Need some handle advice

[smitty0331]

I'm finishing up a large fixed blade utility / small camp knife. Sorry, I don't have any pics. available. The scales are Madagascar walnut with red liners. My epoxy is drying right now. My question is this: How should I finish the handle? Madagascar walnut is a deep rich brown, it looks really nice. My problem is that I want to add a little pizzaz to it. I don't want to go with a plain handle. I was thinking of either jigging it, or maybe adding some grooves in it for better grip, or even carefully scribe a line around the border, and then add some black coloring to it to form a black border. Any ideas to help me out will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[R.C.Reichert]

If you ever get the chance, have a look at some of the knives from ML Knives. He has a few where he puts some really nice looking cross-hatching on the handles.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

One of the things that really makes walnut "eye popping" is hand checkering. It also adds a lot to the value of a fine hand made knife.
Stacy

 

[chris609]

If your interested in doing hand checkering brownells sells the right tools. It takes alot of practice to get great results though. I do think they still sell a practice kit with video? check them out.

 

[Darrin Sanders]

Fluting looks great and is fairly straightforward. Just pencil some evenly spaced lines at an angle across the handle. Then file a notch in the handle at each mark with a triangle file, going across the handle from one side to the other, just deep enough for a round file to ride in. Switch to a round file and finish filing. Buff, oil, and wax. Time consuming, but very nice when done right.