One of the delights of knife making is crafting the beautiful handles. Starting from selecting the correct material, cutting, shaping, grinding it to crafting beautiful handles from it, working on the knife handle is a delight. Selecting the handle material is a matter of the function for which the knife is going to be used for. Soft or fine woods like blank walnut are not good choices for hunting knife or for uses that involve a lot of moisture or water. Hardwood like Rosewood, oak and maple make good choices for hunting knives. Stabilized wood like spalted maple are available where the wood is impregnated with plastic making it entirely waterproof and providing it with a durable finish that does not require any maintenance except an occasional buffing. These are highly recommended for tough duty knives and those that would be exposed to a lot of moisture. Select and exotic woods like stag, moose horn, oosic, walrus or sea cow bone etc, are used to make knives that are mostly collected rather than used regularly. These are somewhat fragile and also need to be maintained in a very careful manner. Domestic antler and many artificial materials resembling stag are available for those who require inexpensive and easily maintainable alternatives.