The next big thing in handle material

Lorien

Lorien

Nose to the Grindstone
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Whilst custom knife collectors bemoan the increasing scarcity, and growing costs of stag and ivory for knife handles, I have been thinking about clever alternatives.

Stone is an extremely durable material for knife handles, and could be inset with the materials noted, diminishing weight while allowing for a lot of creative freedom, and great beauty. Or so I imagine.

So what do you think? Do you like the idea of stone for handle material? Do you think it will catch on? Do you know of any makers who are already on the stone scene? If you're a maker, have you worked with stone, and what did you find out about it? Lastly, do you have any pictures of stone handled knives you'd like to share?

The only knifemaker that I know of who works a lot with stone is Jay Fisher, and I encourage you all to check out his website. There is some amazing knives pictured there, with incredible handle materials.

Thanks for your input:).
 
Jot Singh Khalsa has been making folders and fixed blades with stones for 20+ years. Stone has also widely been used on high art daggers (Warenski, etc).

Stone can be very pretty but is almost always brittle, heavy, and cold.
 
Lorien-


In addition to what Joss posted... a maker would need an entirely new set of equipment to make that happen. Lapidary work is a whole 'nother ball game.

Stone does make for some really beautiful handles though. :thumbup:
 
i don't fancy stone as a handle material at all. it's brittle (and cold) and therefore completely unsuitable for knives - at least if you like to use them. there are so many great woods out there... and then: when i spent $ 1000 for a custom knife with an ivory handle a few years ago, i'll have to spend maybe $1150 in the future because the price of ivory doubled. that won't hurt that much, will it?

regards,
hans
 
Stag---I just don't get it. No offense. Stone?? Hmm. Must think on that one. :)
 
Like Nick stated its been done but it requires more equipment AND another set of skills. Some other makers that have done stonework include David Broadwell, Doug & Diana Casteel, and John Smith. It was somewhat popular in the early 90's, Les Robertson commissioned a few pieces by various makers (those listed as well as others).

Some, I mean, most of them were very nice.
 
So, say your favorite maker decided to invest in the requisite equipment and starting building knife handles exclusively from semi precious stone. Is that a compelling enough reason to invest, as a collector? Could you get past the 'coldness' and 'brittleness' if that were the case?

As for usability, it's my understanding that knives which have mammoth tooth, elephant ivory and other like high end materials for handles are generally for collecting, where knives which have composites, woods and horn are more oriented towards use. Is that an oversimplification?

As for the properties of stone, I would imagine that it would be more durable than most other natural materials, based on my observations made while crashing into them during my bike rides(;):)). Is that a wrong assumption in general?
 
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Stone is a great material, but as the concensus indicates, it isn't as practical as many other alternatives.

That being said, there are many fine knives with nice stone on them. Dinosaur bone was one that I hadn't seen before until I saw it on a folder. It was extremely nice.

I have a D'Holder knife with picasso marble scales on it. It looks like a forest scene.

The brittleness is definitely a factor....but no moreso than pearl.

Peter
 
I don't care for most stones when used for knife handles. I like dinosaur bone, Lapis, and some jaspers. But I think the only stone handle that I would personally go for is dinosaur bone.
 
I'm not attracted to stone handles but I am sure I could find something tastefully done that will appeal to me. I am curious if anyone would use spectrolite or labradorite for a handle?
 
I would consider stone for the right knife. In fact, I have knives with pearl slabs (and pearl is a mineral), and I have one knife on commission with Lapis (if things work out...).
 
Scott Sawby has been doing stone handles for years now. They are beautiful. :)
I have handled some, and they seem fine. No colder than other materials.
 
DavidZ said:
Scott Sawby has been doing stone handles for years now. They are beautiful. :)
I have handled some, and they seem fine. No colder than other materials.
Click to expand...

Obviously all materials have the same temperature (assuming they've been in the same place for a while). However, it's a scientific fact that metals and stones conduct heat faster than wood (and I think than ivory). Therefore they feel colder (since they generally are at a lower temp than our body.
 
So I asked an expert in this field, (Jay Fisher) about stone for handles, and this is what he had to say;

"Thanks for the invite; I appreciate it.

Unfortunately a lot of people think that gemstone is like glass. In the thirty years I've been
making gemstone handled knives, I've never had a standard mounted gemstone handle fail, ever.
Most of the gems used in custom and fine handmade knife handles are very tough, or they won't
survive being cut, ground, finished and polished with the heavy duty equipment the professional
lapidary uses. Some of the gemstone-handled knives I’ve made have been used in combat.
My first gemstone handled knife? 1977. They've all sold. All of them. They're all gone so somebody wants them!

Where does this “brittle” concept come from? It happens because much natural stone has natural
fracture lines and cleavage planes. A lot of rocks are already invisibly fractured and a simple
whack with a masonry hammer will force the stone to break along those lines. Also guys have
seen obsidian which flakes at a regular angle, and it is stone, so therefore all stone is brittle.
These same guys would faint if they saw how hard and tough a piece of Brazilian Agate or jasper
is.

Cold? You bet; if you lay a stone handled knife outside in the cold, it will be cold because it's
more dense than wood and has no insulating ability. But neither does steel, and the steel or metal
bolsters, guards, and fittings are just as cold, in fact, they conduct the cold better than the stone.
But the stone warms up and then stays warm to the touch for a long time because it is dense.
Anyway, this is a petty little argument, because most gemstone handled knives are fine knives,
and not for everyday carry by the general population. Most of the general knife population can
not afford a gemstone handled knife, so are not interested. Which is okay, too.

There are, as mentioned, a handful of other makers using gemstone, and it has been used since
ancient times. Some of the Persians made exquisite handles of jade with inlays of gold wire, I've
not even seen the magnificence of their work approached today.

There is certainly a lot of long term interest in stone; in my own business I'm now approaching
four years of back orders, most of them for gemstone-handled knives. It’s okay that gem-handled
knives are not mainstream. I kind of like that!

Lorien, I've made a lot of gemstone handled knives in my career, perhaps more than anyone. You
can see over 600 of them on my web site; I’ve probably made well over twice that many. The
durability, value, and longevity of good gemstone can not be approached by any material. You
could make a handle out of solid gold, but it is soft compared to nephrite, you could cover the
handle with steel, it would scratch and jasper would not. In a thousand years, when the steel
blade is abraded, torn, scratched or corroded away, there will be the quartz handle, proud and
shiny, like the day it left the shop. Just look at the longest lasting monuments man has ever
created. They are all stone, not wood, horn, bone, ivory, or metals.

But you won't convince guys that dislike gemstone to accept it. I know, because I've fought this
battle for thirty years. That's okay. They can dislike stone, there are many others who love it, and
have made a great career for me and other guys who feel that stone goes with metal and wood
and shell and horn and bone and ivory, and even plastic...and hey, don’t forget leather and exotic
skins!

Just to give you a personal head's up: there is some new manmade material coming out that I will
try for knife handles. It's a special ceramic, made to look and act ... like stone. Very, very tough
and hard...

Be well, my friend, and keep that bike off those granites!"

Thanks for the edgeucation, Jay!
 
He's right to a point, but I work with stones like granite every day, and I can tell you for a fact that it doesn't have very good fracture strength. Most harder stones don't. The smaller the grain/crystal structure of the stone, the less the greater the fracture strength. In the small sizes used for knife handles, this shouldn't be a problem.
 
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