Wood handles

[Mountainwind]

While crusing for some Schrades folders at a certain place, I see different wood types used for handle material, which I presume was because it was whatever was onhand at the time.
Is one type of wood more disirable than others for collecting, or does it just mean that more knives have to be bought to accommodate different wood, as well as tang stamps.

 

[Codger_64]

...it just mean that more knives have to be bought to accommodate different wood, as well as tang stamps.

Yes. ISC found that as the impregnation processes and resin compounds improved, the choice of wood was no longer limited to "Fibron Impregnated Winewood", which company papers simply called "Fibron" which was the name of the company who produced the handle scales for them. As surely as Stratawood and Wonda Wood gave way to the darker, stronger Fibron, when it became apparent that oak, walnut and other woods could be given similar durability and good looks (historically limited to natural oiled cocobola), they jumped on it. The earliest handles were produced overseas. Germany or France as I recall. I don't know if they ever bought from Pakkawood (yes, the U.S. company, not the Pakastani colored stuff), but Fibron eventually bought out Pakkawood.