Bone and wood handles on traditional knives
For a traditional knife, bone or wood is the buyer's call: Case says its range of handle materials lets a buyer choose a knife that "fits your style and intended use," and both sit on its natural list, where "no two handles are exactly alike." Böker says cattle and reindeer bone are the varieties most used today, and CIVIVI says wood handles can offer "a comfortable grip."
Böker names cattle and reindeer as the bones most used for knife handles today, and Case describes one smooth natural bone handle as "natural cattle bone." Case says "the unique grain and organic ivory color variations make each handle a one-of-a-kind," and Böker says animal bones have been used for knife handles for millennia. Bone as a material is defined in the bone handle entry.
The product data describes some bone handles as jigged and others as smooth. Case's own words for those finishes, from Peach Seed to BoneStag, are decoded in what Case's bone handle names mean, and the jigged bone entry describes the texture in general.
Böker, Case and CIVIVI each describe wood handles in their own terms. Böker says ebony "has a high density" and calls it "an excellent choice" for wood that must stand up to wear and tear, "in knife handles, for instance." Case puts "the natural beauty of wood" on pocket knives with handles such as black curly oak, and CIVIVI says wood handles can offer "a comfortable grip."
Böker and Buck each describe a treated wood: Böker calls Pakkawood impregnated wood veneer, and Buck says that in the 1990s "a resin treated wood" took the place of ebony on two of its models.
Case says each handle material "offers its own appearance, feel, durability, and maintenance requirements," and describes synthetics, by contrast, as giving "consistent color, durability, and low maintenance." A buyer choosing bone or wood is choosing, by Case's account, a natural material that varies from one handle to the next.
Bone upkeep lives in caring for a bone or stag handle, and wood upkeep in caring for a wood handle. Where a maker publishes care text for its own handles, that text comes first.