Knife Scales/handle

[Mark W Pugh]

I'm having a buddy make me a knife. He wants me to pick out the scales/handle. There is way too much to pick from, so need some advice.

Wooden handles: If you were going to use wood for the handle, on a hunting/skinning knife, what wood would you use?

Yea, I know there a lot of variables, but it will be used for skinning, and he is just getting started.

I have a lot of cherry, in which I can make a ton of scales for him, but how would cherry hold up?

Thanks for any advice.

[Von Bickley]

You may want to check out this site. The last knife I bought for my son had "camel bone" handles. Looks great.

http://usaknifemaker.com/

[peter gagliardi]

I am partial to either birdseye maple or curly/tiger maple. image.jpg
I have used it on the last 1/2 dozen knives

[Cary Falk]

I would want something harder than cherry.

[Anthony Pearce]

What ever wood you pick I would get it stabilized. It's going to be around water when cleaning and other fluids while it's working. You really could use whatever you have gay looks good. I like ironwood burl or koa.

FC68qZH.jpg
This is one of my daily drivers for work. It's ground down from one piece though not scales.

[Erik Loza]

My wife had a knife commissioned for me as a gift, some years back. It's in the garage or I'd post a photo. Black Palm scales. Looks awesome but that stuff is murder on tools.

Erik

[John T Barker]

Cherry is a pretty tough wood especially considering the use you've got in mind. If you want tough wood go for ironwood or rosewood and such. Knife scales are a few inches of wood so you should be able to pick some up for next to nothing.

[Danny Hamsley]

I have some highly figured crotch/flame black walnut. PM me if you want some.

[Charles Lent]

+1 For Rosewood.


Charley

[Wes Ramsey]

I usually prefer whatever I can get locally. If I was in Hawaii I would probably want Koa. Here in AR I'd use a select piece of cherry or walnut. For you, maybe buckeye? You could cut the scales from bookmatched crotch pieces and turn the matching sides out. That might look pretty sharp.

Stabilizing would be best. Most woodturning clubs have someone that will do it for you for a small fee. But it isn't required. I like the feel of well-worn, natural wood. The knives I enjoy most have no finish at all and the wood is protected by the fat of the many thousands of critters processed in my family's former meat packing shop.

[Cody Colston]

I would go with Cocobolo.

[Brian Lamb]

In my younger days I was a custom knife maker. If using wood, use something extremely hard like ironwood or cocobolo, cherry and even maple are too soft and will dent and ding too easily, or in the case of cherry, chip off in chunks, it's too brittle. Antlers or stag horn work well, or man made materials like micarta or phenolic. Ivory and mother of pearl can be pretty too, but not usually good for much other than an inlaid handle, not slabs.

[Marshall Mosby]

Cherry is hard to work with. You should try using something apt like rosewood.