How thin can I take this handle?

R

running bird

Joined
Sep 29, 2015
Messages
487
Howdy everyone. So I’be been working on a simple kitchen knife for one of my best friends who recently got married. I’m terrible at and hate making handles so I’m trying my best to take this part slow and not screw up. I want to know about how thin can I make wood in the front of the tang (edge side) and the back of the tang (spine side) before it’s too thin?

(Having trouble getting pics to cooperate so here’s the link:
https://imgur.com/a/NbFhTLd
)

Hopefully you can see my pencil marks in the areas I’m referring to. They’re both about 5-6mm from the tang hole. Is this a good thickness? Can I safely take it a little thinner than that if I need to?

My buddy and his wife have relatively small hands compared to mine so I’m trying to make it all a bit smaller than what would be perfect for me. The handle is desert ironwood and I’m going for a oval shaped handle over a Wa handle since I know I’m a lot less likely to screw that up. Since they aren’t going to be using it like a meat cleaver or anything crazy like that I assume I can take it pretty thin but figured I should check with you all first. The width of the tang as you see it is about the same width all the way down, it only narrows out a tiny bit towards the end.

If better pictures are needed I can snag some late tonight after work. Thanks

Kevin
 
Most of my handles fall between 1/2”-3/4” thick in the center and taper off on the front and back.
 
I would leave around 1/8" at least on the spine and edge sides. Ironwood is pretty strong stuff! I use G10 as a frame and epoxy scales to that and try to leave around 1/8" with that as well.
 
Awesome thanks guys! Had to do some conversions cuz the inches side of my ruler was worn so I had to use the mm side to measure. So 6mm is a tad under 1/4” so I can bring them in to half of where I got my lines drawn :thumbsup:.

This is good because even with the lines I’ve got drawn I know the handle would be a little too chunky for the two of them. Trying to keep the whole thing nice and slim
 
I agree with Taz. 1/8" is enough on the spine and edge sides. 1/2" is enough for the thickness. My suggestion is to measure a handle you like in your kitchen drawer and see what it measures.
 
I've always just assumed you would run into problems of it being uncomfortable before you have mechanical problems? With decent glue you could veneer the tang
The thinnest one I have is about 2mm at the bottom, but i think that ones actually a bit small overall
 
Alright guys I think I’m all finished with handle. I took my sweet time with it and didn’t screw anything up! Sanded to 400 grit and stopped because it was just starting to feel a little slick. I covered my hand the saw dust I had been making and attempted to burnish it a bit, not sure how much it did but it looks good!

https://imgur.com/a/GVVJ2Qd

Feels perfect (relative to how my handles usually go) in the hand. This is my first time working with ironwood, not having to oil the handle is new to me. I have 1 little void I’ve gotta fill but thankfully my girlfriend just bought a bunch of super glue to fix some stuff.

I just have to finish getting rid of a few 600grit marks I missed on the blade then this knife is good to go!… only almost a month after their wedding 😅. I got them a spyderco sharpmaker and a small spray bottle of plain mineral oil (blade is 15n20). Then I’m gunna type up some paper work and carbon steel instructions/explanations to go with it.

Thanks again for the help everyone

Kevin
 
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