What are your top 5 favorite handle materials

Top 5 Favorite Handle Materials

  • Delrin

    Votes: 13 10.7%

  • Acrylic

    Votes: 15 12.3%

  • Micarta

    Votes: 67 54.9%

  • Ebony

    Votes: 73 59.8%

  • Cocobolo

    Votes: 41 33.6%

  • Bone

    Votes: 97 79.5%

  • Stag

    Votes: 77 63.1%

  • Elk

    Votes: 39 32.0%

  • Buffalo Horn

    Votes: 40 32.8%

  • Other (please specify in your post)

    Votes: 27 22.1%
  • Total voters
    122
Delrin

Cellador

Diamondwood

Wood

Bone

I don't have any real experience with any other types of handle materials so these are the 5 I chose, though I'm sure I might love deer stag if I had knives that used them.
 
supratentorial said:
You can choose only 5 or fewer. What are they? What are your opinions on the different materials?
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Cocobolo, Desert Ironwood (personal favorite), Ebony, Blackwood, Kingwood are all great. Three of these cocobolo,Blackwood, kingwood, are dalbergia family (rosewood) on the Cites list and we won't see them available much longer. Chinese demand for rosewoods has caused high prices and over cutting.
 
Howdy Jake
Mine are changing- ever so slightly - where Case early Red Bone used to be- The One- But to me now it is...
1, Stag.
2, Schrade Peachseed - well Bone in General when you think about Robeson, Miller, Cattaraugus, New York Knife Co, Utica- oh man it goes on with all the Stunning Jigging variations.
3, Ebony.
 
My number 1 favourite is (jigged) bone. Followed by stag and mother of pearl. I haven't handled horn yet, but I'm sure I'd like it. I preffer natural materials harvested from animals. I could also do ebony or a nice delrin on a working knife for very tough jobs, but I don't use them for very tough jobs anyway ... The old jigged synthetic materials aren't bad either.
 
In no particular order.

Micarta, Stag, Bone, Ebony and Ram's Horn. The latter can be really something and is more common on European knives.

Of course it very much depends on the TYPE of material being offered and the pattern it's being put on. I can't say if I prefer Smooth Bone to Jigged, it depends on the knife it's on. I like Acrylics when the mixture looks good and I commend GEC for experimenting with these.

With Mammoth it can look interesting but I can never really be sure if it is what it purports to be, I suspect some is faux... MOP or MOT does nothing for me and that Sea Snail stuff is the same. Ivory and Tortoiseshell have a place on vintage knives but I don't like to see it on contemporary efforts.

Thanks, Will
 
By favorite, do you mean what I have the most of, or what I seek out or prefer to buy? If the former, I would have to say jigged bone. If the latter, micarta or G10, although I have very few of the one, and only one traditional in the other. In fact, I recently picked up a Marbles TL-29 precisely because it had G10 scales. I guess I have a soft spot for stacked leather, too, partly for the appearance, but mostly for comfort.

Wood can be quite nice, but I don't have anything particularly attractive; my wood handles are all pretty utilitarian. Walnut can be downright drab.
 
Sabercat said:
Those are all beautiful samples (still kicking myself over the jigged DLT #74) but please tell me what is shown in photos #2 & 3. That is stunning, but I'm still too much of a green horn to ID it.
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Thank you Ryan, it is an old Challenge Cutlery carpenters jack, 1920's or before.
 
Ernie1980 said:
I would like to add pearl and ivory for other! Stag, cocobolo, and micarta round out my favorites from the available choices. Why did you go with specific types of wood? There are so many others that I really like also...
Neat idea for a poll!!
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Cocobolo and Ebony are common on antique knives. As an antique knife enthusiast I wanted to include most of the very traditional cover materials in addition to some of the newer materials that are commonly used today. Lots of woods are used today but those two are very traditional.

Unfortunately there are only 10 slots available for a poll. I left out celluloid, metal, ivory and pearl from the more traditional covers. But I have a pretty good idea of how they would fair in the poll in comparison to other materials. Ideally, I would have had space to include pearl, ram's horn, camel bone, G10, carbon fiber, metal, ivory and a few others.
 
Ebony
Cocobolo
Bone
Micarta
Buffalo Horn

Wood handles are by far and away my favorite handle materials. My appreciation for bone has grown over the years, but it is still a distant second. Micarta, especially the non-linen versions, offer great optics and feel. The stuff from Shadetree has been particularly impressive. I only have a couple horn handled knives, but the depth and color variations create a galaxy of eye-pleasing details.

I've yet to own a stag knife, mainly because of the thickness and uneveness often found in stag handled knives. I love the coloration, especially of aged stag, but the bulbous handles and lack of in-person stores to peruse said thicknesses have left me stag-less.
 
I voted Bone and Stag. I did not see the Elk or it would have received a vote also.
 
Bone
Elk
Horn
I didnt tick ebony but most of the timbers including ebony and cocobolo.
 
You left MOP and Black Lip off the list as well as Celluloid, all 3 of toes would be able to fit the "Other" spot. :) and I messed up on the Cocobolo, I was thinkin' Bocote. :)

Smooth bone

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Burnt Stag

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Stag

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Bocote


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Black Lip and MOP

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MOP

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Jigged Bone

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Celluloid
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