Knife steels and handle materials

A wood from the Congo Basin in Africa. Dense, strong and decorative, with dark brown and black stripes and excellent mechanical properties. It is springy, copes well with impact, is durable, resists moisture and shrinks little, so it makes a good knife handle. I finish the handle with hardwax oil and a beeswax polish.

An exotic hardwood from West Africa. Reddish brown and striped, dense, fine-grained and heavy. Tough, strong and hard enough to make a durable, handsome handle. Properly seasoned bubinga hardly shrinks as a knife handle, which is another reason it suits a knife used outdoors.

Another exotic hardwood from West Africa: yellowish brown with dark brown stripes. Medium-hard, durable and pleasantly springy, with good mechanical properties. Its dense structure sands and carves well and resists shrinking and cracking, which makes it an excellent handle material. Distinctively figured, with a lovely silky sheen once sanded and oiled.

An industrial composite of glass-cloth layers bonded with epoxy resin, coloured with pigment; I usually use black. Heat-resistant, very strong and waterproof, an excellent choice for a serious work knife. It machines well, so the handle can be shaped precisely, with jimping or grooves if you like. I finish it at P280 grit so the grip is never slippery.

A composite practically identical to G10, with the advantage that it is available locally in Hungary. It works the same way and makes an equally good handle. Black in colour.

Also a composite, but built from layers of linen or canvas rather than glass cloth, bonded with tinted epoxy resin. Not as strong as G10, yet an excellent handle material: springy, waterproof, easy to machine, good-looking and tough enough. I currently buy it from Brisa; my favourite colours are Coyote, Mustard, Bison and Hunter Green.