Leather and Horn Mora rehandle project

pict

pict

Joined
Jan 7, 2003
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I had wood handled Mora that my dog got ahold of and chewed up the handle. The blade sat around as one of those "round tuit" projects for about a year. I finally got it together and rehandled it in leather with black cowhorn bolster and endcap.

I'm happy with the way it turned out, for a first time rehandle in horn and leather. It isn't perfect but I won't hesitate to buy a blank blade in the future. It is certainly a better handle than the dog-gnawed White Birch it was wearing. I used this knife alot as a wood carver and that was the goal of this project, to get it back into a useable form.

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My next step is to use the original plastic sheath as a sheath liner and learn how to make a traditional pouch type sheath. I just need to get the right grade of cowhide.

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I learned alot doing this project. It would go much quicker with a belt sander, doing it by hand is time consuming. I should have inlet the bolster a little to hide the marks at the base of the blade. I would have made all my leather disks much larger, the sureform took the excess leather off very quickly.

Now I'm going to figure out a design for that huge Tramontina Bowie blade I have in the shop, maybe I'll do it in black horn and cowhide. Mac
 
Looks great ! I'm guessing it feels way better in your hand too.

Just a thought, but if you're going to use the plastic sheath as a liner, you could practice by using something cheap like canvas to figure out the design, then do the leather from the pattern.
 
Very nice! How does the endcap work, did you fit it over the tang and hammer the tang out like a rivet?
 
Sodak,

I made that brass piece from a scrap of brass rod I had in the toolbox. The tang end on the Mora blade was very soft. I just left enough sticking out so that there was as much above the washer as the diameter of the tang. I then glued the horn piece in place (epoxy) and peened the end of the tang until it drew down tight.

For lack of a ball peen hammer I used a large crescent wrench! Not ideal, I highly recommend the hammer. I then sanded the end to 600 grit and polished it on my strop.
The peening took forever but it worked. Mac
 
That looks real fine.
A definate step up from the original, chewed or not ;)

What's next?
 
Ebb,

I have a Tramontina Bowie blade that came with a horrendous black rubber handle. The blade looks sort of Trailmaster-ish. I cut the offending handle off it a long time ago. I just couldn't stand to look at it any longer. I need to work a bit on the tang and tap a threaded portion that will screw down tight against the leather. That's what I'm thinking anyway, brass single guard, leather, brass cap. Mac
 
Looks great Mac, that horn looks awesome and is a good contrast to the leather, I much prefer natural handles. Chris
 
OK I think I'm finally finished this project. I made a traditional style pouch type sheath and treated it with my wax concoction. I had a but-ugly simple sheath for this knife back when it was a regualar Mora but this handle wanted something better. I had never tried to make a sheath of this type before. I made a few mistakes along the way but I'm happy with the final product. It snaps in with a satisfying click and has good retention. I used the blade portion of the old plastic sheath as a sheath liner.

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I am going to heat it up and try to remove some of the excess wax. I'm just happy it doesn't have that trained monkey appearance that my stuff normally does. Mac
 
That turned out really nice. You did a terrific job on both the knife and the sheath. The stacked leather handle seems like it would be a big job. :thumbup:
 
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