Stacked Leather Pommel - Any Good?

[digdeep]

I have the opportunity to get a fixed blade knife with handles in several different materials including micarta, wood, or stacked leather.

Is stacked leather a good choice? Will it hold up well over the years? Or would another material be a better choice?

 

[Alberta Ed]

Stacked leather is an excellent choice. I removed the butt caps on my two Marble's with stacked grips, slipped off the leather washers, treated the tangs with BreakFree to prevent rust and reassembled, then treated the leather with SnowSeal. They should outlast me.

 

[ahgar]

My only experience has been with ka-bar/camillus/ontario militay type knives and I had no problems with them. I do remember reading that in tropical areas some care is needed to prevent rot. That being said you still see a lot of old ka-bars from ww2 with the handle in good shape. Micarta would be my choice for a hard use knife as it is just about bulletproof and requires little to no care. later ahgar

 

[ranger88]

A friend gave me a 4000 year old Kabar (I think it originally belonged to Moses) The stacked leather handle is about all that's left. I'm not sure, but I think it would take a Phaser set to kill to destroy a stacked leather handle.

 

[buckg]

Leather will rot. It will also dry out and crack. That said, it requires far less care than a carbon blade and looks good. I'd go stacked leather for nostalgic reasons. Micarta just isn't as pretty. If, however, you're going to do zero to take care of it, then go micarta.

 

[Ken C.]

Stacked leather handles are very long lasting if properly taken care of. However, I prefer a synthetic handle material when I know that the knife will be used in harsh enviroment and subjected to the elements. Take this into consideration when you make your decision.

 

[fudo]

I think that the best choice is micarta.I have knives that I've been using for 20 years and the handles look like the day I got the knife, plus a few scratches.