You Make the Choice

We'll do our best to accommodate you with exactly the handle materials you want.  Pricing for handle materials is based entirely on what we have to pay for them and the amount of time it takes to fabricate a handle using them plus any special chemicals and other supplies used.  If something you want is known to be difficult to find you can expect to pay extra for that.  We expect to be compensated for our time and don't want everyone who buys something from us to pay for the difficult cases.

Materials Choices and Guarantee Issues

When considering your options please bear in mind the following two issues:

• If a materials choice only affects appearance, a wide variety of materials can be used and the choice is entirely up to the buyer .
• If a materials choice affects functionality or durability, the buyer still gets to choose but we get to decide what we're willing to guarantee.

Wood

We have or can get most woods.  Most hardwoods can be used to make scales and handles.

Antler

American Elk, Mule Deer, White Tail and sometimes European Red Stag and Caribou antler are available.  We usually have some Elk and Mule Deer and can always get what's needed.  None of these are as dense as Sambar stag antler and require some special treatment to insure strength and stability.  As you're probably aware, Sambar stag hasn't been exported from India for some time now and may never be again.  Good pieces of Sambar stag antler are getting hard to find and are relatively expensive when we can find them.

Horn

A fairly wide variety of horn can be used for scales and some of it is quite attractive.  Spacers and through-tang handles are best done with water buffalo. American buffalo (Bison Bison) horn is, sadly, unsuitable because of its friability; it doesn't work well and tends to split apart into strands.

Ivory and Bone

Fossil mammoth and walrus ivory and bone are obtainable, but fossil ivory is generally more expensive than wood, antler or horn.

Sometimes actual elephant ivory is available but it is always expensive.

Modern Synthetics

We'll make Micarta® scales on full-tangs if that's what you want..  The stuff just screams modern but (especially in the case of canvas Micarta) is very practical, durable, waterproof and inherently stable.  It is harder to work than any of the natural materials and will cost you more than most woods, antler or horn.

Corian® is sometimes a good choice.  It can be scrimmed and the white looks vaguely ivory-like.  It's just as stable as Micarta®, is a bit softer but is still quite hard.

Guards

We usually use mild steel (1018 or similar) for guards but will use 1084/1080/1075 or 5160 if the guard needs to be thinner and lighter in weight.  Brass or bronze can be used but are heavier because they must be much thicker to make up for their relative weakness and they tarnish like crazy.  German/nickel silver is a good choice for single guards

Pommels

We use a bunch of stuff for these depending primarily on their purpose.  If the only purpose of the pommel is appearance, balance and to finish/secure the handle, it is usually made of mild steel, copper, brass, bronze, or German/nickel silver.  If a knife might be used to pound on something, the pommel will typically be forged from 1050 or 5160 and heat-treated to hammer-like hardness.

Spacers

Sometimes spacers make a nice visual transition between materials in a handle.  We frequently use copper, brass, bronze or horn for these.  The one thing we don't use is that "rubber impregnated fiber material" which looks nice sometimes but is very fond of soaking up moisture.  Many fibrous (even fabric) materials can be used for spacers when impregnated with epoxy.  Some plastics also make good spacers.

Leather

We'll make laminated leather handles on through-tang knives.  We first compress the leather pieces as much as possible with the leather wet.  The pieces must be allowed to dry in the compressed state before they can be assembled on the knife.  During assembly, epoxy is used to secure and seal all of the pieces in place along with the other handle parts.  The pommel can be secured either by peining or by the use of an acorn nut.  We prefer to pein the tang over the pommel because it's a stronger method of construction and the likelihood of the leather shrinking over time is extremely low.  Using a nut requires shortening the tang and brazing a bolt onto it whereas with a peined tang you have blade steel all the way through the knife.

We occasionally use rawhide on some kinds of bone handles (e.g. jaw bones).  It's historical in some contexts, looks nice on some kinds of knives and when that's what someone wants and understands the implications, we'll use it.  It's not possible to make a knife as strong with a jawbone handle as it would be with other kinds of construction.  Speaking of jaw bones, please be aware that not all of them are legal.  Black bear parts are an interstate commerce no-no and illegal to possess in some jurisdictions.  In Colorado, for instance, if the Department of Wildlife finds any part of a black bear in your possession you had best have some plausible evidence that you, personally, legally killed the bear it belonged to.  So, if you want a knife with a coyote or wolverine jaw handle we can do that or if you live in Colorado and want us to use a bear jaw to make a handle, you'll need to provide a copy of your filled bear tag along with your cleaned bear jaw.