What is a handle, anyway?

Is there some history we need to discuss?

The knife handle must be properly designed for the use of the knife.

The handle must protect the user.

The handle must provide grip security.

The handle must increase leverage.

The handle must increase length.

What is the bolster, and what function does it serve?

What are the bolsters and guards made of?

How is the bolster mounted?

Why is there a scuff mark on my bolsters?

What is a guard, and why is it used?

Okay, let's see the handle materials!

An old knifemaker once told me: "The blade makes it a knife, but the handle sells it." A rather quaint way of looking at knives, I think, but somewhat accurate. The handle is the link to the hand. The tactile, textured lock to the human form that assures a military combat or tactical knife will function with the user, and the sensuous, beautiful fit to a collector's hand that demonstrates the maker's skill and care and accentuates the blade style and shape, anchoring the artistic concept of the knife. It's not just something to grab.

Is there some history we need to discuss?

Sure, why not? The earliest knives were just blades of splintered rock, and it probably didn't take long for early man to get cut trying to hold on to a sharp piece of flint, obsidian, or chert. He realized along the way that some real leverage might be possible if he could just figure out a way to make that chunk of rock sharp on one end, and dull on the other. The rock was heavy, though, and he couldn't figure out how to make his material stretch, as good flaking rock was a limited commodity. It wouldn't flake right either, that is, only on one end. He figured out that the blade was different than the handle, entirely. One end needed to cut, the other couldn't. Sticks were easy to hold, and so were bones and pieces of antler, and they seemed to hold up pretty well, so all he needed to do was marry one to the other in permanent fashion. So a little of that pine sap and some tiny vegetable strings or tough gut strings of a dead animal, and voila! It wasn't pretty, but that could come later.

The first metal blades were a wondrous invention. Smiths were so fascinated with the metal that they decided metal handles were the answer. And they worked pretty well, except the metal was heavy, and it was cold to hold on to in the winter. So, back to the sticks, horn, bone, ivory, and leather. These were once-living things that were warm to the touch, softer than the steel, comfortable to hold onto. But they dried up, shrank and cracked, absorbed greasy hand stain, blood, and filth, then got slippery. But there were no real alternatives available, so a practice of re-handling blades was necessary. The metal was precious, the handle material was replaceable. The finest blades were adorned with rock handles, gemstones that were carved and often inlaid with precious metals and other gem. They survive to this day.

Modern man still makes those metal blades. He is still concerned with the limitations of early man's knife handles. The new materials he has available, and the new adhesives, sealants, and chemical treatments make a huge variety of knife handles feasible and practical. There are plastics now, and rubbers, epoxies, and composites. There are new methods of attachment, new hardware, dyes, shaping tools, and pressure treating and finishing processes. Perhaps the most important inventions and refinements of the last 50 years are: adhesives, abrasives, and the computer. The modern professional knifemaker uses them all.

Enough history. There are hundreds of books on knives, swords, and edged weapons history, and I encourage you to explore this fascinating field. By the way, it's called hoplology. We can focus on the particulars of what early man has learned, and reveal how he copes with the same problems of the blade-handle issues...

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The knife handle must be properly designed for the use of the knife

It sounds like a simple thing. Add some lines and length to a drawing on paper, and you have a handle. And you must consider the leverage ultimately applied to a blade, the grip geometry, the shape of the human hand, the stock size and cost, and the angle of the handle to the blade. And there are many other points, most of them discussed on this page.

The knife's intended use determines to a great degree the shape and size of the handle. If a knife is to be used in delicate highly controlled cutting, then the handle is usually much larger than the blade. This allows a great degree of control of the knife, and for example, look at a surgeon's scalpel. It has a long, narrow handle and a very small blade. Conversely, if a knife is to be used as a heavy tool, with aggressive cutting and light chopping, it has a large blade and a smaller handle. The knifemaker walks a fine line between balance, overall weight, length, width, and gripping geometry. The knife handle must protect the user, offer a secure grip, increase the leverage applied to the blade, increase and adjust the handle length, bolster or strengthen the whole knife, rigidly attach the handle components (scales, pieces, inlays, etc.), be comfortable to hold, resist compounds and fluids that will degrade it, offer longevity to match the blade, be cost effective, weight balanced, and above all, beautiful! That's a lot to ask, and experience of the knifemaker is key here.

Sometimes patterning out the profile in acrylic or aluminum is the only way to find out how a knife will feel in the hand, and how the blade will extend in use. I think a lot of factory knives are designed by people who don't USE their hands to make a living, and that is where the problem starts. They might design from a computer program, or perhaps they might use models that are closer to pens and pencils, as those instruments are more familiar in their daily use. Also, many designs come from foreign countries where the people are physically  much smaller-framed and have more modest attitudes. I think this attributes to "style" overall. What you see a lot of is tiny, delicate knives with thin handles. This saves the manufacturer substantial money on materials and supplies to machine them, but results in a thin, weak, and overall light aspect. How do they justify this "timid" style and execution? They tell you it's light and non-fatiguing. A knife is not a backpack, you don't have to worry about how many extra pounds you lug up a mountain. Whether I'm hiking in the badlands or working up a giant wok full of vegetables and meat, I'll choose the strongest, most comfortable knife to hold. A couple of ounces doesn't usually make a difference.

Where it does make a difference is in the grip. When I get a factory file or small tool, I've learned over the years to re-handle the thing right away. A file is a great example because it's use is similar to a knife with repetitive, cutting motion, with great control and sometimes great pressure applied. The only way my hands won't cramp is to have a substantial handle, one that keeps my fingers from clenching, one that's shaped for the angle of pressure and narrowed at critical areas for control. How do you know what's right for a particular blade, balance, use, and size? Lots and lots of years of practice, feedback, and more practice.

Usually, this means a clear barrier between the sharp blade and the hand. A fully guarded knife does this best, absolutely defining and preventing the hand from going forward. It's drawbacks: it is large, sometimes heavy, and best suited to large knives and swords. Guards sometimes offer huge areas to embellish, read about that on my embellishment page here. A smaller version of the guard becomes a quillion, the part that stops the finger(s) from sliding forward. The quillions can be incorporated into a finger groove, they can be on the rear, they can even evolve into a sub-hilt, which helps lock the hand into the handle.

Another comment: I have to question any knife style that, as tradition, omits a quillion, guard, finger groove, or any device that stops your hand from sliding right onto the cutting edge! (this is the traditional puukko, puuko, or puuka in Finnish, or kniv in Swedish) What were those Finns and Swedes thinking? (No offense to my Finnish clients!)

That brings us to grip security. There are an endless list of particulars about this subject. It's based on friction, which (believe it or not) is a mysterious facet of physics that is only now being seriously studied on the molecular level. Friction alone is not the determining factor of the knife handle. If it were, the handle would be covered with rough sandpaper, insuring your grip. Maybe just glue your hand to the handle with cyanoacrylate; that would work. The truth is, there is a careful balance of friction, comfort, and use that must be met. the handle shape has more to do with a secure grip than friction. The handle needs to feel good going into and out of the hand as well. A proper shaped handle also helps the hand orient the cutting edge in the dark or without looking at the knife. The human hand is amazing, it can adapt to a variety of shapes, but not all of them are comfortable to maintain, rigid yet movable, strong, yet with a light touch. Some shapes are more suited to a tactical grip, locking the hand to the knife so the user can apply great force, some grips need to be light and delicate, such as a skinning knife or caping knife where the knife is used more like a surgeon's scalpel. It is a very touchy-feely thing! Learn more about tactical or military grade knife handles here.

Why use finger rings on some knife handles?

You've probably noticed a good deal of finger rings on my professional, combat, and tactical knives, as  well as collector's, user's, and specialty knives. The reason for a finger ring is simple: it's security. When a finger is laced through the ring, it increases the security between the knife and hand many times. This can be off-putting to some, who may have heard of the many dangers of metal rings of all kinds. I, too, have heard these horror stories: how a man playing basketball left his ring finger hanging on the basket after being ripped from his hand when his wedding ring caught the metal frame, how a parachutist left his ring finger hanging in the plane after the jump. I'm sure there are many more, and you probably have your own versions. I've personally never met anyone who lost a finger to a ring, but I can imagine that it's a concern. There is a huge difference between a wedding band that tightly grips a finger and does not easily come off and a finger ring on a knife. A knife finger ring is typically one inch in diameter on the inside, which allows an easy insertion and removal, but is still very secure. The finger rings I use are designed for the index finger, so you can tell by looking at the knife if it is typically held in a traditional or a reverse grip. If a knife is held in a traditional grip, the finger ring is at the blade-handle junction, if it is held in a tactical reverse grip, the ring is at the butt of the handle.

You don't often see well-made finger rings on knives. I believe it is because of the greater expense in the width and thickness of the steel required, and the additional cost of machining and finishing the interior and exterior of the ring. The ring can not simply be a drilled hole through a section of tang. Its placement is critical, and is usually not along the center of the axis of the handle. So, wider stock must be used to accommodate the ring design and construction and accommodation for additional steel geometry to support force transfer between the ring and the tang. The ring must have thin enough walls to allow a finger and parts of the hand to wrap around it, yet be thick enough to be strong. This can be a problem on a ring at the handle butt, because the tang must also be tapered for strength-weight control. So a thick piece of steel stock, at least .250" or greater must be used. An additional concern and expense is finishing. The ring must not merely be beveled, it should be rounded, smoothed and often polished on the inside and outside, so that the hand is not injured or abraded by sharp or rough corners. It takes a lot of time and effort to get this right, and that is why you don't often see well-made finger rings on knives.

The use of a finger ring is a personal preference. If the knife blade is caught in a piece of machinery while a finger is laced through, it could lead to a serious accident. But what is your knife doing near a piece of machinery anyway? Many clients are convinced that the additional security is worth it, and do not want the knife to leave the hand. Others do not prefer this design. Either way, it is the knife client's responsibility and choice, and I make the knife according to their specific needs and requests.

Please take a look at the pictures and details on finger ring usage on one of my most popular combat tactical knives, the Bulldog, at this link.

To increase leverage to the cutting edge, the handle must accommodate bearing down. That force is usually applied through the spine of the knife, the thickest metal that supports the back of the blade and extends into the handle. Often, the thumb is the mechanism that applies that force, with the palm supporting the movement. Contrary to popular beliefs, a large knife cannot apply more cutting force, unless you swing it through the air and take advantage of its mass to apply force to the cutting edge (it then becomes chopping force, completely separate from controlled cutting). It's a small knife, with a large handle that can apply the greatest controlled cutting leverage. This is why wood carving tools and knives have huge handles and tiny blades. That relationship also lends itself to great control of that small force area. Just look at the design of a surgeon's scalpel. Large, long handle, tiny, thin blade. Most surgeons are intimately aware of this relationship, and balance in general, consequently; many of my fine clients are docs.

The handle increases the length of the tool overall. As a blade gets longer, the lever-applied force to the handle-blade junction increases, particularly when great stresses, such as chopping and sawing, are applied to the blade. So the handle design must be thickest just behind the ricasso, the generally flat area behind the grind, and in front of the front bolster or guard. The bolster also must reinforce this area, and that is it's main function: to bolster.

What is the lightest weight handle material?

The lightest weight handles are a small group of hardwoods, and some stabilized woods. Woods like maple (rock, fiddleback, bird’s eye, or curly) are very hard and durable and very light weight. Some stabilized burls (like redwood or box elder) are very nice, beautiful, serviceable handles. Plastics like micarta and ironwoods and rosewoods are usually heavier. The lightest is, of course, a skeletonized handle, but not the most comfortable for heavy field use. I try my best to balance the handle weight with the blade length, style, and use. A lightweight handle isn't always the best bet, as the knife can be more substantially balanced and "settled" into the hand if it has a heavier handle.

The Bolster

The bolster does exactly that; it bolsters or strengthens the critical areas of the knife, mainly the blade/handle junction and the butt of the handle. There are many different arrangements, but strength is what the bolster is about. It also aids in supporting the mounting of the handle material (I dovetail nearly all my bolsters, locking in the handle scales for rigidity). The bolster also offers a fine area for embellishment (engraving, etching or inlay of materials and gemstones).

The bolster attachment is important, for in order to work, it must be bonded to the blade in a complimentary fashion. Some knifemakers solder bolsters. This is a weak union, as soldering only adheres the surfaces of the metal to each other. One of the most important things I've learned over the years is that order for dissimilar materials to be bonded, they must first be mechanically secure, and second to that is adhesion by glues, solder, brazing, and finally welding. It's all about the mechanics.

Now, the best way would be to mill an entire blade out of stock that is as thick as the widest part of the bolsters, but that  more than doubles the thickness of the blade stock. The issue is one of economy. The expense of very thick blade stock and labor and materials to mill that stock down is cost prohibitive for most knives. And what is gained by this? How many knives are subject to the extreme punishment requiring integral, one piece bolsters and guards? The shock loads, stresses, and mechanical strength that would prevent the knife from breaking at the bolster would have already broken the thinner parts of the knife, mainly the tip, the belly area, or the straight section of the blade. So if it seems to be overkill, why do some manufacturers make knives this way? Because if a blade is milled by a CNC machine, it's quicker to mill the bolsters integrally than it would be to cut out, profile, finish, dovetail and attach a set of independent bolsters. In that case, it's cheaper for CNC machines to make this kind of knife.

Another drawback to integral knives with bolsters milled from the blade stock is that the bolsters themselves are limited to the same appearance and properties of the blade. If you want a different color for the bolster, you can't have it in an integral. If you want to leave the bolster softer so that it can be engraved, sorry, an integral will prevent that. Probably one of the most important limitations of an integral is one of corrosion resistance. Stainless tool steels are corrosion resistant, but they can and will corrode, depending on their exposure. The human hand can be salty, acidic, and wet, and can accellerate corrosion. This is why a highly corrosion resistant bolster material like 304 stainless steel will offer much greater longevity than an integral bolster made of blade material.

Another reason is that it is usually beneficial for the bolsters to be made of different material for appearance and embellishment. A nice set of engraved nickel silver bolsters adds much to the value of an investment knife, and even brass looks warm and inviting against a polished piece of exotic hardwood. Nothing quite approaches the rich bright appearance of austenitic stainless steels, and when engraved they are not only stunning, the longevity is and permanance of the engraving exceeds all other stainless materials.

As stated before, it is often, and mostly beneficial that the bolster stock be made from a different material than the blade. Here are some of the bolster materials I use, and the reason they're used.

Nickel Silver: Also called German Silver, this material is a type of white brass. Like brass, its base is copper, with zinc, and the addition of usually 18% nickel. It has a pleasant warm silvery color with a hint of yellow, is more resistant to scratches than brass, and is highly corrosion resistant to atmospheric, water, and organic compounds. It is easily soldered for work on guards. It's relatively strong. It engraves well. Disadvantages: It is not as hard as ferrous metals (steel and stainless steel), and has a bit of a yellowish tint compared with the bright, silvery blue of a stainless steel knife blade.

Some important points about stainless steel knife bolsters, guards, and fittings

There are a lot of discussions about the preferences of bolster materials among knife makers, and a lot of discussions about the stainless steels. I believe this is because most modern handmade custom knives are moving away from nickel silver, carbon steel, and brass, in favor of stainless steels. The reason is because of value and longevity. Stainless steels do not need babied, polished, or tended to regularly. They are tough, hard, and very wear resistant. They can add value to the knife. Few people want to worry about handle maintenance, scratches, scuffing, and corrosion.

Discussions on the Internet demonstrate that most makers do NOT like to use 304 stainless steel, my most favored bolster material. Their reasons are because 304 is difficult to machine, hard to finish, and nearly impossible to engrave. They say that if a knife maker is making a knife to be engraved by an engraver, most engravers won't touch the stuff because it's very difficult to work with, cut and finish. Guess what? They are correct!

To me, this is what makes 304SS so valuable. I work with it more than most makers, and I absolutely love it. Yes, it's hard to drill, mill, grind and machine and ultimately engrave. But as a professional knife maker, I'm a machinist and metalworker by definition, and that does not stop me from offering the best material to my clients; they expect that! Specialized techniques are required, and this is in the skill requirements and practice of a modern metals worker. I'm even starting to weld 304 SS fittings and components, and I am excited by the beauty and appearance. 304 is not a material for the timid, but in my opinion, it is the best for the application of bolsters and guards when you want stainless steel, and I believe it has the longest term high value.

What are these other guys using? They're using the 400 series stainless steels, which are martensitic, and easier to machine due to alloy components. But the most important limitation for 400 series stainless steels is that they do NOT reach their full corrosion resistance until they are hardened and tempered, and that is never done! So to sell the properties of corrosion resistance on stainless steel bolsters when using 400 series stainless steels is only viable if the bolsters and fittings have been heat treated, and I've never heard of anyone ever doing that. Also, even if and when they are heat treated, they cannot come close to the corrosion resistance of 304 stainless steel.

Other makers are also using sulfur bearing versions of 300 series stainless steels, mainly 302 and 303. These steels have sulfur, so they're easier to machine, but have a slightly yellow cast to them and do not quite match the bright blue-silver of mirror-finished stainless steel blades. They have less chromium and nickel, and are not as hard and wear resistant, and more importantly are not as corrosion resistant. The addition of sulfur also decreases their toughness. Why use them when my clients expect the best I can make?

For the bolster, what I've found that works best is pin attachment. The bolsters are pinned to the tang of the knife blade with zero clearance pins, heavily peened in place. The pins swell in position, making them impossible to remove. In fact, the only way to remove the bolster is to grind it off the tang. When done right, this creates a near seamless fit of the bolster to the tang. How many holes and of what diameter are determined by the use of the knife, the cross sectional area, and the thickness of both the bolsters and the tang. I don't solder most bolsters. Unless acidic soldering flux is removed from any area between the bolster and the tang, it will lead to corrosion of the knife tang and eventual failure. And it is a step that is not necessary, particularly on high chromium steel blades and bolsters. It must be working well, in nearly 2000 knives over 25 years as of this writing, I've never had one fail.

The Guard

A guard is completely different from a bolster. It is created to "guard" the hand from the blade, and lends itself particularly but not limited to double edged knives, daggers, and swords. In the old days, it would guard your hands from an opponents blade, but modern knife battles are rare... Guards are made from the same materials as the bolsters listed above, and are milled and machined to fit on a reduced tang that is also milled to fit. The guard is mechanically fitted to the tang, then usually soldered in place. It is this fit to the shoulder of the ricasso  and the cross sectional thickness of the tang through the guard that determines the overall strength of the knife/handle junction. True, it is weaker than the bolster/full tang design. But there are some designs that simply cannot be made any other way. The tang of the knife is then tapped or hard-soldered or welded to a threaded rod. The handle pieces are drilled and stacked onto the tang, then the pommel (which is drilled and tapped) is screwed on. The whole assembly of the handle may take many components (I've made one knife that had over 50 pieces on a hidden tang), and is usually filled with high quality, high strength jewelers epoxy. After the epoxy sets, the handle, pommel, and guard are ground, sanded, and finished. This design lends itself to full, rounded handles, and decorative styles like fluting, spiral fluting, and wire wrapped inlays. It also hearkens back to the days when good steel was prized for its rarity, and not "wasted" beneath handle material.