with its longer blade length. Manly has one I've looked at before too, think its called the Compadre and in the Sodbuster tradition.

It sounds like Ram's horn would be a good option if I luck out and find one on eBay or a vendor site otherwise, the wood options are probably best. Dave definitely has my attention with the other scale options if I move away from traditional old school "German or Sheffield" slip-joints.
 
Sid Post said:
I don't see European slip-joints, at least in my patterns and price ranges in Micarta. If I did, I'd already own them! :)
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I don't know what your budget is, but you could watch for Enigma knives. They make them in small batches so it is hard to find one available, but they are really good knives. They use M390 and US2000MC for the blades (I love the US2000MC). For scales they use a variety of woods and synthetics. I got this micarta model recently:
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Thanks Dave! Interesting thread.

I'm in a Farming and Ranching environment mainly but, I also camp and hike. Texas knife laws recently changed for the better so, carrying a fixed blade in the larger town about 30 miles away doesn't attract as much unwanted attention now.

Open carry pistol, OK. ~5" fixed blade, you must be a psycho. :confused:

If they saw me with a suppressor which I use on feral hog hunts, they would probably think I'm a Mafia hitman. Not really, I'm just at war with feral hogs destroying my pasture.

Feral hogs are really hard on a knife's edge too! Between bristles and sand/mud, slitting their throats will really destroy an edge.
 
Wood or bone. Here's a knife that has been our family for almost 100 years. Used every day and washed in soap and water. Never had oil put on the scales - enough of that just from everyday use. Used hard and sometimes put away wet. To quote John Cameron Swayze "It takes a lickn' and keeps on tickn' " Oak handle, I think. Wood grain is raised due to all the washing and provides great grip. :D:D:D:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:
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Sid Post said:
Thanks Dave! Interesting thread.

I'm in a Farming and Ranching environment mainly but, I also camp and hike. Texas knife laws recently changed for the better so, carrying a fixed blade in the larger town about 30 miles away doesn't attract as much unwanted attention now.

Open carry pistol, OK. ~5" fixed blade, you must be a psycho. :confused:

If they saw me with a suppressor which I use on feral hog hunts, they would probably think I'm a Mafia hitman. Not really, I'm just at war with feral hogs destroying my pasture.

Feral hogs are really hard on a knife's edge too! Between bristles and sand/mud, slitting their throats will really destroy an edge.
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Yep they are like industrial rototillers! I always say cutting into one is like cutting through wet sandpaper soaked in mud and dried. Get handy with the "twine" and ya can just rope em like Easton!

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When pigs are around I'm hauling this Browning 1895 in .30-06 around with me.

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Thats one of my own personal EDCs in camel bone with the rifle. Couple of weekends ago helped my son put the first ride on some colts:

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Then he gave us a tour of this ranch he's on to the west of us about 15 miles. Saw plenty of recent rototilling but din't see a single pig on the 19,000 acres:

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Ya can bet I had that Browning with me.
 
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