Layers of colour in a multicolour handle
Swirled handles like this one are typically made from thin layers of dyed wood bonded together with resin under pressure. When the block is cut at an angle, the layers surface as waves of red and green, and because no two cuts cross the layers in quite the same place, every handle carries its own marbling.
That material is one reason coloured woods are so common on keychains made in Pakistan: bonded with resin, they are stable, they polish to a smooth finish and they hold their colour. In Sialkot, where pocket-knife making has been a trade for generations, a 6 cm handle like this is finished to sit flush with its brass bolster, around a 4.6 cm stainless blade and a fold-out corkscrew.
