Which handle for Bark River?

M

monk71

Joined
Mar 14, 2002
Messages
32
Hello all,

I am thinking of purchasing a Bark River Huntsman.

I have a choice between the antique stag bone handle, black canvas micarta handle, and orange G10 handle.

Which of these provides the best grip and which one has the best long-term durability?

I like the stag look the best, but grip and durability is more important.

Thanks!
 
I have a few BRKT knives they are an outstanding value. I don't believe you could wear out any of those handles in a lifetime, but G10 is strongest and in hot and cold most impact resistent, micarta a close second, and stag bone #3
You have no bad choices.
 
Oh yea best grip G10 by far and I think stag a little better than Micarta.
 
I have micarta and 2 G-10 Bark Rivers, one of which is orange.. I prefer the G10.

Phil
 
monk71 said:
Hello all,

I am thinking of purchasing a Bark River Huntsman.

I have a choice between the antique stag bone handle, black canvas micarta handle, and orange G10 handle.

Which of these provides the best grip and which one has the best long-term durability?

I like the stag look the best, but grip and durability is more important.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

I have Bark Rivers in buckeye burl, stag bone, and tigerstripe G10, and my son has one in black & orange carbon fibermascus. For looks, I like the buckey burl the best, but for durability the G10 is the obvious choice. I don't have much experience with the fibermascus yet, but it sure looks nice.
 
I have the blaze orange Northstar (G-10) and find it to be a little slicker than I like. In fact, if I ever can find time to send it in, Mike Stewart is supposed to rough it up a little for me. YMMV.
 
This is so highly subjective, but I personally usually don't love the feel of stag, although if done just right I do like it. G-10 is a fine standby, but I like the feel of micarta much better. G-10 will be more resilient. But were it me, I'd go with the micarta. My fave BRK handles are wood, they do a nice job and I love the feel of wood. Again though, G-10 will be more resilient, so you've gotta decide what you're going for. For me, if you're going with Bark River quality, get the best-feeling material you can to make the knife really sing.
 
monk71 said:
Hello all,

I am thinking of purchasing a Bark River Huntsman.

I have a choice between the antique stag bone handle, black canvas micarta handle, and orange G10 handle.

Which of these provides the best grip and which one has the best long-term durability?

I like the stag look the best, but grip and durability is more important.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

First of all: The huntsman is an awesome choice!!!!
It will be hard to break that little tank of a knife!!!

Second......,go with the material you like the most.
All three of them are amazingly strong,and if you would break the stag (which I think is unlikely,even with hard use!)...,Bark River has the best warranty in the bussiness!!!:thumbup: (You hear me??? The best!!!)

Break it and they'll fix it!!! No questions asked!!!
But don't worry....,I remember Mr Stewart stating somewhere that of the thousands and thousands of knives he sold the past years there were 2 knives returned to him because the blade snapped.
This was caused by wrong battonning by the users,but they replaced them without question!!!:D

Go for it!!!!!
You won't regret it!!!:thumbup:
 
If those were my only choices, I'd go for the bone-stag. I have a Forager in antique-bone-stag and it feels quite "grippy" to me.

But if more choices were available, I'd pick one of the unusual and beautiful woods that Bark River uses. I have two of the amoynia burl Tantos from Bark River, and would love to have something of their's in Desert Ironwood, Mesquite Burl, or Osage Orange.

-Bob
 
Stag is really nice for looks...not as nice as Maple or Ebony...but nice....:D

Also very nice for grip. Durability is where I personally question it.

I tend to get wood and stag handles for pretties, and Micarta for users. orange or blue micarta for insane users.:D
 
All will work fine for the most part. On a cold day when cleaning game the extra roughness of a stag is nice but they will all work fine. When it is cold I have gloves on and the stag doesn't cause any problems because it is too rough.
 
I've had several BRK&T's with G-10 and Micarta, and to be honest the models that have no guard on them I didn't care for the Micarta...just a little to slick, the G-10 had checkering that made them much better.
 
I had a BRKT Gameskeeper with stag bone. I dropped it in the middle of a shallow crick and the butt end hit a rock and chipped, split really. I would go with the G10. I re handled my Knives of Alaska Bushcamp in orange g10 and love it. Easy to see, looks good (IMO) and provides a good grip.
 
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