Advice on knife handle material

[GKNOX]

Hey everyone,
In a couple months I am off on a safari with my father and my young son. I have a local knife maker that I have been using recently and have an idea. I would like to get a matching set of 3 knives made for each my dad, myself, and my son as keepsakes from our Safari. If possible I would like to make the handles out of an animal that we hunted together. Question is can knife handles be made out of any plains game horns? If so which species would work best? (Impala, kudu, Gemsbuck, Wildebeest?) I would like to hunt a cull animal for this as I couldn’t make myself cut up a large trophy. Any and all thoughts on what material to use would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

[Hogpatrol]

That's a good idea. I'd go with springbok or blesbok. They have grooves for your fingers.
Cull should be fairly cheap. IIRC, I paid $25 for a springbok cull.

 

[GKNOX]

I agree they would look cool. I will show my knife maker pics and see how many handles could be made from one set. Kind of want all knives from the same animal.
Thanks.

 

[Ridgewalker]

Being horns and not antlers, they are hollow. Not sure how a knife maker would fasten them. I like full tang knives myself, but I don’t know how they could fill and use the hollow horns.
Maybe something like a carved/scrimshawed giraffe leg bone would give a knife maker a better material.
JMT on it. Great idea for a three generation hunt! I like it!

 

[nztimb]

Natural giraffe bone is a beautiful handle material that just gets better with age. Not on your list but if you could get a leg bone you would have the material needed for spectacular three knife set.

 

[GKNOX]

Thanks guys. I also like full tang knives so my thoughts are they should use less material to make the handles? I have heard giraffe bone is beautiful but really would like it to be an animal we hunted together and not sure I can fit giraffe into the budget. I have never taken a close look at inside of the horns but are they hollow most of the way to the end? I was thinking they would be solid half way up which is where I could possibly get enough material for the knives?

 

[Nyati]

Blesbok and Springbok make great handle material, and they are quite easy to get.

 

[GKNOX]

Perfect. That’s what I was hoping as I have not yet hunted either of these and this will be a good opportunity. Thanks

 

[Spooksar]

Warthog ivory if you can talk your PH into Shooting a broken tusk one

 

[IvW]

Buffalo horn and giraffe bone are two of the best. Warthog tusks are too brittle to use as a complete handle but can be used for the bolster or inserts.

Depending on the size of the knife any horn from the smaller species can be used.

Hippo Ivory is also good.

 

[MarkCZ]

Buffalo horn and giraffe bone are two of the best. Warthog tusks are too brittle to use as a complete handle but can be used for the bolster or inserts.

Depending on the size of the knife any horn from the smaller species can be used.

Hippo Ivory is also good.

i agree, I have used Warthog tusk for bolsters very nice. I have used it for full gang scales also but you do need big tusks.
Markcz

 

[MarkCZ]

Ment to say full tang.

 

[AustinL]

Have seen some great looking handles out of gemsbok horn, a broke horn animal should be a pretty good deal. Have also seen good looking knives out of impala horn and Kudu bone.

I would put a call in to your maker and talk to him about the project and see if he has preferences on materials. Most of the horned animals can be cut to length and halved then steamed and flattened to make a scale the solid portion can then be used for a full tang.