For the knifemakers on here, handle question...

[Bosun11 537]

I can't recall seeing any of the knives made and shown on here with antler or bone handles, nor a lot of custom work these days and was wondering as to why. Is it because of its expence, robustness, workability or has it simply gone out of fashion?

 

By the way guys, keep posting your work, sommat I never get tired of seeing on here and one day, when the right one comes round....

[iamduvern 62]

My EDC knife has an antler handle which ive had for years Ive started using corian for my bushcraft knifes but you can not beat a nice bit of hard wood, these days it seems practicality out weighs style

[paulus 26]

i did one with a bone handle back in july

[midnight 657]

all my last lot had buffalo horn on them , and i have some camel bone etc on order .

custom wise file work etc ? the market is not strong enough to spend £100 on materials and 5 days making a knife to sell it for £120 and im finnished with that for now until things pic up , i thought the paunchers i just did where very custom and had taken alot of skill my end to make ,a tappered tang to 1mm from 8mm is not easy to do at all !!!!!!!! i spose its one of those things if you never done it, it looks easy , i wish some of the lads that have come over for the day would explain how demanding it is to forge a knife etc , there is a few guys now who have come for the day and have now got first hand experiance of the work load for one simple knife .

come to thing of it , i have 2 of my own hand forged pattern welded blades and one 01 with file work that is quiet differant , i must get them done and post some pics .

[Bosun11 537]

all my last lot had buffalo horn on them , and i have some camel bone etc on order .

custom wise file work etc ? the market is not strong enough to spend £100 on materials and 5 days making a knife to sell it for £120 and im finnished with that for now until things pic up , i thought the paunchers i just did where very custom and had taken alot of skill my end to make ,a tappered tang to 1mm from 8mm is not easy to do at all !!!!!!!! i spose its one of those things if you never done it, it looks easy , i wish some of the lads that have come over for the day would explain how demanding it is to forge a knife etc , there is a few guys now who have come for the day and have now got first hand experiance of the work load for one simple knife .

come to thing of it , i have 2 of my own hand forged pattern welded blades and one 01 with file work that is quiet differant , i must get them done and post some pics .

 

If i've read that right Midnight, and i've read it a few times now, I think you have got the wrong end of the stick with my first post. So, lets make things clear, as far as your work is concerned... It's all custom and, just about THE best work i've seen, the paunches looked fantastic and so is the damascus stuff you do. I think the way I worded my first post was wrong, in that it came across like you simply make knives and then there are custom knives.. It was not intended to come out that way and I also fully understand the work that you put in to one of your blades.

The type of handle I was refering to was the antler, natural type or bone in the same sort of fashion. Is that also too expensive, given that a lot of lads on this site still have venison for dinner on a regular basis, if it was the cost then maybe someone could obtain some for you? Or as I asked, with everyone seemingly into polished hardwoods or polished bone or polished sommat, has it fell out of favour?

[Cleanspade 3,322]

the love of my life was a bone handle scout knife it was my pride and joy. everyone wanted a proper sheath knife when i was a kid. i think they where antler come to think of it.

[midnight 657]

gotcha sorry . i duno the answer to the question then , i think the best antler we have native is roe and there a bit small , fallow red seems to have a pith in it that you cant grind back to or it looks crap , so you got to get samba stag or similar and then you need to make the knife to the antler as there pretty random in shape / thicknes , the really nice stuff gets snapped up and costs alot so i spose that must be something else to consider .

the reason iv never worked with it much is that i have been so skint for so long iv never invested to money i dint have into a "risk"

the look is pretty old school too, and i imagine that is also another consideration ?

[Bosun11 537]

the love of my life was a bone handle scout knife it was my pride and joy. everyone wanted a proper sheath knife when i was a kid. i think they where antler come to think of it.

 

Same here Cleanspade, thats why I asked the question.

[Bosun11 537]

gotcha sorry . i duno the answer to the question then , i think the best antler we have native is roe and there a bit small , fallow red seems to have a pith in it that you cant grind back to or it looks crap , so you got to get samba stag or similar and then you need to make the knife to the antler as there pretty random in shape / thicknes , the really nice stuff gets snapped up and costs alot so i spose that must be something else to consider .

the reason iv never worked with it much is that i have been so skint for so long iv never invested to money i dint have into a "risk"

the look is pretty old school too, and i imagine that is also another consideration ?

 

Thanks Midnight, just the answer I was looking for.

I thought it may be expensive but then so many old school 'factory' knives were made with it but I suppose that was 'back in the day'. I'm like Cleanspade who also posted, in that all my favorites as a youngster carried this type of handle.

[Cleanspade 3,322]

googled this image. this was the sort of handle. although the blade on mine was shorter.

 

 

this i used to make tent pegs . play splits . and poke the fire. i never did an awefull lot of skinning with it as my gat gun. never killed anything. although it very nearly killed my mate when he kidded on to shoot himself and the end of the barrel shot out against his temple .

[paulus 26]

googled this image. this was the sort of handle. although the blade on mine was shorter.

 

 

this i used to make tent pegs . play splits . and poke the fire. i never did an awefull lot of skinning with it as my gat gun. never killed anything. although it very nearly killed my mate when he kidded on to shoot himself and the end of the barrel shot out against his temple .

happy days before pc madness and no win no fee

[billybaltic 308]

Good to see that type of handle, alot of knives had them when i was younger, would like to see more of them about.

[midnight 657]

maybe there is a market for a re birth then ? i bet the costs would be to much to bear !

i always found the handle to small , and i dont know if you guys remember but where the stag had been ground to meet flush with the pummel and guard there was areas you could see they had ground through the outer bone and exposed the marrow for want of a better word .

i can allways look to make a few, i have the old designs saved and would not be able to do a direct copy but could use the theme and style to replicate something very similar ?

i think the stacked leather washer version must have been the answer to poor antler cost and avaialability . i know the collectors favour the leather handles version ,

this is what im imagineing you guys are talking about ?

http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=57115

http://www.heinnie.com/product.asp?P_ID=5960

but looking at those prices there still available dirt cheap ????

how you make a knife what cheap i just dont know , there must be thousands made a year is all i can think of .

[jigsaw 11,809]

does the last knife you put up hold its edge midnight?In your opinion could that take a bit of rough and ready treatment.Id love to spend a good few quid on a personalised knife but id be sick if I lost it afterwards,which would be more than likely to happen

[Cleanspade 3,322]

they are the type i think they will be cheep and nasty. mass produced. its just the retro look and happy memories. i remember the bone would warm in your hand . i think reproducing a similar knife with the same look but of a very good quality and a smaller blade would be interesting