Johnny.B.Good
Senior Member
Quite a collection, RiffRaff!
Burnt chestnut is a great wa alternative for good grip....
Fibrox gets a huge thumbs up from me, even with all the fancy custom knives I have not thrown out the Forschners precisely because the Fibrox is so comfortable. The shape of the handles isn't great but the material seems almost indestructible and the perfect degree of grippiness not too much nor too little, cleans up easily after sitting in disgusting filth, everything you could want in a handle material. Victorinox/Forschner is sitting on a gold mine IMHO, this material should be used in all shapes and sizes of handles. I think the ideal handle would be a big fat Sabatier handle made of Fibrox!
The best handle I have used is a birch bark one on my Finish Iisaki Aito knife. It never gets slippery and feels great in hand. Never seen one on a kitchen knife though.
The above post took me more than 30 minutes to write from my phone - I guess I need a ew one
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I hadn't anticipated a beauty contest since my original post was about a favorite ugly duckling. But I couldn't resist showing a few more of the beauts my lowly Forschner Fibrox has to compete with including (left to right)
Daniel O'Malley's quilted redwood on a Hattori KD 150 petty, O'Malley's snakewood/synthetic on Carter nakiri, O'Malley spalted maple/black horn on a Shig santoku, "Heavin Forge" warthog tusk/ebony on a 210 German-style damscus chef, O'Malley afzalia burl on a 240 Hattori KD, and an Isaiah Schroeder zebrawood (very good grip, not too polished) on a Heiji stainless 240
Concerning the hygiene and birch bark - I would say if one is capable to keep carbon knives in the kitchen in a good shape, than it should be no problem. I have already considered to try to make such a handle, but it is not easy to get a good quality birch bark around here. In fact I would love to have such a handle on some of my kitchen knives (and the Mora 2000 which could really use a better handle)
The handle on that KD 150 is tiny. Does it feel good in the hand?
I have been thinking about birch bark handles for a while, but I am not sure it would be hygienic enough for the kitchen. Bark is porous. I do like the look though.
i'm just talking out of my butt, but maybe stabilizing it would help? =D
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