I have been lusting after a new knife lately, I wanted to get a blade off of Brisa and put it in a handle. There were two problems, though: I didn't feel like spending 36 Euros, and it wasn't in stock anyways.
Link
So I dug around in my scrap metal box, and came up with about a third of a file I bought for a dollar several months ago. Some of you might remember the never-finished build-a-long I did. That's because I failed at making the handle, then I dinged the edge on my grinder trying to shape my failed handle, and then I gave up and threw the whole thing in the trash.
I took what was left of the file, though, and ground it down to the shape of the blade I wanted (very, very similar to the knife linked above), put a slightly convex saber grind on, and slapped a handle on it.
The in progress shots are poor quality because I didn't feel like going upstairs to get my real camera, so I used my cell phone. They are enough to give you an idea of what is going on.
The handle is made from a piece of slightly bird's eye cherry with a maple bolster. I think it actually came out looking slightly Japanese, even though I started with a Finnish inspired design. In the past, I've had alot of trouble drilling a straight hole for the tang. This time, I decided to use a technique that I saw in a youtube video once. I clamped the block down to my workbench horizontally, and drilled into it from the side. I also had lent out my power drill, so I had to use a hand powered bit brace for the hole. I was shocked when it came out almost dead straight. I gave the handle a kind of boxy barrel shape, which is nice and versatile, fills my hand really nicely, and allows me alot of angle control because of the slightly flat shape. I sanded it to 400, raised the grain by wetting it, then lightly sanded again. This makes it silky smooth. Then I finished it with several coats of high gloss tung oil, which gave it a really nice smooth, but not slippery finish. This was my first time using tung oil, and I really like it.
Anyways, onto the pictures!
The two pieces of wood glued together. Here you can see how long the tang is:
My clamp was just too short to clamp the blade into the handle while the glue dried, so I improvised:
All glued up, ready for shaping!:
The handle rough shaped on a 40 grit belt. From here, I hand sanded it to final shape and finish:
The sheath is thin leather with a wood liner that I carved with the knife. I used a dangler made from braided mason's line (to match my nails
) with a toggle so that I can put it on and take it off without removing my belt.
EDITED to add:
I forgot to mention that I kept the original full hardness of the file. For a knife this size, with it's intended use primarily being wood working, I wanted a really hard edge. I just kept the blade cool when I was grinding by keeping it wet and frequently dunking in water.
Link
So I dug around in my scrap metal box, and came up with about a third of a file I bought for a dollar several months ago. Some of you might remember the never-finished build-a-long I did. That's because I failed at making the handle, then I dinged the edge on my grinder trying to shape my failed handle, and then I gave up and threw the whole thing in the trash.
I took what was left of the file, though, and ground it down to the shape of the blade I wanted (very, very similar to the knife linked above), put a slightly convex saber grind on, and slapped a handle on it.
The in progress shots are poor quality because I didn't feel like going upstairs to get my real camera, so I used my cell phone. They are enough to give you an idea of what is going on.
The handle is made from a piece of slightly bird's eye cherry with a maple bolster. I think it actually came out looking slightly Japanese, even though I started with a Finnish inspired design. In the past, I've had alot of trouble drilling a straight hole for the tang. This time, I decided to use a technique that I saw in a youtube video once. I clamped the block down to my workbench horizontally, and drilled into it from the side. I also had lent out my power drill, so I had to use a hand powered bit brace for the hole. I was shocked when it came out almost dead straight. I gave the handle a kind of boxy barrel shape, which is nice and versatile, fills my hand really nicely, and allows me alot of angle control because of the slightly flat shape. I sanded it to 400, raised the grain by wetting it, then lightly sanded again. This makes it silky smooth. Then I finished it with several coats of high gloss tung oil, which gave it a really nice smooth, but not slippery finish. This was my first time using tung oil, and I really like it.
Anyways, onto the pictures!
The two pieces of wood glued together. Here you can see how long the tang is:
My clamp was just too short to clamp the blade into the handle while the glue dried, so I improvised:
All glued up, ready for shaping!:
The handle rough shaped on a 40 grit belt. From here, I hand sanded it to final shape and finish:
The sheath is thin leather with a wood liner that I carved with the knife. I used a dangler made from braided mason's line (to match my nails
) with a toggle so that I can put it on and take it off without removing my belt.EDITED to add:
I forgot to mention that I kept the original full hardness of the file. For a knife this size, with it's intended use primarily being wood working, I wanted a really hard edge. I just kept the blade cool when I was grinding by keeping it wet and frequently dunking in water.
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Nice job Simon. :thumbup:
