Building a knife handle with cord and epoxy

Strigamort said:
Phil, I'm aware of yours and your fathers work. Welcome to Blade forums!

AVigil, wow. :)
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Thanks :)

When done right the cord wrapped handle is great. It gives you a lot of traction and does not chip, crack or come loose. To clean them I squirt them with windex and run them under water to get clean.

They are very tough
 
I don't see the benefit (cosmetically or functionally) of sanding or grinding on an already wrapped and cured handle, but to each his own.

I always wrap all of my cords on dry, apply a pretty good amount of the west system epoxy, let it saturate, and then wipe away any "shinyness" from the cord with a clean lint free rag. The cord wrap on top of wet epoxy is unneccessary, and sounds extremely messy.

Removing a handle that has been cured with west system epoxy is a terribly difficult thing. I've screwed some things up before and had to remove a few. If it's hard to remove with a belt grinder, pliers etc. then it's NEVER going to come apart under anything short of abuse, or destruction testing.

Guys can say all they want about cord handles. I think they are tough as hell.
 
Josh Mason said:
Guys can say all they want about cord handles. I think they are tough as hell.
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Agreed, they give the best traction no slip grip and always draw attention.

My "Ronin" in the pict above takes about 3/4 of an ounce of epoxy to soak in and will look the same decades from now.

When I first met Phill Hartsfield at a knife show he always drew attention due to his unique wraps and when you see those knives made 20 years ago even with hard use they still look pretty much the same.
 
davek14 said:
Acetone thins epoxy nicely and you can paint it on like shellac.
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Thank's for a tip, I might try that.

My next project will be a CS Mini Pendleton blade. I cut off the rubber handle and I will use two different kinds of cord, flat black paracord and and a textured tan/brown shoelace cord. I might wrap it first without glue to see how it looks.

This is going to be exiting.
 
HFinn said:
I might wrap it first without glue to see how it looks.
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Always wrap first and then apply epoxy after! It will soak in

I use System 3 epoxy. Snody uses Flex Coat and others use West Systems
 
HFinn said:
Thank's for a tip, I might try that.

My next project will be a CS Mini Pendleton blade. I cut off the rubber handle and I will use two different kinds of cord, flat black paracord and and a textured tan/brown shoelace cord. I might wrap it first without glue to see how it looks.

This is going to be exiting.
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You still have to be quick about it :) with 5 minute epoxy anyway. Acetone evaporates pretty quickly.
 
My buddy Ben Tendick uses Minwax wood hardener. His knives look fantastic! I may have to investigate his method.
 
Another one in the works (epoxy drying), a CS Pendleton mini blade, handle made of leather and two-tone bootlace. Lets see how this one turns out.
 
My wraps always come loose while drying. I don't think I'm doing the end part of the wrapping right.
 
HFinn said:
Another one in the works (epoxy drying), a CS Pendleton mini blade, handle made of leather and two-tone bootlace. Lets see how this one turns out.
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Turned out nicer than I expected. The color of the cord changed to darker than I expected, so that has to be considered in later projects. Pictures will come in time.

Still has to make a fitting leather sheath. I found out that the knife fits the original plastic sheath and the retention is better than original.
 
HFinn said:
Turned out nicer than I expected. The color of the cord changed to darker than I expected, so that has to be considered in later projects. Pictures will come in time.
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Pics? :)
 
17122013435.jpg
 
The next project will be a bowie knife, CS Trailmaster, now with a rupper handle and black blade. I will take the coating off the blade and make a wood core to the handle, then cover it with epoxy-coated cord. It will resemble a coffin handle if I get it right.
 
The bottom is a modern Japanese-styled two-toned paracord wrap on a snody compensator shank. I couldn't get the folds right on the black paracord so it just crosses over flat, but it gives phenomenal grip.
 
My first attempt.:

X8fX8AH.jpg


I need to get better epoxy for easier application, and do a thicker wrap.
 
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