Deciding on your handle profiles?

D

Diligence

Joined
Jan 18, 2000
Messages
275
I'm really rather new at knife making, even though I made my first knife in 1996. I usually try to make a knife out of pine and plywood first to see how it feels in my hand.

How do the rest of you do it? Using proven shapes? Using play-doh? Using styrofoam? Lately I've been trying layers of cardboard that have been glued together.

I'm asking because I'd like a faster method of finding the correct shape for the correct hand.

This process is also complicated somewhat for me since I'm missing my pinky and ring fingers on my right hand (I got bit by a dado -like saw blade years ago..)

thanks,
 
Diligence, I draw mine out on paper then cut the rough pattern out of my steel. I can then fine tune it by grinding away however much I want when I profile my blade. If I think the handle needs a little more of then I take some more off keeping in mind which type of handle I intend for that knife. I have a couple of patterns out of mild steel for reference. Some of my patterns can serve various styles of knives by just grinding away a certain part. I have one pattern of a drop point hunter(my first knife) that has a thumb rest at the top front of the handle where the thumb can rest during use for some extra leverage. This pattern serves alot of my hunters because I can simply do away wioth the thumbrest and have a smooth top. I can also use that pattern for a knife and then reshape the handle to suit my purposes. Vaquero57
 
I've use wood in the past and liked it.

Another medium that worked for me is wadded-up aluminum foil. I take foil and crinkle it up some. Then I roll it into an oversized crinkly tube. Then I massage and pound it into experimental shapes.
 
Go check out all the new fishing rods for handle ideas. Take a six inch scale with you and a pad. Hey its an idea...

Jonesy
 
It's good to have an idea of where you want to start and finish...but I think too many guys get hung up on the mock up. Because until you have the actual knife, you won't really know how it's going to feel.

Wood, cardboard, hardboard, etc. is nice to get an idea, but it won't have the same balance as the finished knife. And the more you fine tune your mock-up, the more exacting you have to be with the real thing.

I have several patterns that I reference, but every knife comes out a little differently depending on what kind of wood, stag, bone, ivory is used the handle it.

Just like the two folders I'm working on right now, I draft them out with the only real precision being the pivot points and blade length, leaving some room to play with overall shape.

Just my thoughts,
Nick
 
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