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- Dec 27, 2010
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I'm working on another set of handle scales with some of the scrap cocobolo I have left over from another handling project, while I wait for the blades I've been working on to come back from heat treat, and I thought I'd post up my WIP so that my fellow Beckerheads can see how I do things for an 11. It's a bit more complicated than scales for a 2, so I thought this one would be more helpful. These ones are headed out to the good Captain when I finish up, since she's still rolling with a cord wrap, and well, we just can't have that.
I start out with the bare knife and a slab of cocobolo (you can use whatever wood, but I really like cocobolo, because it looks, smells, and feels great when finished, and it's easier to work with than bloodwood, which is the other type of wood I use when I'm making knives).
The next step is to trace out the outside shape of the knife, both left and right sides. Try to be really careful to get it as close as possible. I use a permanent marker. You'll also notice I put them right next to each other. Waste not, want not, and it will save me some sawing and sanding later.
Now, I'm going to do this with almost entirely hand tools, with the exception of a handheld belt sander, which I flip upside down and use for shaping, so this doesn't take much in the way of tools, just patience and such. Here I use a hand scroll saw (I think that's what this is called) to cut the two shapes apart. You can cut them out entirely, or, like I will do, you can sand it down to shape.
Here I've got the two scales separated from each other. Now, if you're paying attention, you'll note that they're both fairly thick. That's fine; we're going to sand them down nice and thin, and do some serious shaping later, once they're attached to the knife. Another thing you should notice is the mysterious third piece of wood. This is where the BK11 gets more complicated than the BK2. I want my screws in the middle of the handle where they'll be least prone to breaking, but if you do this without a spacer, the scales are going to slide around. So, I traced out the bottom shape on the INSIDE of the handle on that piece of wood. I'll have to sand it down to the appropriate width, which I usually do before I cut it out, so that I don't have to have a little tiny piece of nothing held against the sander. That's a good way to injure yourself.
You may also notice that I haven't drilled my screw holes yet, which is another difference from Oregon Faler's tutorial. There's a reason for that, which I'll get to in a moment. Next, I use the belt sander to sand off all of the permanent marker, leaving the handle scales shaped. They'll still likely be a bit large, which again, is fine. Better too large than too small; it gives you a little room to work with if you have any mistakes and such. You can use your scroll saw to cut out the indent for the bottle opener, if you want to cover the metal but still have a functional bottle opener. I like covering the full handle, because it gives me more to work with when I'm shaping the handle, and it fills the hand a bit better. However, you don't have to do it this way. You could do shorter scales like the usual micarta ones. I'm doing it this way on request.
In this next picture, I've cut out and sanded down the spacer that will keep the scales from sliding around. This takes a bit of doing, and you'll have to carefully refine it until it fits in. It doesn't have to be perfect, it just has to touch all 4 sides, which will prevent the scales from sliding.
Next, I'm going to glue that bad boy in place. I use Titebond 2 wood glue. It's really good stuff, but takes a while to set, so this project isn't getting done in a day. However, I've gotten this much done in less than 2 hours. So it's not an awful project.
Next, you'll paint a little wood glue onto the spacer. I usually put it on the spacer, rather than the scale, because it just ends up a little cleaner.
Finally, you're going to put the knife over ONE of the scales, line up all the curves (you may want to clamp it in place temporarily so there's no sliding), and then I'm going to carefully put that spacer in through the hole. Notice that it's flush with the knife (I sometimes actually use the knife to help sand it down a bit; the handle gets a bit scuffed, but you need that spacer to be the same width, or even a bit shorter).
Next, I press down on the spacer, let it set for about 5 minutes, and, keeping my finger firmly on the spacer so it stays right where I want it, I lift up the knife and remove it. I don't want to accidentally glue it to the handle scales, at least, not if I want these to be removable. And, since these are going on someone else's knife, which I don't have, I need it to be removed. So, I remove the knife, and at this point I have the scale with the spacer clamped. I use a drill press vise to clamp it, because it's easy to clamp without moving the spacer at all. If you move the spacer while you're clamping, your scales aren't going to fit.
And, since the glue needs to set overnight, I'm leaving off this project for now. More to come!
Okay, I woke up and went out, and the glue was set nice and tight. Time to drill the holes to attach the handle. I'm going to use a hand drill here, since those are nice and cheap, and if you don't have a drill press (although they're VERY useful), you can still get the job done.
I drill the side with the spacer first, then clamp the knife in between the slabs, and use the first one as a template to drill the other holes. If you don't get it perfect, that's why we left the scales a little big.
Next we need to countersink the holes so that the screws and nuts will fit. I use flat top standard screws, which I think are #6. I don't remember exactly, so I'll need to look at the box. They're 3/4" long, which is generally pretty close, and you can sand them down on your belt sander. Now, if you don't have a drill press, don't worry. Your hand drill won't work for this, BUT, you can use some wide chisels or a wide screwdriver. First I bore a little hole with a knife. Heck, you can even use the BK11, although I didn't. Then use a couple screwdrivers to flatten out the hole, getting progressively wider, by turning your wrist and scraping it out.
After a while, you'll have your holes countersunk. Note that doing it this way pretty much guarantees your countersink will be centered, although it's WAY faster and easier with a drill press.
Now I'm going to attach the scales to the knife with my screws for shaping. You may need to countersink deeper. Not having a convenient depth stop on my drill press, and not using a drill press, this can take a while.
Now, unfortunately, my sander died overnight somehow, so I had to use a larger one to finish shaping. Here I'm beginning the shaping process by rounding the slabs, and sanding it down to a little bit larger than the thickness I want it to be. You'll have to keep checking, and do this pretty lightly, because you don't want to screw up here. Taking it slow means you make mistakes slower. I wear gloves for sanding; that way if I slip, the glove takes the punishment, not me. It happens often enough that that's rather important. Safety first!
Here's the preliminary shaping done. You want it to be fairly thin for a knife this small, but I'm not going to take it down all the way yet.
Next I'm going to shape it to the hand. As it happens, from the pictures I asked Captain Airyica to take of the knife in her hand, we have similar-sized hands. So that made things easier on me. She's a righty, so I'm shaping this one for the right hand. I use the end of the belt sander to sand in some grooves for the fingers, angled appropriately. You can make this easy by wearing a cotton glove soaked in stain and gripping the handle, then sanding where it's darkest, or by tracing the outline with a pencil. I prefer the former. Here I've started to shape it. Make sure to curve the grooves naturally, the way a finger would grip the handle.
I start out with the bare knife and a slab of cocobolo (you can use whatever wood, but I really like cocobolo, because it looks, smells, and feels great when finished, and it's easier to work with than bloodwood, which is the other type of wood I use when I'm making knives).
The next step is to trace out the outside shape of the knife, both left and right sides. Try to be really careful to get it as close as possible. I use a permanent marker. You'll also notice I put them right next to each other. Waste not, want not, and it will save me some sawing and sanding later.
Now, I'm going to do this with almost entirely hand tools, with the exception of a handheld belt sander, which I flip upside down and use for shaping, so this doesn't take much in the way of tools, just patience and such. Here I use a hand scroll saw (I think that's what this is called) to cut the two shapes apart. You can cut them out entirely, or, like I will do, you can sand it down to shape.
Here I've got the two scales separated from each other. Now, if you're paying attention, you'll note that they're both fairly thick. That's fine; we're going to sand them down nice and thin, and do some serious shaping later, once they're attached to the knife. Another thing you should notice is the mysterious third piece of wood. This is where the BK11 gets more complicated than the BK2. I want my screws in the middle of the handle where they'll be least prone to breaking, but if you do this without a spacer, the scales are going to slide around. So, I traced out the bottom shape on the INSIDE of the handle on that piece of wood. I'll have to sand it down to the appropriate width, which I usually do before I cut it out, so that I don't have to have a little tiny piece of nothing held against the sander. That's a good way to injure yourself.
You may also notice that I haven't drilled my screw holes yet, which is another difference from Oregon Faler's tutorial. There's a reason for that, which I'll get to in a moment. Next, I use the belt sander to sand off all of the permanent marker, leaving the handle scales shaped. They'll still likely be a bit large, which again, is fine. Better too large than too small; it gives you a little room to work with if you have any mistakes and such. You can use your scroll saw to cut out the indent for the bottle opener, if you want to cover the metal but still have a functional bottle opener. I like covering the full handle, because it gives me more to work with when I'm shaping the handle, and it fills the hand a bit better. However, you don't have to do it this way. You could do shorter scales like the usual micarta ones. I'm doing it this way on request.
In this next picture, I've cut out and sanded down the spacer that will keep the scales from sliding around. This takes a bit of doing, and you'll have to carefully refine it until it fits in. It doesn't have to be perfect, it just has to touch all 4 sides, which will prevent the scales from sliding.
Next, I'm going to glue that bad boy in place. I use Titebond 2 wood glue. It's really good stuff, but takes a while to set, so this project isn't getting done in a day. However, I've gotten this much done in less than 2 hours. So it's not an awful project.
Next, you'll paint a little wood glue onto the spacer. I usually put it on the spacer, rather than the scale, because it just ends up a little cleaner.
Finally, you're going to put the knife over ONE of the scales, line up all the curves (you may want to clamp it in place temporarily so there's no sliding), and then I'm going to carefully put that spacer in through the hole. Notice that it's flush with the knife (I sometimes actually use the knife to help sand it down a bit; the handle gets a bit scuffed, but you need that spacer to be the same width, or even a bit shorter).
Next, I press down on the spacer, let it set for about 5 minutes, and, keeping my finger firmly on the spacer so it stays right where I want it, I lift up the knife and remove it. I don't want to accidentally glue it to the handle scales, at least, not if I want these to be removable. And, since these are going on someone else's knife, which I don't have, I need it to be removed. So, I remove the knife, and at this point I have the scale with the spacer clamped. I use a drill press vise to clamp it, because it's easy to clamp without moving the spacer at all. If you move the spacer while you're clamping, your scales aren't going to fit.
And, since the glue needs to set overnight, I'm leaving off this project for now. More to come!
Okay, I woke up and went out, and the glue was set nice and tight. Time to drill the holes to attach the handle. I'm going to use a hand drill here, since those are nice and cheap, and if you don't have a drill press (although they're VERY useful), you can still get the job done.
I drill the side with the spacer first, then clamp the knife in between the slabs, and use the first one as a template to drill the other holes. If you don't get it perfect, that's why we left the scales a little big.
Next we need to countersink the holes so that the screws and nuts will fit. I use flat top standard screws, which I think are #6. I don't remember exactly, so I'll need to look at the box. They're 3/4" long, which is generally pretty close, and you can sand them down on your belt sander. Now, if you don't have a drill press, don't worry. Your hand drill won't work for this, BUT, you can use some wide chisels or a wide screwdriver. First I bore a little hole with a knife. Heck, you can even use the BK11, although I didn't. Then use a couple screwdrivers to flatten out the hole, getting progressively wider, by turning your wrist and scraping it out.
After a while, you'll have your holes countersunk. Note that doing it this way pretty much guarantees your countersink will be centered, although it's WAY faster and easier with a drill press.
Now I'm going to attach the scales to the knife with my screws for shaping. You may need to countersink deeper. Not having a convenient depth stop on my drill press, and not using a drill press, this can take a while.
Now, unfortunately, my sander died overnight somehow, so I had to use a larger one to finish shaping. Here I'm beginning the shaping process by rounding the slabs, and sanding it down to a little bit larger than the thickness I want it to be. You'll have to keep checking, and do this pretty lightly, because you don't want to screw up here. Taking it slow means you make mistakes slower. I wear gloves for sanding; that way if I slip, the glove takes the punishment, not me. It happens often enough that that's rather important. Safety first!
Here's the preliminary shaping done. You want it to be fairly thin for a knife this small, but I'm not going to take it down all the way yet.
Next I'm going to shape it to the hand. As it happens, from the pictures I asked Captain Airyica to take of the knife in her hand, we have similar-sized hands. So that made things easier on me. She's a righty, so I'm shaping this one for the right hand. I use the end of the belt sander to sand in some grooves for the fingers, angled appropriately. You can make this easy by wearing a cotton glove soaked in stain and gripping the handle, then sanding where it's darkest, or by tracing the outline with a pencil. I prefer the former. Here I've started to shape it. Make sure to curve the grooves naturally, the way a finger would grip the handle.
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) KIDDING !!! Just kidding - Your "da man" FAL'ER 
