Get a grip! Wood as a knife handle material.

I would like to expand our knowledge of handle materials and their advantages and disadvantages. A knife handle is simply the part of a knife that was built with the specific purpose of being able to safely hold and use the knife it's attached to. In the beginning, the handle material was the part of the cutting tool that didn't cut you, not much as changed regarding the concept of the handle. However, the materials used and their purposes have changed.

I won't be covering all the different types of handle materials as just about anything that is relatively hard can be used. A shortened list of those materials would include, metal, wood, plastics, animal horns and more. I will cover some of the more basic materials of knives that National Knives has in stock and for sale or had in stock at some point.  This blog will focus on wood.

The first material I am going to address is wood. It's all around us and used virtually everywhere in just about everything, or so it seems anyways. Knife manufacturers don't simply rely on one type of wood to all their products. Different species of woods offer different textures, grains and either add or detract from the overall appearance of the knife. Wood can add to the cost of the knife or detract from it, depending on the type of wood used and how attractive it makes the knife when it is on the dealers shelves waiting to find a new home. A scarce wood that is plain in appearance and offers no usable advantages probably won't increase the value much, but probably wouldn't be used by a manufacturer to begin with. A scarce wood that offers visual appeal and/or usable advantages will not only add to the appearance of the knives but will usually add the the price of the knife too. Some of the more common wood types that are used in the manufacturer of knife handles are : Cocobolo, wood laminates (often dyed), Pakkawood, Rosewood, Oak and Sandalwood.
I would like to expand our knowledge of handle materials and their advantages and disadvantages. A knife handle is simply the part of a knife that was built with the specific purpose of being able to safely hold and use the knife it's attached to. In the beginning, the handle material was the part of the cutting tool that didn't cut you, not much as changed regarding the concept of the handle. However, the materials used and their purposes have changed.

The picture attached to this post features a Mcusta model 13D folding knife. Mcusta used ebony wood as the handle material with this knife. This particular model is finished smooth but has indents where the user can rest their fingers. I would not consider this knife a "hard use" knife, in other words, it would not be good for military, police, fire, EMS, survival applications. I would classify it more of a gentleman's knife and a great every day carry (EDC) knife and with it's Damascus style blade adding to the visual beauty, this would make a great special occasion folder.

Some woods are absolutely beautiful, but are difficult to keep stable so they won't split, crack or chip. One manufacturer recently used Spalted Maple, which is a heavy grained wood, as a handle material on a fixed blade knife that resulted in the manufacturer having to switch to a non-wood material and selling the defective knives at a discount. The knives were easy on the eyes with the beautiful heavy grained wood handle, unfortunately it just didn't work out for the manufacturer.

Please feel free to contact me at Sales@NationalKnives.com.

Rob