Avoiding the dreaded...BLOCKY HANDLE!

[lawp]

...I asked for some shaping guidance here and someone suggested that I try an experiment with clay, but I really didn't learn much from it unfortunately...

Bravo, Paul. I was wondering if anyone was curious enough to try that. Looks terrible and nobody wants a handle like that. The purpose of using clay (and you only have to do it once to see this) is to show you a profile of what the inside of your grip looks like. Most other's grips will be similar. Since you don't want to make an ugly knife, you compromise by grinding some of your grip contours into the handle, but in general it looks like a generic shape. If you can contour where your thumb and little finger rest, and also the corners of the scales where your fingers wrap around, that's enough. The material removal is subtle, the feel is great. Of course it needs nice radiuses everywhere for comfort.

If your customer wants it to fit his hand in particular, send him a mock handle with some clay. But tell him not to squeeze like Superman.

 

[Rick Marchand]

Old hickory knives are ugly as homemade sin. There, I said it. It needed saying.

True... but they are also one of the most widely prefered knives used by folks who rely on blades, everyday.

 

[12345678910]

My old Hickorys beat my HENCKELS

I scour the salvation Army and other thrift stores, but there are never any there.
People hang onto them.


They used to be very popular, sold in every hardware store & there were lots of them around.
I think we had 10 paring knives in the kitchen alone, although a few made it to the garage one by one...

After checking in thrift stores every week for 7 years, I've never seen one for sale.

 

[koyote]

I actually think the thicker scales work out better- once you get over a resistance to grinding it down.

The tang width has a lot to do with what you can accomplish with a given scales thickness, of course- a 1/4 inch tang and 1/8 inch scales is often going to feel blocky if you are set on keeping the tang surfaces perfectly flat. Moving to 1/4 inch gives you more space to work your rounding in.

I often and working with 1/8 or 3/16 tangs and 3/8 scales give me a lot of room to grind on and form the shape.

I also, once I'm done with the rough angles (the Old Hickory look), switch to J weight belts and slack belt grind. I think if you get past the flat sides by getting some curve set into them on a slack belt, you start to fix the problem intuitively.

One last note- this is something you rarely see with through tang knives. Doing a couple stick tangs - however rough- will probably do a lot for anyone trying to overcome blocky handle shapes.

 

[chainring]

So far, I do the vast majority of my handle shaping on a 4 inch wheel and 1 inch wheel on the KMG. No filing done yet, at all. I take the handle to 220 grit on the KMG, then start at 220 with sandpaper and a 1/8 thick rubber pad to back it up. The handle shaping is my favorite part of the whole process.

 

[koyote]

good note on the rubber pad! I use scrap leather on my sticks when I'm doing gentle curves, sometimes with the shop roll sandpaper glued to it on "shoeshineing" when I want a broader curve than the cloth back gives.

 

[Phydeaux]

I was at a knife show several years ago where I was able to handle many different knives both production and custom. This really helped me in figuring out what I liked and disliked. I think the knife that made the biggest impression on me at that show was a Bob Dozier fixed blade. I can't remember what model it was but if felt like it belonged in my hand. So I spent a couple of minutes looking at it and inspecting it. It amazed me how all the different curves blended and flowed together. Anyways, it impressed on me the importance of handle shape. Thank you Bob!

As a lot of other do, I rough with the belt sander, and final adjustment with files and sand paper. During shaping I frequently stop and hold it in various positions to see where I may need to do a little more shaping.

ric

 

[kadinh]

A lot of good suggestions in this thread.

 

[richard j]

i try to contour every handle i put on my knives to be as comfortable as possible. i do have a leather washer handle knife that i left "blocky" so there is enough leather so i can shape it down to suit whoever buys it.

 

[GrizzlyBear]

Sometimes, the right kind of blocky works...

Agreed, Rick, totally agreed .

These are mine btw, Forgecraft blades that were my moms and have lived through decades of service. I found them cleaning out my mom's house after she passed and treated them to a little refurbishing.