- Joined
- Apr 28, 2010
- Messages
- 1,155
Neck Knives are handy and easy to carry, but for me, I don't like a lot of weight around my neck. That means I usually go without the micarta handle scales on my BK-11
So then what do you do when you need to do some serious bushcrafting involving prolonged knife use, which a naked necker handle is just not suitable for?
Make handle scales, of course.
Find a suitable hickory stick and use a baton to cut it off.
Cross grain baton to square off the end,
and cut to length.
Then split.
Whittle to remove bark and shape the scales.
These are not permanent handles so no need to exactly match the tang, just make them usable.
Then lash in place. Paracord or bank line would work, but I chose a different route. Electrical tape doesn't seem to get mentioned much amongst bushcrafters, but every Southern Missouri farmer seems to have at least one tool with an electrical tape wrapped handle. It did the job nicely in this case.
The new handles seem to fit the hand well.
Much better than naked handles for carving wood.

So then what do you do when you need to do some serious bushcrafting involving prolonged knife use, which a naked necker handle is just not suitable for?
Make handle scales, of course.
Find a suitable hickory stick and use a baton to cut it off.



Cross grain baton to square off the end,

and cut to length.

Then split.

Whittle to remove bark and shape the scales.

These are not permanent handles so no need to exactly match the tang, just make them usable.

Then lash in place. Paracord or bank line would work, but I chose a different route. Electrical tape doesn't seem to get mentioned much amongst bushcrafters, but every Southern Missouri farmer seems to have at least one tool with an electrical tape wrapped handle. It did the job nicely in this case.

The new handles seem to fit the hand well.


Much better than naked handles for carving wood.
