Carving A Knife Handle As A Winter Project

One project I wanted to do over the winter was to get into carving out some knife handles since I had harvested a number of sticks this past fall. But instead of waiting for them to cure, I went to the hardwood specialty store down the road and got me some maple, white oak, cherry wood and walnut pieces to experiment with.

 

Step 1 – The Handle Materials

The purpose was simple, cut some pieces and use a leather spacer between the pieces and glue everything together and start filing off the excess. I like knife handles with 2 types of material and spacers in between. Since my cutting skills are not 100%, the leather helps. White Oak and Maple only handles would be next.

With 20$ spent on wood and using scrap leather leather from my previous projects, I could get started.

 

Step 2 – Knife Blanks

I will be buying some Mora & Helle blade blanks and will continue the process of drilling in the holes and further refinement of the handle. These scandi grind knife blades with solid wood handles do look great. The blades I will be selecting will be rat tail 3/4 or full tang. I figure this is easier to start out with as opposed to a visible tang where I need to have multiple pieces of wood and pins.

 

Step 3 – The Workbench

I had to get a workstation or work bench to get started. I got a nice slab of pine from my dad and using an old vice from my grand father, I made myself a portable work bench. During the cold months I can work in the basement, but on nice sunny days if I need to do something a little more dangerous, I can easily move the workbench outside in 5 minutes.

#knife handle winter project is moving along. Blade blanks next week or two then the fun begins #outdoors #bushcraft

A post shared by Jim Cyr (@thecyr) on

 

Step 4 – The Tools

My goal is to use mostly hand tools and manually shape the handle, but will use a drill to hollow out the handle. The glue I will be using will be Gorilla glue. I know most use epoxy but for the learning purpose, this should do fine.

The rest of my tool box:

  • leather
  • cutting tool
  • gorilla super glue
  • hand clamps
  • wood rasp / file
  • sand paper
  • drill / dremel


 




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