Handle making advice for a noob.

[SuperRA]

Hello all, I just joined here seeking some advice on making a handle for an old kitchen knife. I'm a total newbie at knives so, if it sounds like I have no clue, well... I do know my way around tools and have access to many so I believe that i'm quite capable. Any and all help is appreciated!

I have an old Henckel Friodur chef knive that my parents used to use all the time. Many (10+) years ago the handle was too rotted away to use and I've kept it stored away until now. Before storing it I removed the old handle and sand blasted all the gunk of the tang. So now I'm near the point where I'm ready to glue the wood onto each side but here's the question I came for. A while ago I bought some "cutlery rivets" from mcmaster carr. Now that I'm near that point, I'm not sure of the best way to install them or if I should even use them at all. From what I gather, the order of processes is:

• handles are glued on with pins and
• then they sanded to shape.

However these rivets having a nail like head on them seem to throw off the order. I can see doing it in one of the following ways:

• Method 1
  • Drill holes in wood to match tang
  • Glue handles to tang with dowel pins
  • hammer out the dowel pins
  • rough shape handle
  • counter bore holes just under thickness of rivet head
  • install rivets (with or without glue?)
  • finish sand
• Method 2
  • Drill holes in wood to match tang
  • calculate how deep to counterbore the holes so rivets are near the target thickness desired for handle, cross fingers and hope for the best..
  • Glue handle on with the cutlery rivets
  • sand handle down to shape
• Method 3
  • Ditch the rivets
  • Glue handles on with dowel pins (Stainless)
  • Sand handle to shape

What do you think, do any of these sound right? Again, thanks for any advice.

 

[Matt Rochester]

Look into using corby bolts. They are an actual screw that will finish looking like pins. You can get brass, copper, or stainless. You'll need a counterbore and the correct drill bit for the shaft but they are pretty straightforward to use and are great mechanical fasteners. Make sure you epoxy and bolt the scales on.

 

[One Armed]

Yes, Corby bolts are the “GO TO” fastener for most knife makers. As said, available in Brass, Copper, SS & even Titanium. I use a lot of the titanium. But if you don’t want to invest in the counterbore drill bits(unless you have a Mil), using pin stock would work fine. I used pin stock for the first year I was making knives. 1/8”, 3/16” or 1/4” pin stock in brass or stainless....or even titanium for pin stock as well, and a high quality 2-part epoxy and your handle will come out very nicely.

I would not use those “cutlery rivets”. Someone who has NO IDEA how to make knives thought those up! LOL!

 

[E.Carlson]

If it's a one time project, I'd second just using pins. A good slow cure epoxy like g flex, light clamping do you don't squeeze out the glue and some 1/8 stainless pins. Use a #30 bit for the holes.

 

[SuperRA]

Hi guys, I just thought I'd share the results. For some reason I never saw the last two posts otherwise I would have re-thought using the rivets... which I ended up using. Anyhow, it came out decent, at least to my standards. I have no experience in this, so that may be of differing opinions. I've mostly got the shape and just have to fine sand it and finish the wood. The blade had lots of deep scratches and bolster had huge gouge from some horrible sharpening job. I had to sand out the scratches and re-shape the lower part of the bolster. I glued on the wood with g/flex epoxy and will finish it with tung oil as recommended in other threads here on BF.