How durable are elk scales in the long run? Do they tend to crack? I'd appreciate any input in regard to elk on a working knife.

Mine have held up well. They aren't going to be tolerant of heavy abuse, extended exposure to sun and repeated trips through the dishwasher is going to kill them pretty quick - just like most natural materials. Not saying you would do this just that natural materials won't tolerate abuse. I have antlers that are nearly 50 years old without any cracking, look at old mounts and you'll see antlers hold up very well. A life time of use should be expected, if not more.

Not the best handle material in my opinion for full tang knives...they are so pithy. There are better options. That being said, I use em a lot with hidden tang knives with no problem.

Here's a couple of my elk antlered hidden tang knives showing my preferred use of antlers:

nice work godogs cranky72

Beautiful, Godog.

Thanks so much....much appreciated.

As the tread is winding down, off topic a little. I use Axis antler alot on full-tang knives. The Axis is not very pithy at all and I haven't had any complaints from customers. I never tried elk because I like the Axis just fine. Starting to experiment with the potassium permanganate. Sorry if this is OT.

I soak everything organic that I use for handles in a wood stabilizer. It structurally stabilizes, but does not fill voids. I sometimes lace the pithy stuff with Paleobond super glue and then fill the near surface voids with two part epoxy.
I normally finish off with exterior poly eurethane. I have yet to have a problem with handles so treated (at least not that I know of).
Potassium permanganate is a good way to add color to faded antlers but I seldom use it cause I like the look of aged antlers.

Tim
Tim

I used Elk on a large hidden tang chopper once.


It didn't have much figure so I sanded and polished it out. It looks real good if you use white rogue and buffing wheel on the last stage.

I removed every bit of pith from the inside, put the guard on first and completely filled the inside with accraglass. The rear butt plate has a brass screw soldered into a shallow hole on the inside. I had to drill a hole in the accraglass for that screw before I glassed that into place as well.

I did a lot of chopping and testing on that knife and it held up fine. The handle is completely solid accraglass inside the Elk. I like Accraglass for hidden tangs because of it's nearly zero shrinkage and it has a long history of holding up.

Yep. The last antlers were totally faded. I pot/permed two get ready for the trap rendevous this weekend and they are gone.

Potassium permanganate colors any antler very nicely. Just mix it in water to saturation and the longer the piece stays in , the darker it gets.

I've beat the hell out of these (old picture) but have been going strong for almost 10 years.