Kit Knives

[Jaxe Pen Kits]

Does anyone here assemble knives from kits or put handles on blades? Pro's and Con's? Any good or bad kits?

This is a quick one I did

 

[Trawlerman]

Made the handle on this one from a kit. Not a bad blade with VG-10 Damascus and it was fun to pretend being a real knife maker!

 

[TC]

I've seen a lot of home-gamers use Lauri blades (80CrV2 and from below 10 to ~20 bucks). Here's one I picked up with a 3" blade. Great little carver!





After sanding off the crud:

 

[Jaxe Pen Kits]

nice work both of you

 

[Horsewright]

Very nice work guys!

 

[jfk1110]

Nice work gentlemen!!!

 

[eveled]

I assembled a CVA kit knife in my early teens. It gave me the confidence to rehabilitate some other knives that needed repair and handle replacement.

 

[bdmicarta]

I've put handles on about 12 or so knives, I haven't done any kits. Mostly I've bought blade blanks from people at knife shows and I've bought one or two skeleton knives on the internet. I've also put handles on 3 different Spyderco mules. I put micarta on 3 blades and wood on all the rest. I have one of those simple belt sanders with the disk sender on the side and that's what I've done all my work with (4" x 36"?). It's possible to do this type of work with just files, wood rasps and sandpaper.

It's a lot of fun but doesn't even bring me close to being a knifemaker.

 

[Jaxe Pen Kits]

A blade blank is basically a kit in my eyes especially if bought with a guard

 

[Jaxe Pen Kits]

Here is a few some friends did using the same kit in dagger and clip point style they are really just fancy letter openers that can be made to match hand turned pens

This first one has a Fordite handle I think goes really well

 

[VorpelSword]

Back in the early 1980s I worked offshore in the Persian Gulf on a jack-up drilling rig. At times we were furiously busy. At other times we had little to do, but we had to be there any way.

During one of these lulls in action, I decided th replace the rosewood scales on my Buck 110. I managed to completely dissemble it without damaging any of the parts. The brass frame is easily bent or wrinkled.

The replacement wood was from a really nicely figured tropicasl hardwood that i slvaged from discarded crating for a heavy oil drilling bit. I cut the piece down to a workable size with a hack saw and then re-sawed it in two to make a matching butterfly or book fold pair (what is the right word?)

Then spent endless hours fitting the pieces to the brass frame parts using coarse and then fine toothed metal files. Got-'er-dunn at last and used a two part epoxy made for bonding together casing sections to hold the pieces into the brass frames. The reassembly was a little tricky (for me) but it did go back together pretty well. The new wood stood proud from the bolsters (as intended) and I spent some more time carefully blending the ends down to the brass, leaving s palm filling bulge in the middle.

that was some 40 years ago now . . .Don't know what happened to that knife, Wish I still had it.

 

[David Mary]

It's a lot of fun but doesn't even bring me close to being a knifemaker.

Closer than you may think. It’s how I started.

 

[sgt1372]

I once assembled an automatic from a kit.

Think I got it at a gun show when you could buy such things. It worked well but lost it.

 

[Forrest Taylor]

Here is a few some friends did using the same kit in dagger and clip point style they are really just fancy letter openers that can be made to match hand turned pens

This first one has a Fordite handle I think goes really well

Good looking blades. The Fordite is exceptionally nice. In fact I may have to try to make one.

 

[andybtruckin]

I make handles for knife blanks or re-handle old knives I pick up. I'm not set up to do the steel work but I enjoy doing the woodwork. I've done a bunch of Mule Teams. For Christmas I gave away some Brisa Bobtail's I put Ironwood scales on. I'm always on the lookout for quality blanks to use.
I've learned a lot from BF. How to do peened pins, mosaic pins, corby bolts, liners. Here's a couple of Mule Team knives I did.

 

[Jaxe Pen Kits]

nice work. I used to collect Sheffield made dirks (gambler's dirks) hence the letter openers they are roughly based on the same designs

am working up some now in imitation ivory will post when done

 

[Jaxe Pen Kits]

Good looking blades. The Fordite is exceptionally nice. In fact I may have to try to make one.

Fordite is such interesting material and a part of history

 

[1911bphil]

I make handles for knife blanks or re-handle old knives I pick up. I'm not set up to do the steel work but I enjoy doing the woodwork. I've done a bunch of Mule Teams. For Christmas I gave away some Brisa Bobtail's I put Ironwood scales on. I'm always on the lookout for quality blanks to use.
I've learned a lot from BF. How to do peened pins, mosaic pins, corby bolts, liners. Here's a couple of Mule Team knives I did.
View attachment 2451160View attachment 2451161

Those handles look great!! Thanks for sharing.

 

[Alberta Ed]

I've re-handled a few laminated Frost blades for trapper friends, but that's about the extent of it. They turned out OK but nothing close to andybtruckin's awesome examples above. Ragweed Forge has some do-it-yourself blades/kits and Grohmann Knives does too.