Handle Material... Durability rating? (yes. i searched.)

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May 4, 2010
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Would like a simplified list of handle materials in order of strong to weak in regards to impact and abrasion.
I searched here and found Nada.

Like is Micarta stronger than G10 or Carbon Fiber? In what ways?
All the way down to pearls and stuff.

Anyone?
 
There's some good discussion on the matter in this thread.

As for micarta vs. G10 vs. CF vs. professionally-stabilized wood vs natural wood... all are plenty strong and durable for using knives as long as the handle is built well in the first place. They're going to be securely attached to heat-treated steel (at least on fixed blades), after all. I prefer G10 for pure toughness, but the others work very well, too.
 
Short answer:
Carbon fiber
G-10 ( because it is glass fiber)
Micarta ( Because it is phenolic)
Hard and stable woods - Desert ironwood, walnut, persimmon, ebony, African blackwood, hard maple, etc.
Stabilized woods - (These have been impregnated with acrylic resins and made harder and more stable)
Burl woods - (Some burls are pretty hard)
Softer woods - If your thumbnail can make a dent, it is a softer wood.
 
I like Stacy's answer.
Only thing that I would add is that there can be quite a bit of variations with natural materials.
Hardness and durability ratings for them should be considered as an approximation instead of an absolute.
 
In respect to the synthetics, while G10 is stiffer, I feel that micarta is more scratch resistant. G10 just seems to grind away so quickly, while micarta can be a pain in the neck to shape with a dullish belt.

As far as structural integrity, I've seen where stabilized burl blocks may have voids big enough to weaken them inside. Eucalyptus comes to mind for this.
 
Another thing, micarta can vary in abrasion resistance with linen micarta being more wear resistant than canvas. I don't know how linen compares to canvas in impact resistance though as both are plenty tough. The difference isn't that big in the grand scheme of things though.

I can't help you with the other stuff.

There probably isn't a list because most of us think of materials simply as tough enough or not tough enough to work on a knife. The different properties also make it a little harder to rank materials unless you're going to make a list for each individual property.
 
I think I can give you a good reading on those. True stone, bone, pearl, ivory, (in some cases the ivory can be ahead of the pearl), horn, tortoise, fake marble. fossil coral. Frank
 
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