Wood handle tips

I

ItalianStallion303

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Mar 22, 2015
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Hey guys! I'm looking to buy a bark river and I have narrowed my choices down. Those choices range from Zebrawood handles to Desert Ironwood to Cobolo and bocote. I was just wondering, say I wanted a very durable knife that could handle being wet and banged around a bit, which type of handle would ya'll recommend?

I ordered a bark river for my girlfriend with a desert ironwood handle and it appears to have some sort of "water proof coat/treament", any idea what that is? Do all their knives come with such a coating (which would answer my water proof handle question)?
 
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If the wood is stabilized it will be very durable. If not all those wood choices are still strong.All my homemade handles are wood never had an issue. Do not put a wood handled knife in the dishwasher or leave it in the sink full of water. Wash by hand and wipe dry.
 
The residue could be from the buffing wheels that bark river does on their handles.
I could be wrong though unless someone has some input

Desert Ironwood is pretty tough stuff. :thumbup:
 
If it has to be wood, I'd go with Ironwood for durability and abuse. But Micarta and G10 on a knife you're really planning to use a lot over any of the woods.

I have 5 Barkies - 4 of them I made myself at Grind-ins. Only one of them has a wood handle. The rest are synthetics.
 
honestly i think you will be equally protected with all those varieties. Especially if they are stabilized woods.
 
For your stated needs cocobolo would be a good choice. It has a lot of oils so it is very water resistant, and it holds up well. I don't have much experience abusing desert ironwood, but my impression is that it is not as tough as cocobolo. Desert ironwood is denser than cocobolo, and also has a lot of oils, so water resistance would not be a problem.

Generally speaking, cocobolo and desert ironwood are left untreated and uncoated by knifemakers. BR may be different, you would have to check with them.

The Janka chart in the link above most certainly has cocobolo wrong (listed at 1136 by many sources). I do not know where that number originated, but I believed it for a number of years. Then someone called me out on it, and said the true janka hardness of cocobolo is much higher. So I decided to do an experiment of my own. I took a phillips screwdriver, and put as much force as I could on it (probably equivalent to about half of my body weight), pushing it into a piece of cocobolo and a piece of macassar ebony. To my surprise, I could make a very small indentation in the macassar ebony, but nothing in the cocobolo. A little discussion can be found here:

http://www.wood-database.com/lumber-identification/hardwoods/cocobolo/

Other woods that have a very good combination of toughness, hardness, and water resistance are:

Lignum vitae (the gold standard)
Verawood (argentine lignum vitae)
Ipe
Osage Orange (fenceposts made of osage survived 100 years use in the midwest)
 
Their handles are polished and then coated with some type of oil similar to linseed, but I don't remember exactly.

I like the look of the ironwood better than the rest but I think any of those would be fine for normal use. I would not recommend a burl if you're going to be pounding on it. If the treatment on the handle starts to wear you can always put some linseed oil (or similar) back over it. I think it also goes without saying that normal care of both blade and the handle go a long way in keeping the knife in top condition.
 
Hey guys! Thanks for all the help and tips:
Here's what I found on their website:

Standard Wood:
Given 6 hand-rubbed coats of linseed oil and shellac to seal them from the elements

Exotic Wood:
Polish to a hard, bright finish and do not require sealing

Burled wood:
Most of the burls we use are professional stabilized
 
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