Favorite handle materials?

[Steven511]

Just a little post for suggestions on any new knife adventures, and out of sheer curiosity. What is your favorite hammer/knife handle material?

My favorite in respect to practicality is red oak- it looks fairly nice, is rather flexible but still pretty strong, and is quite cheap around my area.

My favorite from a purely looks-based view is Black/English Walnut, I love the strong grain and alternating lights and darks within the wood.

[JHCC]

I mostly use ash (since I have a lot from a tree that came down in my front yard), but I prefer hickory for its strength and the tightness of its grain. 

[dickb]

My favorite handle material is hickory. It's easy to work and very durable. There is  lot of variety raging from light cream colored with little or no grain visible. This seems to be what is used for sledge hammer handles. Hand hammers are usually made with hickory with a little more color and figure in it.  It's not an exotic material and readily available in the form of replacement hammer handles, so it's pretty cheap. 

Another favorite is black walnut, beautiful dark brown,  very easy to work and available in plain with little or no figure to highly figured .  

Both seem impervious to water damage, but I linseed oil finish them  once or twice and they are just about permanently maintenance free.

 

  

[Chris Pariso]

Cocobolo is one of my favorite woods to use - great contrast in the grain, polishes amazingly well, and there almost every piece looks unique. It's an extremely hard wood, but moves easily with sharp tools. Wenge wood and bocote are other favorites.

As for finishing them, I like to sand fairly course, about 250 grit, then give it a quick wipe with rubbing alcohol to remove all dust. Once it's completely dry, I'll coat the handle with ultra thin superglue, the kind that is meant for whicking into hairline cracks. It's thin enough to soak into the rough grain and penetrate the wood a tiny bit. I'll do 5 or 6 coatings, giving a few minutes to set between each, then polish smooth beginning with 800 grit, and working up from there. The end result is a clear, waterproof, rock hard, polyurethane-like coating, that can be polished to a mirror shine if desired. Best of all, it takes a grand total of 30 minutes from start to finish.

[JHCC]

Be warned: cocobolo contains toxic oils that cause anything from a mild rash to (if inhaled) respiratory arrest. Dust masks are mandatory; surgical gloves are recommended. 

[Lou L]

I use hard maple for my handles only because i have an absolute load of it.  I just took a huge ash down in my yard and so, in a year or so, I’ll have even more ash.  I still like the hard maple, it is seriously strong, tight grained, and still has some flex.  I’m hoping to have the two big ash logs milled because they have awesome burls in them and may be desirable.

 

Fork if ever handles my experience is limited to one handle.  I used leopardwood because it was in the thickness I wanted and had really nice figuring.  It was easily workable and hard.  I haven’t put a finish on it because my friend I’m making the knives for wanted to do the final work on the handles.

[Will W.]

Ax and hammer handles: ash is my go-to. Tough, light, and takes a stain well. 

Favorite knife handle material? Well jeez, thats a huge question in its own right. Cocobolo, Bocote, Ebony and Desert Ironwood are among my favorites for exotics, and black walnut is my favorite for domestics. 

[Chris Pariso]

JHCC - thanks for the reminder about working with cocobolo. A respirator is standard any time I have dust flying, and I had forgotten that cocobolo can be a little harsher. Likewise, I'll have the respirator on when I apply the layers of superglue to the handle when finishing, as the fumes from that can be downright nasty.