Acrylic Scales, any good?

[resnikov]

Just starting to plan out what to get to use as the scales for my new knife. I have seen some acrylic scales which look rather cool but a bit out there IMHO but i have never handled a knife with acrylic scales so i'm not sure if they would be any good.
An example here

not sure this quite the colours i would go for.


I plan to use my knife when out and about in the woods so I don't want it to be slippy to hold. Maybe I should just stick with wood?

 

[lannyman8]

it should be fine, the same as corian or plastercised woods, bone etc.... if your worried it wont be very grippey just dont finish it as much, use a highish grit but dont polish etc...

hope this helps...

chris.

 

[Dave Budd]

bit fragile for a hard working knife. I've used it on some small kitchen knives with luck and as parts in a stacked handle. The probelms it has are primarily that it chips or cracks if dropped on a hard surface and it doesn't like heat (melts at quite low temperatures). Corian and the like are much tougher compounds

I personaly wouldn't use it on abushy simpley because of the dropping and shock that the handle has to take

 

[mountainm]

Some dyed stabalised burl may give you a similar effect?

 

[John Fenna]

Stick with wood or horn... or bone .... or antler ...
I prefer natural materials when out in a natural environment
All the tacky plastics in the world may look good, and some even perform well ... but you cannot beat the feel of natural materials

 

[Celtic Dragon]

I never found them that much of a problem. I went acrylic as I wanted something to withstand bleach as this si my filleting knife. To shape, it resited my 12" file and my best efforts, so resorted to a demel and 20k rpm! Never even started to melt it.

 

[sasquatch]

I'm going to grab some for razor scales in the New Year. Might throw some on a knife at some stage just to see how it holds up.