I've been inspired by Lokidude's post about tools and knife sharpening to get going on a project that has been sitting on my desk for a while now: putting a handle on a knife I was given.
Lauri Knife # 105h
A customer (and now friend) gave me an unfinished blade for helping him out with a warranty issue. I wrote about doing this over a year ago, and I now want to get it done right. Here is the blade:
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| Lauri 105H blade |
In the previous post, I mentioned a source for blades and parts (but not handles!). It seems the website has not been updated in a while and many items are out of stock, so I'm hesitant to send people there without everyone (myself included) doing their due diligence. Since the above-mentioned site doesn't sell handles, I'm planning on making my own.
Wood
I have a Rockler Woodworking store nearby, and when I stopped in to see what they stocked in short lengths of wood I found a bin of 1.5"x1.5"x6" blocks intended for turning on a lathe. There is a guide on the rack listing the codes printed on the blocks cross-referenced to the actual species of wood, but the code on the block that I picked isn't clear. Here is the wood:
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| Exotic wood |
I really like the grain and color of this piece of wood as it is shown in the store. To prevent warping and other damage, these blocks are coated in wax, so the color shown in this picture is about how the finished handle will appear.
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| Tang outline |
I drew an outline of the tang on the block so I can actually see how much wood will need to be removed to finish this project. At 1.5" square, this is much too thick to simply split it in half, chisel out the area for the tang, glue it back together and round off the corners.
There are options for finishing the handle-to-blade area, and nowhere can I find a decent picture showing a bolster or ferrule, which are the caps that finish the handle and give a finished look to a knife -- in other words, they're nice but not a requirement.
I'm still in the planning part of this project and don't see myself needing to pick a design right yet, so there is plenty of time to source parts. Wish me luck!
The Takeaway
- There's no time like the present to do a project that's a year old.
The Recap
- One block of unknown exotic wood from Rockler Woodworking: $4.99 Various similarly-sized exotic wood blanks from Amazon: starting at $8.00
Just a reminder: if you plan on buying anything through Amazon, please consider using our referral link. When you do, a portion of the sale comes back here to help keep this site running!
If you have comments, suggestions or corrections, please post them so we all can learn. And remember, Some Is Always Better Than None!
NOTE: All items tested were purchased by me. No products have been loaned in exchange for a favorable review. Any items sent to me for T&E will be listed as such. Suck it Feds.
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