Article
Handle Materials
by Dexter Ewing - Field Editor for Blade Magazine
It’s quite obvious that the handle is perhaps one of the single most pertinent components of any knife, be it fixed blade or folder. The handle is the “user interface”, in which the user is connected in some way to the knife. Just as we as humans are different by out personality, mannerisms, and in some cases, dialect – handle materials are the same. They are quite diverse in their own unique ways. There are two primary functions of handle materials. First is the obvious, to provide the user with a comfortable grip. This in conjunction with the ergonomics of the handle. Second, is aesthetic in which the chosen material not only adds function but looks and personality as well. In this, the second installment of the Blades By Brown knife tutorial, we will be examining some of the popular handle materials in depth to give you a brief overview of what is out there. Keep in mind that there are a lot of materials that are available to us knife enthusiasts and we are not at all limited in any way, shape, form, or function of what is discussed here.
BONE
By far, bone is probably the most popular handle material. Usually derived from the leg bone of large animals, bone as a handle material provides some warmth in both touch and appearance. If you look around as several of the big pocket knife manufacturers such as W.R. Case & Sons Cutlery and Boker, you will discover that bone is not limited to a specific color. Rather, bone can be dyed to take on any shade of color imaginable. We have seen over the years colors such as white, red, blue, purple, black, pink, dark green, lime green, gray, and brown to just name a few. Bone can also be textured, which is called jigged bone. The texturing adds to the tactile feel of bone, though, smooth bone has a feel and elegant look in and of itself. Then there are variations of texturing like worm groove and winterbottom bone. Bone is a very durable material, given the previous usage of that material. Recently, there has become a resurgence of sorts in bone as a handle material. Because of the ongoing staghorn embargo, some manufacturers like Case have found a way to texture and flame treat bone in which it appears to be genuine stag. In Case’s scenario, they call this BoneStag and this material can be found on their 6.5 BoneStag series of pocket knives. Still ,nothing beats the look and feel of real stag.
Click to enlarge |
Bone handles are about as traditional as you can get for a pocketknife. A good example of this is the 3573 pattern full size Trapper from Case. The bone on this knife has been treated to simulate the appearance of genuine stag. |
STAG HORN
Stag is a very popular material currently, even after the aforementioned embargo. Most stag comes from India, and the country’s government has had an embargo in place for about a couple years or so that prohibits the exportation of staghorn from the country. Back when the embargo was first enforced, sales of all stag horn handled knives, both custom and production, experienced a surge in sales. The stag that can be found today is often expensive and might have some pulp in it. Stag offers a grip unique in and of itself. It’s a very elegant material that’s often used on fixed blade hunting knives and some folding knives. You might also find stag on some folding knives like the multiblade and single lockblade types. It’s quite unfortunate that the embargo is in place as stag is probably the most beautiful horn material that shows its varying characteristics from one piece to the next, as no two pieces of stag horn are alike in any way.
Click to enlarge |
Stag Horn was the material of choice for knife manufactures for many years until a recent embargo halted supplies. As you can see in the photo of Boker's Optima, stag is a beautiful handle material with very unique characteristics all its own. |
WOOD
Wood is another popular material. It’s very organic and has a deep warmth to it. A knife with a nicely done hardwood handle is reminiscent of a fine piece of furniture. It’s quite stately and at the same time durable. Most of the hardwoods available to knifemaking are often stabilized. Meaning, the wood is impregnated with resin to fill all the pores and to provide an effective sealant against moisture, one of the principle enemies of wood knife handles. Some examples of popular hardwood handle materials include curly maple, box elder, desert ironwood, snakewood, zebrawood, kingwood, cocobolo, and thuya wood. All kinds of wood has grain to it, and this grain is put on parade on a knife handle. Desert ironwood, for example, has a beautiful grain pattern to it, with contrasting dark areas. Not only is ironwood beautiful to look at but it’s a highly functional and very durable handle material because it is dense. Most wood handle knives on the market are left smooth, but sometime you might find knives occasionally that have checkered wood handles, very similar to pistol grips.
Click to enlarge |
Wood is another popular natural handle material for knives. The illustrated William Henry T12 spearpoint folder has stabilized desert ironwood handle scales. It is a very dense wood that sports a beautiful grain pattern which makes it highly desirable to both knifemakers and collectors alike. |
MICARTA
Micarta is a synthetic, man-made material consisting of layers of linen cloth that are bonded together with epoxy and compressed to form a lightweight yet strong handle material. There are basically three types of micarta. The aforementioned linen, which employs linen cloth. Then you have the more tactile canvas micarta and then paper micarta. Canvas micarta is often used on tactical knives where the finish is left kind of porous which offers a comfortable, non-slip grip. The most common micarta you’ll find used for knives is linen. This is an extremely versatile material in the sense of finishing. With linen micarta, you can hand rub it to a nice matte finish, hit it with a buffer to produce a glossy, shiny surface, or you can texture it by lightly bead blasting the surface. Take a black micarta handle and buff it to use on a nice, slim everyday carry “office knife”. Take the same material and hand rub it and you have a great handle material for a rough-and-tumble tactical knife. Any how you decide to finish it out, micarta is a very durable and versatile handle material. It is available in a variety of colors from black to blue, red to amber, ivory to burgundy, there’s a shade of micarta readily available to dress up your knife.
Click to enlarge |
Boker’s Magnum 2003 collector knife was of a classic double edge dagger blade. The handle was a black linen micarta, which is layers of linen cloth permanently bonded together and compressed to form a lightweight and strong material, which is highly favored in working knives of all sorts. |
G-10
Since about the early to mid-1990’s, G-10 has been a popular handle material for working knives. This mainly encompasses tactical, hunting, and survival knives. Why? G-10 is an extremely durable material that is lightweight. Manufactured in a process similar to that of micarta, it yields a strong material. Layers of fiberglass cloth are bonded together under pressure to form this specific handle material, G-10 is impervious to moisture, and most known liquid form substances. It’s also abrasion and chip resistant, yet another example of why it is the number one choice of handle materials for knives that really get used. G-10 can also be finished in a choice of a bead blasted [textured] surface, hand-rubbed, or in some cases, buffed. The most common finish you’ll find is the bead blasted, as it leaves a matrix of alternating raised and recessed combination surface that takes well to the user’s hand – even when wet – or with gloves. The most common color of G-10 is black [again, the tactical influence], but we’ve seen production knives with red, blue, and green G-10. Even some two tone colors are available, with alternating layers like blue/black and green/black. Conturing two tone G-10 when finishing out a knife handle will reveal the alternating layers that provide a good visual effect.
Click to enlarge |
Emerson Knives is a company known for its strong tactical folders that sport black G-10 handles. G-10 is a fiberglass laminate material which is bonded by resin and baked to form a lightweight yet strong and rigid material. The CQC11 UTCOM folder is pictured here. |
CARBON FIBER
Now, we’re moving on to high tech! Carbon fiber is used from fighter jets to race cars, from medical research equipment to high dollar racing bikes. And now, it’s used widely on knives. Why? Carbon fiber is classified as an exotic, high tech material that has an allure of a futuristic heir to it. Tiny strands of carbon are interwoven together and bonded tightly via epoxy to form an extremely lightweight material that has excellent strength to weight ratios. Pick up a piece of carbon fiber and note the feather light nature but do not let that fool you – it’s a very strong material. Unfortunately, carbon fiber is a more expensive handle material due to the processes that go into producing it, but the benefits both functionally and aesthetically make the small cost all the much more worth it. Personally, carbon fiber is a favorite handle material. Not only do I like it for the strength to weight ratio but also the interesting visual effect that the strands of carbon give especially when the handle is contoured. Look at a carbon fiber handle in the light and you’ll quickly note how the carbon strands reflect the light as you move the knife around. Carbon fiber is just the perfect match for a tactical knife or a gentleman’s knife as well. Carbon fiber can be finished out in either a hand rubbed satin finish which produces a nice, even look to the weave pattern. Or you can also get it fully buffed to a awesomely slick surface in which the light really will reflect off of the weave pattern. Take a look around. You’ll notice more factory knives using carbon fiber, and custom knives as well. To many folks who never have seen carbon fiber before, any knife with this as a handle material is an instant eye-catching piece.
STEEL
Just because steel is used for blades doesn’t mean that it cannot excel as a handle material. Truth is, it does. A steel handle knife has a good heft in the hand. On top of all this, steel can be finished out in a variety of methods, which lends themselves well to a functional finish for working knives. You see steel handle folding knives with a mirror polish finish, a bead blasted finish, a hand rubbed satin finish, coated with Titanium Nitride [TiN] or tungsten DLC, just to name a few. Usually, steel handles are derived from some variation of a 400 series stainless such as 410SS. The 400 series stainless steels offer superb corrosion resistance. So, for a working knife that has strength to go the distance and have nice heft, look to a stainless steel handled knife.
Click to enlarge |
Not only is steel good for knife blades but it also makes a great handle material. It gives heft to a knife and its hard to top the durability of steel for a knife handle. The Kershaw Chive 1600SS has a steel handle and has a bright mirror polished blade and handle which is eye catching. |
ALUMINUM
Aluminum is kind of like the distant cousin to steel for knife handles. It’s a lightweight handle material that offers strength and light weight in one package. Most of the aluminum handled knives on the market sport anodized finishes. The surfaces of the aluminum are specially treated to offer scratch resistance, and to lend a dash of color as well. The most common grade of aluminum used for knife handles is the T6 6061 aircraft grade. Just about every knife manufacturer whose knives employ this handle material will use this grade plus some sort of anodization like Type II or even the superior Type III mil-spec hard coat anodizing which offers the highest level of scratch resistance for aluminum. Aside from anodizing, aluminum can be finished out much like steel can in the sense it can be bead blasted, or hand rubbed. Though, without some sort of anodized coating, aluminum might be more susceptible to scratching than if it were not coated since it’s a relatively soft metal. Aluminum has long been used for tactical and working knives, but just because its been around for a long time does not mean that it is out of fashion!
Click to enlarge |
Benchmade’s Mini Reflex automatic opening folder sports a tough T6-6061 aluminum handle which is given a very durable hard coat anodized finish to resist scratches, scrapes, and abrasions. |
TITANIUM
Titanium. The “wonder metal”. It’s use in knives especially tactical folders is well documented. Titanium is the choice for locking liners of such folders because its lightweight, strong, and it galls [sticks] to other metals. The most common grade of titanium found for liners, handle materials, and bolsters is the Grade 5 6Al/4V titanium alloy. What we have here is not really pure titanium, but ration a specially formulated alloy comprising of 6% aluminum, 4% vanadium, and 90% titanium. This yields a material that has excellent spring and strength qualities [hence its wide use in liners for liner lock® folders] the knife makers and manufacturers demand for their knives. Titanium as a handle material per se offers a no frills, lightweight yet strong metal material. It’s warm to the touch, nonmagnetic, and is totally corrosion resistant thanks to an omnipresent, invisible oxide layer on its surface. Titanium can be hand rubbed or bead blasted, though, with either finish this metal is susceptible to scratches. Keep in mind, the scratches are because titanium is a soft metal and does not inhibit its corrosion resistance at all. One can also anodize titanium, but it’s not really in the way that aluminum is anodized. By dipping titanium in a special solution and introducing an electric current through the titanium, titanium will change color. The higher the voltage, the darker the color. Titanium is the only metal that can change its color with this process. So, this yields a metal that may have eye catching rainbow hues, dark blue, light blue, or light green – just to name a few colors possible with anodizing titanium with the proper voltage. Titanium is also the choice for bolster material as well, if the handle construction of a knife has the combination handle scale/metal bolster configuration. Like carbon fiber, titanium is a high tech material that can be found in a wide variety of non-knife applications. Its use in knife handles shows the extreme versatility of this material in applications where the strength to weight ratio of metal is crucial. Titanium used to be used mostly with custom made knives but has found a very wide acceptance in the past few years within the production knife industry. If you like this metal, then its easy to find a knife with titanium incorporated in it!
Click to enlarge |
The gargantuan Camillus Aftermath has a titanium integral lock handle. Titanium is an advanced, high tech material which is very lightweight as far as metals go. Titanium is commonly used as liner material in folding knives and in this case, as the handle material of choice as well. |
MOLDED THERMOPLASTICS
Perhaps of all the handle materials that are used in production made knives, the least expensive route to go if you want a folder that is relatively strong, lightweight, and at the same time cost effective, then look to a molded thermoplastic handle knife. Why? With a molded handle knife, a manufacturer can mold in all the various radiuses, contours, and even texturing into the handle. The various handle features are machined into the mold itself and all that needs to be done is inject the thermoplastic solution into the mold and then it cures, leaving behind a solid handle material with all the features in it. This is opposed to CNC machining G-10, aluminum, titanium or any other material – which is a more costly operation thus that price increase is passed on to you, the consumer. The most common of the molded thermoplastics is Zytel®, a material engineered by Du Pont. Zytel has a small amount of fiberglass in it for strength qualities. A lot of utility folding knives, hunting knives, outdoor recreation knives, and some tactical folders have Zytel handles because of this cost effectiveness. On the same token, one who is a climber or maybe even a hiker might want to carry as little weight with him or her while out on a trek. Carrying a molded thermoplastic handle knife is a way they can shave a few precious ounces in this department.
Another popular molded thermoplastic is Delrin®. W.R. Case & Sons Cutlery uses Delrin in their working grade pocket knives. They basically cut a jigging patten into the surface of the material and from a distance, jigged Delrin appears to be genuine jig bone. GV6H is another form of molded thermoplastic, though it is not used widely in knife handles. One company that uses GV6H is Camillus Knives, with their Becker Knife & Tool line of hard use fixed blades. GV6H is somewhat similar to Zytel in the sense that it can be molded to form and texture, but the main difference is that GV6H has more fiberglass content. You can even feel the difference. With a Zytel handle, you maybe able to squeeze the handle halves of a folding knife hard enough to get them to flex a bit. With a GV6H handle, it’s considerably stiffer than Zytel and will not yield to pressure. It’s also abrasion, moisture, and chip resistant. While not technically classified as a thermoplastic [rigid type material], Kraton® is another popular molded synthetic material. Kraton is actually a form of rubber that has an excellent grip-you-back quality. Knife manufacturers use Kraton either as the sole handle material, such as the Gerber Gator series of folding hunting knives, or as inlays to enhance the grip provided by the use of another synthetic handle material – such as the Kabar Mule folders that sport Kraton ribs on a molded thermoplastic handle. Kraton also offers an excellent grip with either wet or dry hand, and also works well while wearing work or winter gloves. It feels a bit squishy to the grip, and Kraton can also be textured to provide an enhanced grip quality for knives that are best suited to use in the outdoors and in the elements.
Click to enlarge |
The D’Allara Rescue folder from Spyderco has molded and contoured Zytel handles. As far as inexpensive working knives go, nothing beats a molded Zytel handle in order to keep manufacturing costs down. The various radiuses, contours, and textures that some Zytel handle folding knives have are all molded as opposed to machined in. Hence, saving money. Zytel may feel very lightweight but it is a strong material. |
EXOTIC MATERIALS
For those of you whose tastes [and budgets!] run on the expensive and dressy side of things, exotic handle materials might be what you’ll want to go for on your next knife. Keep in mind, due to the cost of such materials, mainly these materials discussed here are limited to custom made knives, though, there might be exceptions. Exotic materials are such by virtue of appearance and source. For instance, mother of pearl [MOP]. Highly regarded as precious jewels by the fairer sex, us knife lovers know that MOP is a very classy handle material. A good piece of pearl will allow light to dance on it, revealing the myriad of color tones throughout the piece. It’s very stately to see a nicely made folding knife that has MOP scales. Along the lines of MOP, we have abalone. Abalone’s color variation and patterns differ greatly from that of MOP, they’re very defined.
Like MOP, abalone can really dress up a knife, making it stand out by commanding your attention to the handle area with this exotic handle material in center stage. Unfortunately, MOP and abalone are considered on the pricey side of things, so if you want a knife that has either of these, be prepared to pay! Another exotic handle material that is widely used in custom knives is stingray skin [aka rayskin]. The traditional Japanese fixed blades have long had rayskin handles. Though, in most cases, rayskin is used as an inlay as opposed to an entire handle slab like MOP or abalone. When you think about it, rayskin is an excellent choice for a handle material because it’s a tough material that is waterproof, abrasion resistant, has plenty of texture, and can be dyed in a small variety of colors. Add to that, the shiny “pearls” that some select rayskin has on its surface is definitely eye catching. Perhaps the oddest of all handle materials available to knives is a material called oosic. The origins of this name is unknown to me but suffice to say, it probably derived its moniker from people’s response to finding out what oosic really is – and I kid you not – walrus penile bone. Now, crude and crass jokes aside, oosic is a very dense material that is similar to regular bone. Considering its source – and original use – this material has gained a lot of attention among those who prefer odd and less common handle materials. That’s about it for the exotics, though this doesn’t mean there are others out there!
Click to enlarge |
Delrin® is a tough, synthetic molded thermoplastic material which offers durability and affordability in any pocketknife. Its surface texture can be molded in to provide a comfortable non-slip grip. The Buck Companion two blade pocketknife has a sawcut pattern Delrin® handle as illustrated here. |
It is my sincere hope that you have found the information presented here to be very useful in helping you to understand the varying materials that are available in knifemaking, both custom and production knives. Each handle material regardless of it being a natural material or synthetic, assist the maker in giving the knife its unique personality. Really, one should choose a handle material based on both appearance and function. Though more often than not, we may choose to purchase a knife because of the handle material. And not saying that this is wrong, but you have to consider a handle material’s performance characteristics if this is a knife to be used and not put on permanent display in your collection. The third and final installment of this multi-part knife tutorial will be centered around folding knives, with blade locks and assisted opening mechanisms going under the microscope in “Dexter’s Laboratory”. Until then, take care and keep ‘em sharp!
**The opinions expressed by Dexter Ewing do not reflect those of the staff of Blades By Brown Cutlery**
< Return to Reviews and Articles |
