Which Knife Handle Material?

[Bobson]

I'm hoping someone can thoroughly explain the pros and cons of knife grips made with Micarta, G10, aluminum, and Zytel, respectively.

I've got my eye on a Benchmade 525, which is advertised as having a "machined 6061 T-6 aluminum handle." I don't know if it's attributed to the handle being aluminum, but I loved the heft this knife seemed to have, compared to many other lightweight folders of similar size.

Thing is, I'd like to pick up a small fixed-blade sooner than later, too; but I know very little as far as differences between the materials I mentioned above. I've read that Micarta can become misshapen in humid environments; while G10 can be brittle and prone to cracking in any environment.

I live in a very hot/dry environment right now, but I like to buy products that will do well in very cold/wet/rainy/humid environments as well. Just looking for pros and cons on the four materials I listed, if anyone can help me out. Thanks a bunch.

 

[hso]

I've read that Micarta can become misshapen in humid environments; while G10 can be brittle and prone to cracking in any environment.

I've never seen either of those happen. Both are considered to be the most dimensionally stable handle materials out there next to machined aluminum and steel.

I find no cons to micarta. G-10 can be polished so finely that it doesn't provide good traction, but that's not a fault of the material. Zytel is inexpensive, moldable and therefore can provide a less expensive grip with a lot of traction if the surface is properly formed. It is also very stable, if not as stable as the other two. It also lacks the strength of the others. Aluminum is very dimensionally stable, but can be hot or cold where the other materials are not.

 

[Bobson]

Thanks, hso. Among the fixed-blade knives I've been looking into and handling when possible, Micarta and Zytel seem to be the most-used materials in the handles. Grips aren't necessarily the problem I'm having in choosing which knife to go with, but I thought learning the differences might help me narrow things down a bit.

 

[Valkman]

I've worked a lot of micarta and G10 and found them to be all but indestructable - never heard of micarta giving way in humidity or G10 crumbling.

 

[JimStC]

Micarta is my favorite handle material, textured or smooth. +1 on being indestructible.

Jim

 

[Carl Levitian]

For 20 years my go-to knife for hiking and camping was a Randall 14 with a micarta handle. The knife was exposed to all kinds of climates and abuse, but never showed any problems wit the micarta handle. I also have an old Buck 102 woodsman sheath knife with a micarta handle. It has been in service for longer than my Rabdall, and has been a fishing and small game knife. No handle problems there either in spite of the blade being a lot skinnier that it used to be.

Micarta is tough stuff, and was the go-to knife handle material of the 60's to 80's. There may be new stuff out there, but micarta is still the tough stuff it always has been.

Carl.

 

[hso]

The FRN (fiber reinforced nylon) handles materials are out there on folders more commonly than fixed blades. The thickness of the material for fixed blade knives helps compensate for some of its faults. The fact that you can mold texture in is great for manufactures.

 

[JShirley]

G10 can be too grippy or too smooth, depending on how it's finished. I actually like the Chinese Spydercos best, for G10 feel. Aluminum handles can be too slick. Paper and linen micartas are fairly tough, and can be extremely attractive- look for some paper micarta scales on some knives Sam builds soon. I do think they scuff a little more easily than canvas micarta, though it's only a surface mark.

Canvas micarta is my absolute favorite handle material, and in the right shapes and sizes, also makes a fine impact tool. Natural can look like wood, with a simple, cleanly rugged beauty that grips well and that may outlast you.

John

 

[Kingcreek]

I like canvas or linen Micarta. with a light bead blast finish it is grippy enough even when hands are wet with water or blood.
If I've got to field dress or quarter game in 10 degree weather it won't be with an aluminum handled anything.

 

[modarmory]

micarta +1
Used for alot of different things other than knife handles.

 

[rcmodel]

Micarta was originally invented for use in electronic circuit boards.
Stability over extreme temperature change was a requirement to keep expansion / contraction from breaking the printed circuits.

It was later used for bearing blocks in industrial machinery.

It is about as inert, weatherproof, and abuse proof as anything can get.

And it looks good too!

rc

 

[JimStC]

Modarmory,
Nice website and solid knife selection. Spartans are good knives by my standards. I know you have been around since May but still welcome to THR.
I'll be lurking around your website. Discount for THR knife addicts is a great idea

Jim

 

[hso]

Micarta was originally invented for use in electronic circuit boards.

Just a bit earlier, actually, than electronic circuit boards.
You'll actually find it in old pre-TV radios and electrical systems and other electrical insulator applications. It also was used to make all sorts of items before WWII. It was invented in 1910. I wonder if micarta became a knife handle material because of theater knives during WWII?

 

[modarmory]

delete

 

[modarmory]

Modarmory,
Nice website and solid knife selection. Spartans are good knives by my standards. I know you have been around since May but still welcome to THR.
I'll be lurking around your website. Discount for THR knife addicts is a great idea

Jim, thank you. I've been lurking around THR, so i guess its fair. Just ask for Camille and i i will help with discounts or free shipping.

 

[RatDrall]

I just sent my Bravo 1 back to Bark River, because the Micarta handle started peeling away from the handle above the highest screw.

I've never seen G10 deform, and now I've seen micarta fail. They're replacing the micarta with G10 per my request.

 

[Zeke/PA]

I've made quite a few knives with Micarta scales with no problems at all.
Comes in Paper, Linen and Canvas bases in various colors.
In my Toolmaking days, I used the stuff for many things from small gears to bases for rather large tooling/ assembly fixtures.
A few years back I was compensated decently for a material substitution suggestion substituting Micarta for what was then in use.

 

[Lone Star]

W.D. Randall told me that he first saw Micarta being used on the counter tops when he built his home. Got curious about it as a stable knife handle and tried it. But he didn't mention a date, and I was surprised to learn recently that it's much older than I'd known. I think Randall built that house in the 1950's, and it may have been new to HIM then. He previously used Tenite on some knife handles. He replaced that with Micarta.

Micarta has done well by me, but i have a Benchmade with G-10 that's also good, and I have Fallkniven knives wih Thermorun and Kraton handles that are especially secure when wet or slimy. These are on sheath knives.

I have a Kershaw with a Zytel handle. Okay, too, and it's checkered for non-slip.

I don't like the feel of aluminum.

Gerber's Applegate-Fairbairn folders use a glass-reinforced nylon that I like. It has longitudinal grooves for grasping security, although not very slick.

One advantage of Micarta is that it's so old that I could have characters use it for knife handles in the 1920's when writing a fan fiction about a now defunct TV show. One character was from the 21st Century, and she wanted a knife like the Gerber A-F that she'd seen in 2033, before being transported in a time-travelling cave back to 1922. After escaping a mysterious plateau with dinosaurs and later marrying the genius professor whose time cave had rescued her in New Amazonia, she got him to devise an improved Micarta-like substance for her folding knives. They couldn't make the sophisticated saw teeth near the base of the blades on those Gerbers, so used just a conventional edge. But they got a very effective knife for the day. The girl (Finn) found the knife ideal for her purse in London. Got her mate to make it in his home lab in Kent in all three sizes offered by Gerber. They had a custom cutler in Sheffield make the blades.

Of course, unless you write such "fics", that info is of limited interest... Well, you could adapt it to any sci-fi book set in that time frame.

Oh: Buck calls their version of what MAY be a form of Micarta a "phenolic resin." It has worked well for me, too, if a bit slick when wet or bloody. But I like it and like the Buck knives. I am especially fond of their Models 105, 119, and (discontinued) Model 120.

 

[AStone]

Interesting thread.

I own a Spyderco Manix 2 with G10. Very grippy, totally non-slip, feels fine in my hand, but it's almost too aggressive for my trouser pockets, which wear out now faster than the butt. (And that's after coating the fabric contact areas with black nail polish.)

I just purchased an ESEE with canvas micarta; it will be my first micarta, so I've been studying the material a little bit. Knife is not here yet - I was expecting it today, but hopefully tomorrow.

 

[Mikee Loxxer]

You'll like the micarta on the ESEE knives Nematocyst, even though it smells kind of funny when their new. I have got a 3 and a 6 and they're great knives. The 1095 carbon steel is nice and dendritic.

 

[AStone]

Mikee, I feel like a kid impatiently waiting for it.

Thanks for the heads up on the smell.

Any idea what it's off gassing?
Something organic (as in chemistry, not farming), no doubt.

 

[Jim Watson]

Oosik?

 

[Mikee Loxxer]

I would guess it is outgassing from the resin component of the linen micarta (phenol?). It does seem to go away fairly quickly. I took receipt of my 3 a few weeks ago and the odor has subsided considerably. Be careful ESEE knives are addictive. I bought an Izula late last year that got me hooked.

 

[AStone]

From this review of an ESEE 3.

I had never held a micarta handle prior to this knife. I was skeptical at first on the durability of the micarta, like maybe the hardness and wearing of the canvas. However, the micarta feels bulletproof. The epoxy or chemical they infuse into the canvas (what stabilizes and hardens it) has an off putting smell though. It really smells like burned plastic, which i thought at first was the ABS molded sheath. But after the smell rubbed off onto my hands and I continued smelling it later that night, I realized what it came from. It has seemed to wear off somewhat, but I can definitely still smell it when I put my nose to it.

 

[rcmodel]

Micarta was once known as phenolic resin.
Westinghouse held the trade name Micarta, and anyone else making or selling it had to use Phenollic Resin or some generic name for it.

Phenol formaldehyde resins (PF) are synthetic polymers obtained by the reaction of phenol or substituted phenol with formaldehyde.

Thats what it smells like when you grind, sand, or shape it.

rc