Coming from the firearms world, most of us are familiar with the ergonomics of a rifle, shotgun, or handgun right down to the checkering, knurling, texturing, or stippling. For some guns, it makes perfect sense; for others, not as much. It’s pretty much the same with regard to folding knives.
On the tactical side of things, most handle material commonly used is naturally grippy. G10, Micarta, and other man-made materials have, for the most part, taken over from horn, ivory, antler, oosic (Google that one if it sounds made up), and even wood as superior materials for knife scales.
When knife customizers first started taking Dremel tools to their custom and factory knives with G-10 handles to add texture, many thought they were nuts and were only ruining good knives. Surprise, surprise … when you actually held one in person, they felt very good.
It didn’t take long for the manufacturers to respond. Some had been ahead of the game and were offering checkered handles — or in the case of bigger companies
