The first discussion I have started on the porch

neffarious

neffarious

Joined
Jun 23, 2012
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Hello everyone. I was wondering how does wood hold up as a handle material. I have used stag, bone, micarta, g10, carbon fiber, etc... I have ordered a set of zebra wood for one of my Beckers. I'm not too worried about it as i don't use it that often. For those that carry your knives, how does wood hold up to day to day carry in a pocket, with or without a slip?
 
I have knives made in the teens, 20s, 30s with wood handles and they held up just fine.. A few dents but no cracks etc.. So.. I would say with proper care just fine!! John:thumbup:
 
A little lemon oil once in a while, should prevent problems.
My guess is wood has probably been used for handles longer than any other material. (dating back to when a "knife" was a sharpened rock)
 
Here's a picture of my dad's queen with zebra wood handles. When this picture was taken he had been carrying it everyday for just over a year. It's been about a year and a half now. He just throws it in his pockets with his keys or whatever he's carrying that day. It has one small gouge where he hit it against something when he was playing with it, but other than that the wood still looks pretty much like new. I know it's not the same type of carry/use your Becker is likely to go through, but I'd have no problem saying that zebra wood will hold up to anything you'd expect any natural material to hold up to. It's obviously not going to be as tough as micarta, carbon fiber, or G-10 but it's not like you're going to have to baby it either.

 
Wood is my favorite handle material for folders. I also really like micarta, but for an everyday knife wood is hard to beat. It has a warm feel, and it is pretty sturdy stuff.

I know that other materials are tougher, but wood is tough enough for me. Both of my EDC's have wood scales (one a modern folder and the other the 2015 traditional forum knife). The wood on the modern has certainly picked up dings, but nothing structural is wrong with it, and it adds some character in my opinion. Even the handle on my custom trowel is wood, and an archaeologist's trowel sees some hard use.

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Cory Very nice example of Zebra, I like that wood a lot, pity Queen stopped it in favour of Walnut which looks like school, old school , furniture to my eye, dull.:rolleyes:

People have asked after the durability of wood before, Ebony always gets a strong endorsement and the proof is there are lots of 100 year old knives whose ebony handles have survived better than the steel:eek:
 
Cory Hess said:
Here's a picture of my dad's queen with zebra wood handles. When this picture was taken he had been carrying it everyday for just over a year. It's been about a year and a half now. He just throws it in his pockets with his keys or whatever he's carrying that day. It has one small gouge where he hit it against something when he was playing with it, but other than that the wood still looks pretty much like new. I know it's not the same type of carry/use your Becker is likely to go through, but I'd have no problem saying that zebra wood will hold up to anything you'd expect any natural material to hold up to. It's obviously not going to be as tough as micarta, carbon fiber, or G-10 but it's not like you're going to have to baby it either.

Click to expand...

Love it! Very nice! :thumbup:
 
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