opinions on kirinite

T

thedirector93

Joined
Dec 10, 2013
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66
so i was looking at some of the different colors and designs of it and thought it would look cool on my next knife, but the scales are almost $20 a pair, and the sheets are almost $70, which is a lot more then the micarta and g10 i use. is it worth the money?
 
It is worth it if it gives you the look you want. I love colour in my folders but kirinite seems over the wall to me. On the other hand many consider the material combinations I use to be too much. Can't tell you how it works. Frank
 
The photo below is of a knife I recently finished using Bengal Kirinite. I never thought I would use the stuff but I was basically given three choices; solid orange G10, Kirinite or no sale. The client wanted something bright that would be hard to lose in the field. I thought solid orange would look too nautical on this knife so this is what I went with. He loved it! It was fine to work but has a couple peculiarities. It can get a smeared look to it while hand sanding; wet sanding takes care of that. The other thing is, I feel it looks too plastic-y with a high polish. I ended up taking the polish off this knife with 2500grit. If you are going to let the cost of materials keep you from trying new things, you will seriously limit yourself as a creative knifemaker. I just add the cost of the materials to the cost of the knife.

Bob

IMG_3977 by Ranger_Bob, on Flickr
 
its not that im cheap, its just that kirinite is twice as expensive as g10 and micarta, but if its twice as good, then i'll buy it
 
It's not twice as good for sure. Micarta is the all time "work horse" for knife handles. G10 isn't too far away and has colour. I beline kirinite is a much softer handle material. Frank
 
Kirinite is very "tough" in that it doesn't chip like regular acrylic. It can snap along color boundaries, like on a black line, but is very tough stuff. The colors are great when polished and nothing else comes close if you like the swirly, opalescent patterns.

Now, the bad stuff about it. It's thin, too thin to get matching scales. It comes in 3/8" at the thickest, so it is possible to cut matching scales for a folder, but doubt you would ever get full tang sized scaled that match. I've lobbied the manufacturer to give us thicker sheets, as well as solid colors.
 
I know the conventional wisdom is that symmetry defines beauty. When it comes to faces, that is true. I don't think it's an essential for beauty in knife handles.

I used it on the kitchen knife I made for my wife. We both love it. I used it on a couple of other knives too... both are still in use.

Frankly, I found it a delight to work with and very nice when finished.
 
Brings back memories of lava lamps and celluloid handle knives
 
RangerBobTX said:
The photo below is of a knife I recently finished using Bengal Kirinite. I never thought I would use the stuff but I was basically given three choices; solid orange G10, Kirinite or no sale. The client wanted something bright that would be hard to lose in the field. I thought solid orange would look too nautical on this knife so this is what I went with. He loved it! It was fine to work but has a couple peculiarities. It can get a smeared look to it while hand sanding; wet sanding takes care of that. The other thing is, I feel it looks too plastic-y with a high polish. I ended up taking the polish off this knife with 2500grit. If you are going to let the cost of materials keep you from trying new things, you will seriously limit yourself as a creative knifemaker. I just add the cost of the materials to the cost of the knife.

Bob

IMG_3977 by Ranger_Bob, on Flickr
Click to expand...

Very nice work on the knife and the sheath.
 
Hello friends my name is Raj M. Singh and I'm the President of Eagle Grips Inc. and Kirinite USA.

Kirinite was discovered by me as an alternative to other materials. I am enjoying reading this thread and would like to also compliment Ranger Bob and others like him for creating beautiful knives like these. It's ideas like this that inspired us to create Kirinite for you. In this case, Bob's use of Bengal Tiger Kirinite looks and appears to flow quite well here and looks spectacularly appropriate on this knife.

Kirinite is not the answer to everything, it's just another option for handle material for you artists to consider for your next particular project. The knife world is changing rapidly with the availability of new materials and the difficulty in obtaining traditional natural materials, that's why there's new choices and ideas today.

I'll keep it short, for those of you knifemakers who have never tried Kirinite for yourself, I welcome you to contact my office at the address or telephone below and get yourself a free sample of our Kirinite material. I also ask that you reach out to us and give us your feedback, as we can only improve our materials with your input.

Thanks to you all for this opportunity, I am here at your service if you have any questions or comments.

Very sincerely,

Raj M. Singh
Kirinite USA
460 Randy Road
Carol Stream, IL 60188
630-260-0400
Email: Sales@eaglegrips.com
 
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I can,t speak on the Kirinite, but I have purchased some revolver grips from these folks
and the fit and finish were near perfect.
 
I will give it a try...email sent
 
The symmetry I'm talking about isn't having both sides similar. It's where they meet at the tang at the top and bottom that are troublesome to me. If Bob could show a picture of the top of the handle, you'd see what I mean. Raj makes a great product, and was exceedingly nice both times I met him at the hammer-ins in Mankato. I'd just like to see thicker pieces for full tang handles. Oh, and I still want solid color pieces for a set of matching steak knives.


However, I don't think I can speak highly enough of how much much I like kirinite as a product.


tryppyr said:
I know the conventional wisdom is that symmetry defines beauty. When it comes to faces, that is true. I don't think it's an essential for beauty in knife handles.

I used it on the kitchen knife I made for my wife. We both love it. I used it on a couple of other knives too... both are still in use.

Frankly, I found it a delight to work with and very nice when finished.
Click to expand...
 
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I greatly appreciate all your comments. Big to thanks to everyone who emailed to receive Kirinte samples. You will be receiving them next week by USPS. Anybody else need any, please let me know.

Thanks again.

Raj M. Singh
Eagle Grips, Inc.
Kirinite.com
 
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