What's the appeal with bone handles?

sogflash

sogflash

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Aug 28, 2011
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What's the appeal with bone handles? They seem to be more popular than wood. Personally I like wood best.
 
The name of the Forum is "Traditional". It doesn't get much more Traditional than jigged bone.
 
I can appreciated wood and stag and even celluloid (acrylic), but bone has a character that I find fascinating. Some of the jigging styles from the past coupled with the aging makes for some beautiful knives.

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I enjoy both bone and wood. Now I am just going from how I perceive these materials but wood is tough and can take a beating, more work knife related in my eyes. Plus I can not stop looking at old ebony, their is just something so right about it. I feel bone is the weaker of the two. It can crack easier(again my opinion but I would rather drop wood if money was on the line) and for me thats not suited for a work knife as much. Of course I change which is my favorite regularly but thats why I have both in my collection to pick from :p
 
I'm not the biggest bone afficianado but bone:

Has endless variability in texture due to different jigging used.

Has endless color variation due to dying.

Goes through positive color change through time (pocket worn is different in bone than a worn look in wood- wood dulls while bone seems to polish more)

Is a very resilient material.

Isn't subject to border worries like other natural materials such as exotic wood.


Personally I like wood more myself (chattoyance) , but have more bone in my collection. My daughter (seven next Monday) even picked jigged bone for the handle material for her first knife we are making this summer, so there is something about bone that appeals to a broad range of people, as she was given free range over my handle material collection.

I'm sure there are other factors to include as well.
 
I like bone covers on slipjoints

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Hard to beat wood for fixed blades though.

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I like 'em both.

- Christian
 
I like them both but like was said above in most cases I feel bone ages better and just keeps getting nicer with wear and time within reason. However I have seen some old ebony scaled knives that also wore very nicely and are gorgeous with age and wear. I guess one of the things that draws me to bone is all the different color of dyes and styles of jigging. What I love about both bone and wood is for the most part no 2 knives look the same. That is something I love about traditional knives in general actually is how much character they have and their just so classic and easy on the eyes. It's much harder for me to use my traditional knives for the first time though because I love them so much lol. My modern knives I don't really give much thought to using them they are just a tool to me but a lot of my traditional knives I would be upset if I lost or damaged them.






These are the only pictures I have on hand right now. I need to get some better outside pictures especially of my Rotten Banana bone 66 and Yellow Rose 76!
 
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I personally love the look of a well defined wood handle if finished right like the two pictured above by Jkulysses. Beautiful knives. However, the beauty of a Jigged bone, or especially one with staghorn, really catches my eye. Given the chance to choose, I would have to choose the bone since it seems to wear better while retaining its original beauty better. Something about a jigged bone scaled knife that just says "POCKET KNIFE" to me in the purest form. No doubt about what you have. A work of art that you can actually use in everyday activities, and be proud to show to other knife enthusiasts.

Blessings,

Omar
 
I tend to like jigged bone better because of the grip that it offers. Sure, it's a little slippery, and if you dropped it on concrete it would probably crack. It's just a calculated risk.

It would be nice to have some jigged wood too, or some way to have it offer more grip. Yesterday I saw a smooth Oak Swayback Jack that had a great pattern on it. I don't have a dealer where I live to look at the knives in person, so I bet my opinion could be easily changed.
 
As for anything, it's a matter of personal taste, and nothing more.
Personally, I'm not a great fan of jigged bone myself, but I know that it's probably due to the fact that I was raised with smooth horn handled knives, so I tend to prefer smooth handles...which means wood over bone 8and stag), more often than not. Yet, some bone (jigged or smooth) handles that I've seen and handled are great.
The good news for you is that most (or all) the current production traditional knives are offered in wood as well :)
Oh, and a "Fiorentina" steak for me :p

Fausto
:cool:
 
I like the traditional jigged bone that originates from a cow. I don't like the look of Giraffe bone at all.

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I thought I liked stag best and sought to have a stag-handle knife, but these days I find the translucent beauty of bone much better. Matter of taste, really. Like in this one, the color is like syrup.

Trapper.jpg
 
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