Shaw Custom Knives
940-691-9937
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About Shaw Custom Knives: Materials
Picking the right materials for functional and aesthetic purposes can become the funnest part of designing and putting together a knife that stands out. It can also be the most problematic. For the purposes of organization, I'll break the materials used down into the following categories:
Steel: I only use 1084, 1095, 5160 and O1 steels. Why? Because I like them, they are good quality, are more "traditional", take and hold a good edge and aren't stainless. There is nothing wrong with stainless, but I don't like working with it and to me it lacks "character" for lack of a better word.
Handle Materials-
Naturals: Woods like African Black Wood, Mesquite, Ironwood, and stabilized woods are traditional,beautiful and tough handle materials as well as others like antlers and bone. Leather sheaths fall into this category.
Synthetics: This will be man made materials like Micarta (Phenolic), G-10, Dymondwood (basically compressed, stabilized plywood) and to a degree stabilized woods as they are imbedded with resin to make them water resistant and tougher. The synthetics tend to be more durable and water resistant but can also be beautiful. Kydex (thermomolded plastics) sheaths would fall into this category.
