What's the deal with Zytel?

tirod3 said:
Great explanation. The ancedotal experience is that Endura integral clips - and others, like the LST attachment - will bend in use and lose tension, plus retain the bent shape for 48-72 hours before returning to its formed shape.

Once tension is lost, the knife works up out of the pocket and falls.

Another condition I've found is FRN grips will close up on the blade and pinch it, especially if the user is wearing typically tight fitting jeans. Liners inserted in the stack, exposed or nested, have become de riguer to prevent that, and also offer the use of a liner lock.

These experiences in the late 80's and early 90's led me to cross FRN off my list of acceptable grip materials.
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I don't think that Nylon is a particularly good choice for a clip material either and I would avoid such.

If the knife handle took a permanent deformation it had to be a manufacturing flaw rather than a material flaw. If you screw up the mold cycle, you can leave residual stresses in the finished part that can cause the material to release later on. I've seen it happen in other types of articles.

On the other hand, I have a knife with an FRN handle that flexes in my hand when I grasp it hard. It won't take a permanent set, but it will flex so that it squeezes together. In that design, the designers did not use a thick enough piece of FRN. That one is a design flaw, not a material flaw. Too bad too, It has a lovely AUS10 blade.

I have a dozen or so other FRN-handled knives that have no liners and no flexing. In those, there is good material, combined with a good design, and good manufacturing.

FRN can be a good handle. But whether you like it on your own knife depends on what you personally like, and if I had had a couple of sour experiences I would probably avoid the material as well.
 
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