Knife-Making-Tutorial-Part-1-The.pdf

Knife making tutorial [part 1, the knife handle]

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Amateur

Knife making tutorial [part 1,

the knife handle]

James

- Skills and guides - DYI, Making things. -

Publication: Tuesday 16 May 2006

Description :

Explains in detail how to make a knife from existing parts.

Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike License

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Knife making tutorial [part 1, the knife handle]

I have been for a long time what most people call a knife nut[:-)] After a modest collection, this was prone to lead me

to knife making.

An easy way to start it to buy pieces, or a kit. Brisa.fi by example sell parts, and the blades are relatively cheap. They

also have great tutorials, but you will find mine here. Let's start simple with easily available materials and tools.

We will not cover here how to make a blade from scratch, that will come in the last part of the series and part two will

cover sheath making.

The first thing to do is to gather all the materials and tools needed:

Materials:

• Wood block for the handle

• Blade

• Bolster (preferably pre-pierced and preshaped)

• Spacers, or other material that are used.

• Epoxy glue

• Acetone

• Duct tape

Tools:

• Orbital grinder, or angle grinder with speed control and a rubber disk.

• Sand paper, different grits, the coarser the fastest, the finer for the best finish.

• Drill and long drill bit, 4mm diameter(or adjusted to the tang diameter)

• Thinned chisel (4mm width)

• Mechanical saw blade reground and fitted with a handle in order to make the tang hole)

• Wood saw, mechanical or hand driven

• Metal saw

• Vise

• Little gadgets as shown in the pictures

I have a good selection of mechanical tools, but all this can be done by hand. You will be glad however to have at

least a mechanical drill and sander. I tried to keep this as generic as possible, though indeed the pictures show the

making of one knife, and are therefore more specific.

You can click on the images in order to get a more detailed view.

Preparing materials

Squaring the wood blank For a beginner, it is easier if everything is square.

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Knife making tutorial [part 1, the knife handle]

Squaring the wood block can be done by hand or using a bench grinder.

Drilling the block slow speed and care, and a lot of checkings.

Then the block is drilled. Here you see a a press drill, but frankly, I do better by hand. Since a 20 cm x 4mm drill bit is

very flexible, it is easier to drill by hand taking care to compensate and align, than using the press. If you drill using a

press, you'll be glad you squared the block... Mark on the outside of the block the expected path for the bit in the two

dimensions, and check that the bit follows the path.

Cutting and sanding the tang Cut the tang to desired length, and send it using coarse grain.

The tang needs to be cut to the right length. Depending on the assembly type you are planning, it may mean none at

all (tang goes through a butt plate) or a few mm or cm from the handle end. You need to use your hand to decide the

final handle shape and size. Some prefer a drawing, I prefer the intuitive approach, everybody has his own way![;-)]

The coarse grinding of the tang ensures a better adhesion with the glue in the later gluing stage. This Lauri PT blade

also needs the tang to be squared for the bolster to fit properly.

Preparing the tang hole Here we need to check the alignment of block and tang.

Plan the tang hole. It may be interesting at this point to trace on the outside of the block the dimensions of the

channel that will be prepared for the tang.

Sand the bolster We make the pre-pierced bolster flat.

Prepare the bolster. Here I use a pre-shaped bolster, but you may also cut it from a plate of silver-nickel or brass. In

which case you will also have to drill and file the tang hole. The premade bolsters are rather flat, though embossed

so you may need to flatten it. To do this, I use a simple block of wood with two nails planted at strategic distance to

hold the bolster well, and sand either on a sand paper laying flat on the table, or on a machine.

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Knife making tutorial [part 1, the knife handle]

Cutting spacers I use wood spacers

Spacers ready different colors.

I use thin wood spacers between the bolster and handle block, so I prepare and cut these to dimension.

Fitting the tang and bolster

Fit bolster to the blade It probably needs to be filed a little, or more.

Check bolster on blade Yes it is perfectly level everywhere. OOps, I cut myself. learn from this and wrap the edge

of the blade in duct tape from the early stages!

Good adjustment There are no spaces, the fit is perfect. Avoid dropping blood everywhere!

Adjust the bolster to fit the tang as perfectly as possible, so file it and check the fit often. Invest in a few fine jeweller

files of different sections, it will be well worth it.

The modidified saws blades Here are the tools I use for enlarging and fitting the tang hole.

These are the most convenient tools in order to enlarge a drilled tang hole. It is a mechanical jigsaw blades ground at

the top and inserted in handles. There is no commercial equivallent, you will need to make these. take care about

heat building in the seteel when you grind them. Please note, on the picture the 3 types of blades, at the top, a model

with straight sharp edged teeth, designed for cutting wood across the grain, very useful to make straight edges and

angles. The two lower models are scrapers, they have wide set teeth, and work marvels in the deep of the hole. The

last model is better for finition and soft metals. Another tool I use often is a thin long chisel, originally 6mm, ground to

4, as it allows fast removal of material when the tang hole is square. Some tangs, on traditional blades taper toward

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Knife making tutorial [part 1, the knife handle]

the end in all directions, and these are better fitted using the saw blades.

Fitting the tang - maybe You can use this, but it is a bit violent, and wont got the full length.

Fitting the tang -really Better use this, a 4mm wide chisel, in company of a saw blade will do wonder.

Checking things Well now, we need to check everything fits. Probably the angle of the block at the bloster will need

adaptation.

Then we need to fit the tang. The best way to do this, is either to drill a huge hole, but the adjustments are clumsy,

and a lot of glue will be needed. This requires some work but be patient, the result is well worth doing. This method

allows perfect adjustments, not that important when there is a bolster, but very important when there is no bolster. It

is important to check the angle at which the block of wood meets the bolster. As the block was squared at 90

degrees, there may be some angle where it meets the bolster which will need to be corrected for a perfectly flat fit.

This happens because the bolster may be at an angle slight ly different than 90 degrees with the tang, or that you

made the tang hole asymmetrical in the wood block. No problem either ways, just adjust the angles.

Gluing the tang

Acetone cleaning Acetone is mandatory to remove any grease trace.

Clean every piece to glue in acetone, at least two times. This will remove finger prints. Fingers always leave a greasy

print, even when clean, so do not touch any of the areas of the parts to glue with bare hands once they're cleaned. In

general plan for the smallest thickness of glue as possible. Glues have poor side force strength in large thicknesses.

Doing this and ensuring the surfaces to glue are rough will make an optimal bonding.

Prepare glue I used kevlar in it, but avoid it, simpler to use only epoxy glue.

Prepare the glue. Consider the time the glue takes for hardening. Do not start difficult and complex stacking using a

5 minute glue. Epoxy glues work great. Generally slower epoxy glues provide better bond than faster ones. Respect

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