Favorite knife handle material

[Bigtimber]

Looking for new handle materials to work with. Whats your favorite?

Secondly.... Perhaps make a recommended colorful type material that buffs up fairly easily.....something that just really catches the eyes. Thanks.

 

[Nicodemus]

Antler-stag and desert ironwood. I love fossil mammoth ivory but it`s awful expensive.

 

[wvdawg]

Antler-stag and desert ironwood. I love fossil mammoth ivory but it`s awful expensive.

Yep - desert ironwood is tops! I like mammoth ivory too, but they aren't making it anymore. Camel bone takes colors well - especially like it when the color is applied and then wiped off just leaving color in the grain.

 

[godogs57]

Desert ironwood for my personal knives. However, I’ve run across some gidgee wood recently that will roll your socks up and down. Like desert ironwood, it’s dense and oily, needing no finish. Heavy, dense, highly figured....it’s a winner.

 

[Dan DeBord]

I guess my latest is spalted maple .

 

[Bigtimber]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I have made knives on and off for 20 plus years.....seems I always run into the same old issues with it. Handle material cost seems to be the number one that comes up. I like the "good stuff" but it sure ain't cheap through normal sources.

 

[Anvil Head]

I like them all, but prefer not to use synthetic and very little stabilized. Just doesn't go with most of the knives I make these days. My favorite "local" readily accessible woods are osage, black locust, hickory, and black walnut. I have also used a good bit of bradford pear and redbud when the cuts are right and the grain is tight.

Bone and antler are my other favorites in the right applications.

 

[godogs57]

Antler-stag and desert ironwood. I love fossil mammoth ivory but it`s awful expensive.

And can be brittle if not stabilized.