Non slip knife handle material

[private fraser]

I am considering making, or more accurately, assembling a knife for myself. I'd rather have a non slip handle so that seems to knock micarta and wood etc.out as I don't think I can make a decent job of chequering.
I'm not trying top do knife makers out of a living, just fancy making something for myself, that way I have only one person to complain to .

The question is...what non slip materials are there that can possibly be adapted to fit. Carve-able rubber would be ideal .

Any (helpful) suggestions please ?.

Thanks,

fraser

 

[Dovebob]

Fraser,

This is a tricky one. If you polish any of the usual materials for knife scales (wood, micarta, buffalo horn etc.) to a high finish they will be slippery when wet. As you say, a good way to make such materials more grippy is to add some texture by chequering, grooves or something similar. However, that is difficult to achieve on a curved shape such as a knife scale.

I suggest you might like to have a look at corian - its a hard plastic, usually white, which is used to make work surfaces. It looks ok with a matt finish. This will give better grip than a polished finish. Alternatively, stabilised wood is an option. It also looks good with a mat finish and because its wood interspersed with resin it has a natural texture which helps with grip. Stabilised wood should (IMO) be acceptable from a hygiene point of view as it has no gaps or cracks in which germs can hide. However, not everyone views it that way.

Cheers,

Bob

 

[JabaliHunter]

A well finished micarta scale almost feels tacky when wet. Ideal in my opinion. My next one will be in orange micarta... probably

 

[stugun]

Same as above, 3 of my knives are Micarta and they have more grip when wet i would say!!!

 

[Peter Eaton]

All of the above are fine and if we are realistic, how often is your knife handle so wet or covered in blood as if it got to that stage, what would you do , well you would wipe the blood off it. For at the end of the day prevention is far better than anything else. If you do decide to use Micarta , infact any material remember to use a decent respiratory mask as Micarta will play havoc with your lungs. Also dont use tuffnol as an alternative,thats asking for trouble in later life with cancers and the like.

 

[re'M'ington]

G10

 

[Caberhill]

Why not just make a antler/horn/wood handle and use a bit of bike inner tube over the handle for soggy conditions. Cheap as chips or free if you can get an old one and you can just replace it if it starts to look tacky?

I'm not a knife maker though!

 

[private fraser]

Thanks for the replies gents, very useful, especially the tip about the health hazards . Ref the reply from aliS about the bike inner, that's just what I have on the shaft of my stick, works very well. I'm thinking of getting a stainless damascus blade though so I'd like it to look good.

I haven't properly checked out micarta so I should do that. I see the Fallkniven F1 knife has micarta as the handle material so there must be something to it.
Never heard of G10, I'll check that out too.
Thanks again,

fraser

 

[John Gryphon]

"that's just what I have on the shaft of my stick"

What`s ya missus think of that?

 

[re'M'ington]

Making G-10 Material

 

[saddler]

Am I missing something?
Surely there are established ways to roughen a wood surface to make it very non-slip?

Even the basic WW2 Ek knife, with a smooth wooden handle, was non-slip.