what scales for hunting knife

J

jtodd

Joined
May 22, 2006
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before I select what scales to get on my new hunting knife, I thought I'd see if members here have any knowledge they'd like to share.

I've always used wood handles or some composite. But for new knife, I'm going with either canvas micarta or G10. My questions are mainly with grip and durability surrounding contact with blood and gore.

Micarta is as I understand it more porous than G10. Does this mean G10 would be better suited towards bloody work? Less porous = more cleanable and durable for liquidy stuff?

Does one material provide better grip than the other for hunting related tasks (eg, hands bloody when slicing meat etc)? if so is there a trade off somewhere else?

Would a high quality (ie, very fine) Bead Blast of the scales (not the steel) be a good idea to improve grip? or would a Bead Blast of the scales somehow have a negative impact on durability and performance of the scales considering how this knife will be used? The other option would be to just get a satin finish over the whole knife (scales included).
 
the porous nature of canvas micarta makes inherently grippier than g10, given the same shape, size, etc.

g10 can become very slippery when wet, as can any material, and i would recommend some texturing to provide some positive resistance.

canvas micarta will absorb liquids, but is pretty easy to clean. just some soap and water and a soft sponge should do it.

both are extremely durable with very high tensile strength, and either should last your lifetime given normal use and normal wear and tear.

for texturing, a bead blast might be overkill. just some sandpaper will work fine.
 
thanks morimotom.

canvas micarta will not be as slippery when wet as G10?

absent any blasting or texturing, which is more grippy (G10 or Canvas)?
 
jtodd said:
Micarta is as I understand it more porous than G10. Does this mean G10 would be better suited towards bloody work? Less porous = more cleanable and durable for liquidy stuff?
Click to expand...

Both G10 and Micarta are very similar "under the hood". Both are made from layers of some sort of fabric that are impregnated and saturated with some sort of epoxy resin and compressed under high pressure, often with heat to form a laminate. In fact, the only real difference between G10, Micarta, and the Carbon Fiber used in knife scales, is the 'fabric' material (G10 uses glass, Micarta usually uses paper, linen, or canvas, and Carbon Fiber uses Carbon Fibers). In industrial usage of the term 'micarta' is often used generically to refer to any of the above mentioned laminates.

So, the real differences come from the fabric in the laminate. Of all of them, I think canvas micarta provides the best "grip". G10 and Carbon Fiber are both quite a bit 'slicker', especially when wet.

As for the water (or other liquid) resistance of micarta, the paper/linen/canvas based micartas are essentially waterproof. The epoxy resin saturates the fabric fibers thoroughly enough that water absorption is negligible. It may feel more porous, but that's more just a 'feel' from the underlying material.
 
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