Post by Lobster on Feb 9, 2016 8:21:50 GMT 3
The handle is a very important part of the overall package that makes a knife. Not only its form but also the material can be a crucial factor of how well the knife will perform. Knife handles are made of metals or synthetic and natural materials.
Natural materials:
Wood has been used as a knife handle since knives came into existence. A good quality wood handle is durable, attractive and a relatively inexpensive material. It is easy to work and has a wonderful feel to it. Wood adds a lot of beauty to a knife, making wood handled knives popular.
Depending on the kind of wood used, maintenance is required to keep its look and feel.
There are hundreds of local and exotic woods used in knife making today, each displaying unique characteristics. By the process of stabilizing, softer, more porous woods otherwise unsuitable for the purpose can be made useful as knife handles. The wood is immersed in a liquid plastic or resin and pressurized so that the liquid is absorbed into the wood. after hardening this wood is virtually waterproof whilst retaining its natural beauty.
Bone handles have been used for thousands of years due to the availability and durability and is still widely used as today, many classic slipjoint knives still use bone as handle material. Most bones used today are from cows but virtually any animal with large enough bones can be used, in Africa for example, camel bones are very popular. Bone is easy to work and dye making it an attractive material.
Bone is naturally slippery requiring additional surface texturing (jigging) for a better grip. Bone also is porous which affects its stability both structurally and in appearance. It can crack or chip, deform and discolor quite easy and exposure to sunlight and changing temperatures can have undesirable effects on bone making it unsuitable for hard use knives.
Horn. Like bone, animals horns have been used for millennia to make knife handles. Antelope, buffalo, deer, cow and others are used and everybody is familiar with the stag horn handles still popular today. The natural texture and pattern makes stag an excellent handle material with great grip and individuality, no 2 pieces are alike. Although stronger than bone, it still can chip or crack when beaten and Light exposure and temperature changes can affect it.
Ivory is made from the tusks of various animals like elephant, walrus, hippo or narwhals. There is a supply of walrus and mammoth ivory that is found in the permafrost of the northern hemisphere from animals that have died tens of thousands of years ago that can be considered ethically and legally sound to use. The trade and possession of new ivory is illegal in most countries.
Mother of pearl is a very beautiful, iridescent material and it is used on knife handles mainly in the form of inlays. It is naturally brittle and therefore not suitable for hard use knives. Depending which sea shell is used, the material's color varies from white to golden, bluish to black.
Metals
Stainless steel provides excellent durability and resistance to corrosion but is heavy and slippery so manufacturers have to incorporate etching or ridges to provide the necessary grip.
Aluminum is usually anodized for color, hardness and protection and is a very durable material for knife handles. It’s a metal that provides a nice, solid feel without making a knife heavy.
Properly textured, an aluminum handle can provide a secure grip that is also comfortable and easy for extended use.
Titanium is a lightweight metal alloy, much stronger than aluminium but much more expensive and difficult to work. It offers supreme corrosion resistance.
Titanium has a warm feel to it, is very strong yet elastic. Like aluminum, titanium scratches easily and shows wear. By anodizing or bead blasting, unique and attractive color and texture patterns can be applied.
Synthetic
Micarta is made out of layers of a fibrous material like paper, linen, cotton or canvas soaked in a resin. When the required thickness is reached, pressure and/or heat are applied to cure the resin. The finished slab can then be cut and sanded into any desired shape. The layered structure gives it a very attractive appearance when sanded, particularly when differently colored layers are applied. Micarta is very smooth and slippery requiring working the surface to give it the desired grip. It is not a cheap material.
ABS is a very common plastic that is extremely tough and cheap to produce. Injection molded ABS handles are found on budget kitchen- and every day working knives.
Fiberglass Reinforces Nylon (FRN) - Zytel is another type of thermoplastic material. Zytel is super strong, resistant to bending, abrasion and practically indestructible and cheap. The nylon fibers in FRN are arranged randomly which results in omnidirectional strenght as opposed to G-10, Carbon Fiber and Micarta which have the fiberglass strands aligned in lenght and width only. FRN is inexpensive because it can be injection molded into any desired shape and texture requiring no additional processing.
G-10 is a fiberglass laminate composite. It has similar properties to carbon fiber at a fraction of the cost. Layers of fiberglass cloth soaked in resin are compressed and baked them under pressure. The material that results it extremely tough, hard, very lightweight, non porous and strong and available in a variety of colors. While cheaper to produce than carbon fiber, it still has to be cut and machined into shape which is not as economical as the injection molding process.
Carbon fiber is composed of strands of carbon that are woven in a sheet and set in resin. Carbon fiber is probably the strongest of all the lightweight synthetic handle materials. The carbon strands reflect light which makes the weave pattern very visible giving it a very attractive high tech look. Carbon fiber is a labor-intensive material which results in an expensive handle material. While a strong material, it’s far from indestructible and being brittle it can crack if stressed or splinter when subjected to sharp impacts.
Pakkawood is an impregnated type of plywood. This material is constructed of small pieces of hardwood veneer, often dyed with bright colors, combined with plastic resins. Dye is impregnated into the wood using a vacuum process, and then the resin is added using a very high pressure environment. The pieces of veneer are stacked and compressed into blocks. Pakkawood is a very dense product that is largely waterproof and is suitable for adverse environments.
Natural materials:
Wood has been used as a knife handle since knives came into existence. A good quality wood handle is durable, attractive and a relatively inexpensive material. It is easy to work and has a wonderful feel to it. Wood adds a lot of beauty to a knife, making wood handled knives popular.
Depending on the kind of wood used, maintenance is required to keep its look and feel.
There are hundreds of local and exotic woods used in knife making today, each displaying unique characteristics. By the process of stabilizing, softer, more porous woods otherwise unsuitable for the purpose can be made useful as knife handles. The wood is immersed in a liquid plastic or resin and pressurized so that the liquid is absorbed into the wood. after hardening this wood is virtually waterproof whilst retaining its natural beauty.
Bone handles have been used for thousands of years due to the availability and durability and is still widely used as today, many classic slipjoint knives still use bone as handle material. Most bones used today are from cows but virtually any animal with large enough bones can be used, in Africa for example, camel bones are very popular. Bone is easy to work and dye making it an attractive material.
Bone is naturally slippery requiring additional surface texturing (jigging) for a better grip. Bone also is porous which affects its stability both structurally and in appearance. It can crack or chip, deform and discolor quite easy and exposure to sunlight and changing temperatures can have undesirable effects on bone making it unsuitable for hard use knives.
Horn. Like bone, animals horns have been used for millennia to make knife handles. Antelope, buffalo, deer, cow and others are used and everybody is familiar with the stag horn handles still popular today. The natural texture and pattern makes stag an excellent handle material with great grip and individuality, no 2 pieces are alike. Although stronger than bone, it still can chip or crack when beaten and Light exposure and temperature changes can affect it.
Ivory is made from the tusks of various animals like elephant, walrus, hippo or narwhals. There is a supply of walrus and mammoth ivory that is found in the permafrost of the northern hemisphere from animals that have died tens of thousands of years ago that can be considered ethically and legally sound to use. The trade and possession of new ivory is illegal in most countries.
Mother of pearl is a very beautiful, iridescent material and it is used on knife handles mainly in the form of inlays. It is naturally brittle and therefore not suitable for hard use knives. Depending which sea shell is used, the material's color varies from white to golden, bluish to black.
Metals
Stainless steel provides excellent durability and resistance to corrosion but is heavy and slippery so manufacturers have to incorporate etching or ridges to provide the necessary grip.
Aluminum is usually anodized for color, hardness and protection and is a very durable material for knife handles. It’s a metal that provides a nice, solid feel without making a knife heavy.
Properly textured, an aluminum handle can provide a secure grip that is also comfortable and easy for extended use.
Titanium is a lightweight metal alloy, much stronger than aluminium but much more expensive and difficult to work. It offers supreme corrosion resistance.
Titanium has a warm feel to it, is very strong yet elastic. Like aluminum, titanium scratches easily and shows wear. By anodizing or bead blasting, unique and attractive color and texture patterns can be applied.
Synthetic
Micarta is made out of layers of a fibrous material like paper, linen, cotton or canvas soaked in a resin. When the required thickness is reached, pressure and/or heat are applied to cure the resin. The finished slab can then be cut and sanded into any desired shape. The layered structure gives it a very attractive appearance when sanded, particularly when differently colored layers are applied. Micarta is very smooth and slippery requiring working the surface to give it the desired grip. It is not a cheap material.
ABS is a very common plastic that is extremely tough and cheap to produce. Injection molded ABS handles are found on budget kitchen- and every day working knives.
Fiberglass Reinforces Nylon (FRN) - Zytel is another type of thermoplastic material. Zytel is super strong, resistant to bending, abrasion and practically indestructible and cheap. The nylon fibers in FRN are arranged randomly which results in omnidirectional strenght as opposed to G-10, Carbon Fiber and Micarta which have the fiberglass strands aligned in lenght and width only. FRN is inexpensive because it can be injection molded into any desired shape and texture requiring no additional processing.
G-10 is a fiberglass laminate composite. It has similar properties to carbon fiber at a fraction of the cost. Layers of fiberglass cloth soaked in resin are compressed and baked them under pressure. The material that results it extremely tough, hard, very lightweight, non porous and strong and available in a variety of colors. While cheaper to produce than carbon fiber, it still has to be cut and machined into shape which is not as economical as the injection molding process.
Carbon fiber is composed of strands of carbon that are woven in a sheet and set in resin. Carbon fiber is probably the strongest of all the lightweight synthetic handle materials. The carbon strands reflect light which makes the weave pattern very visible giving it a very attractive high tech look. Carbon fiber is a labor-intensive material which results in an expensive handle material. While a strong material, it’s far from indestructible and being brittle it can crack if stressed or splinter when subjected to sharp impacts.
Pakkawood is an impregnated type of plywood. This material is constructed of small pieces of hardwood veneer, often dyed with bright colors, combined with plastic resins. Dye is impregnated into the wood using a vacuum process, and then the resin is added using a very high pressure environment. The pieces of veneer are stacked and compressed into blocks. Pakkawood is a very dense product that is largely waterproof and is suitable for adverse environments.