Four Persian Subhilts

[Richard338]

Still learning and trying to do a different style every time right now.
After seeing all the beautiful subhilts on this forum I had to try it.
These are my first subhilts and also my first hollow ground knives.
They are 154cm with 416 hardware (60 hardness at Peters).
I didn't botch any of the grinds too badly, and just need to do the final sharpening.
The dark parts of the handles are African blackwood.
The white piece is a replacement ivory used for pool cues.
I assembled it first and second guessed the white material, so for the other three I used some light colored stabilized wood. Now the white one has grown on me and might be my favorite.
Now it's time to finish a couple of cheese knives I started...

 

[S.Alexander]

Nice looking work. The grinds look good. I've been meaning to make a subhilt.

How big is the gap between the guard and subhilt? It looks a bit wide for a single finger.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Good workmanship.

I don't like handles with four finger grooves because they only fit one hand size and in only one position. The space between the guard and the sub0hilt seems much too large unless the user has gorilla hands. That space should act like it was a ring to grip the blade with the index finger.

 

[Richard338]

Thanks for the feedback guys.
I agree that the downside of this handle design is that it only fits one size of hand perfectly.
In this case I did get a perfect fit for my hand. It fits really nicely and has a smooth comfortable feel.
The gap is about 3/4" and was determined from trying a few cardboard models and then tracing it onto graphing paper.
You raise a good point though since I was going to send one to a friend, but we'll see if it fits him since he has slightly bigger hands.