Your preferred handle for kitchen knives

Diego_B

Diego_B

Joined
Aug 17, 2020
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Hey everyone. So as the title implies, what is your preferred handle choice for kitchen knives. I am not asking about your favorite kitchen knife necessarily but the handle. Do you prefer flat handles over contoured ones with palm swells and such? Thick or thin handles? What about Wa handles? Tapered Wa handles or just straight? Also why do you like what you like? Is there any reason or just because?

Hopefully I get a few inputs here and let me know what ya think!
 
I know the popular answer is WA handles. No doubt. BUT my most popular kitchen knife handle is the coke bottle shape. It's just as comfortable gutting skinning a deer as it is slicing vegetables. Even if you hold in in a sideways pinch grip it's way more comfortable to folks I make knives for.
 
I’m partial to tapered octagonal Wa handles myself. I like how they index in my hand and feel very natural in multiple different hand positions. An added benefit is the reduced handle weight of the hidden tang helps keep the balance correct when paired with a thin and light blade.
 
Im actually pretty agnostic on this myself. Mostly .... because most of the time I am using a knife with a pinch grip - thumb and forefinger on the blade, at the ricasso or just in front of the bolster/handle. The top of the handle itself then kind of rests lightly against my palm - and at that point it really does not matter whether it is Wa or western style.

Just plain for appearances, I like the Wa handle slightly better (because it lends itself to multiple segments with different colors, textures, and separators). *however*, a number of people here have done multi-segment western style handles that are as cool, or *more* cool than a lot of the Wa handles....
 
Bunker Hill Blades said:
I asked pretty much the same question awhile ago, in case your interested...

favorite handle shapes/styles for kitchen knives?

Just what the title says. What’s your favorite handle shapes, styles, length, etc... for kitchen knives? I would love to hear your opinions. Regards Joseph.
www.bladeforums.com www.bladeforums.com
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Thank you for that. I find it funny that in that post it seems everyone is favored toward a full tang rather than a wa handle in this thread.
LCoop said:
I know the popular answer is WA handles. No doubt. BUT my most popular kitchen knife handle is the coke bottle shape. It's just as comfortable gutting skinning a deer as it is slicing vegetables. Even if you hold in in a sideways pinch grip it's way more comfortable to folks I make knives for.
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You know its funny because I started this thread because the other day I was just messing around and put a coke bottle shaped handle on some beater knife I made for testing. Not expecting much but I have actually found it quite comfortable and will probably do it on my next few blades to see if and how people like it.
 
My wife spends most of the day in the kitchen. She loves to cook, and she also dries a lot of fruits and vegetables.

She does not like the wa handle shape at all. Here is here prefered shape.

handle.jpg
 
CDHumiston said:
My wife spends most of the day in the kitchen. She loves to cook, and she also dries a lot of fruits and vegetables.

She does not like the wa handle shape at all. Here is here prefered shape.

View attachment 1783351
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I see. Just curious but does she prefer thicker or thinner handles? I guess by thicker I mean anything wider than 5/8" approximately.
 
Diego_B said:
I see. Just curious but does she prefer thicker or thinner handles? I guess by thicker I mean anything wider than 5/8" approximately.
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She likes a handle that fills and conforms to her hand size. When I make her a knife, I bring it to her quite a few times until she approves it for final finish.

Most of my scale sets start at around 3/4" then add the blade thickness. I grind them down a decent amount. Her favorite large cleaver ended up at 3/4" finished.

She absolutely loves your blade thickness and profile...or should I say thinness...
 
Do you guys see any trend or preference for handle shapes as far as hand size and gender goes? Like do men prefer bigger handles than women? Flatter or more rounded?
 
Yes, but nothing specific. My wife prefers to hold the end of a handle, rather than hammer or pinch methods. She prefers softer contours on all surfaces, and hates the end flared coke bottle style. Many like the classic round bird beak shape like CDHumiston CDHumiston posted above. Men like all manner of unique profiles, and women like rounded. Never tried a Wa, my experience is only western styles with full tangs.

For western handles, I think the cross section means as much as the profile shape. It needs to be shaped like a "keystone" (skinnier at the bottom, fatter at the top) with rounded corners. That shape just nestles into your fingers like it was meant to.
 
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