How To puukko question

Needs to be fresh!!!! There are resins in the bark itself that help it stay put but gotta be peened on well...
 
Looks good. One thing you didn't do you should do immediately is tape up the blade with several layers of blue painters tape. It protects the blade and protect you.
Oh it was taped I usually peel off my masking tape after the epoxy tacts up a bit. Then I use cigarette filters soaked in alcohol to clean excess..
 
Needs to be fresh!!!! There are resins in the bark itself that help it stay put but gotta be peened on well...
ohhhhh haha that certainly explains things. the native birch around me isnt doing so good with how dry its been and invasive bugs and stuff. would feel bad about stripping some so i suppose that ideas totally out. a shame those full handles of stacked birch bark look incredible.
 
ohhhhh haha that certainly explains things. the native birch around me isnt doing so good with how dry its been and invasive bugs and stuff. would feel bad about stripping some so i suppose that ideas totally out. a shame those full handles of stacked birch bark look incredible.
You there are videos showing how deep to go and you can always check dead.ones too!!!! Usually the inner stuff is good for quite a while....Months!!
 
You can soak the bark in water to soften it. Cut into squares, punch the center holes, let dry a little, and then assemble on the knife. Clamp hard and let dry fully for a week. Gently trim or grind off the excess to a cylinder shape, then fit the endcap and peen. Soak in BLO for a while to help seal the bark as well as swell it tight. Drain off the excess BLO and wipe it down. Hang somewhere for a week to a month until the oil is dry. Finish shaping and sanding.

Bark can also be bought in bundles already cut into squares.

Here is a trick for making the bark handle blanks easily (it sounds much more complicated than it is):
Cut and punch all the bark with a 5mm hole. Drill a 5mm hole in the end caps and any spacer materials.
Take a 10" piece of 3/16" threaded rod and wax it heavily with an old candle or block of paraffin wax.
Cut two steel plates about 1/4" thick that are about the size of your bark pieces. Drill them in the center with a 3/16" hole and wax them well.
On the threaded rod, put a nut (a heavy-duty wing nut is perfect), a steel plate, the handle pieces in the order desired, the other plate, and another nut. Tighten down and see if it looks good. Take apart and rearrange if needed. Once the arrangement looks good, back the nuts and plates off to the ends and move the the stack to one end. Slide the components one piece at a time to the other end as you brush the tops with Tite-bond III glue (or another brand). Just a light brushing will do, no need to soak it. Once all have been brushed with glue, tighten the nuts down and let sit a minute, tighten again, and repeat until it is fully compressed. This is messy, so wear old clothes, rubber gloves, and work outside over some old newspapers. Wipe off any excess that you can and set down to cure overnight or longer. When cured, take off the nuts and cut one end of the rod about 1" past the plate. Set the long end of the threaded rod loosely in the jaws of a vise. Hammer the short end straight down with a firm blow and it should slide out of the block of bark. Use a sharp knife to separate the plates from the bark if needed, an set them aside for the next handle project. If you dinged up the threads on the rod with the hammer, grind the damaged threads back to good threads. Slip the rod back in the block and put the nuts back on.
Shape the handle into a cylinder. You now have a handle blank with a 1/4" tang hole. (You can make a box full of handle blanks and have them ready anytime you want.)

If doing a classic BLO finish, skip the glue and just tighten the parts snug then soak the assembly in BLO. After letting it dry well, remove the mandrel and assemble on the blade tang.

Make the blade tang 5mm round at the end, or weld on a piece of 5mm round stock. Thread the end of the tang 5mm-1.0 and thread the end cap the same. Drill the block out to fit your tang as needed.
Assemble everything on the tang, screwing down the end cap snug. Carefully shape the end caps and handle to the final shape, not letting the metal pieces get too hot. Once the final shape is done on the grinder, I unscrew it all, glue it up with epoxy, and tighten snug. After the epoxy dries, I cut the excess tang off just proud of the end cap, peen the stub lightly. and grind the end flush. Sometimes it is almost invisible.
 
You can soak the bark in water to soften it. Cut into squares, punch the center holes, let dry a little, and then assemble on the knife. Clamp hard and let dry fully for a week. Gently trim or grind off the excess to a cylinder shape, then fit the endcap and peen. Soak in BLO for a while to help seal the bark as well as swell it tight. Drain off the excess BLO and wipe it down. Hang somewhere for a week to a month until the oil is dry. Finish shaping and sanding.

Bark can also be bought in bundles already cut into squares.

Here is a trick for making the bark handle blanks easily (it sounds much more complicated than it is):
Cut and punch all the bark with a 5mm hole. Drill a 5mm hole in the end caps and any spacer materials.
Take a 10" piece of 3/16" threaded rod and wax it heavily with an old candle or block of paraffin wax.
Cut two steel plates about 1/4" thick that are about the size of your bark pieces. Drill them in the center with a 3/16" hole and wax them well.
On the threaded rod, put a nut (a heavy-duty wing nut is perfect), a steel plate, the handle pieces in the order desired, the other plate, and another nut. Tighten down and see if it looks good. Take apart and rearrange if needed. Once the arrangement looks good, back the nuts and plates off to the ends and move the the stack to one end. Slide the components one piece at a time to the other end as you brush the tops with Tite-bond III glue (or another brand). Just a light brushing will do, no need to soak it. Once all have been brushed with glue, tighten the nuts down and let sit a minute, tighten again, and repeat until it is fully compressed. This is messy, so wear old clothes, rubber gloves, and work outside over some old newspapers. Wipe off any excess that you can and set down to cure overnight or longer. When cured, take off the nuts and cut one end of the rod about 1" past the plate. Set the long end of the threaded rod loosely in the jaws of a vise. Hammer the short end straight down with a firm blow and it should slide out of the block of bark. Use a sharp knife to separate the plates from the bark if needed, an set them aside for the next handle project. If you dinged up the threads on the rod with the hammer, grind the damaged threads back to good threads. Slip the rod back in the block and put the nuts back on.
Shape the handle into a cylinder. You now have a handle blank with a 1/4" tang hole. (You can make a box full of handle blanks and have them ready anytime you want.)

If doing a classic BLO finish, skip the glue and just tighten the parts snug then soak the assembly in BLO. After letting it dry well, remove the mandrel and assemble on the blade tang.

Make the blade tang 5mm round at the end, or weld on a piece of 5mm round stock. Thread the end of the tang 5mm-1.0 and thread the end cap the sathose are me. Drill the block out to fit your tang as needed.
Assemble everything on the tang, screwing down the end cap snug. Carefully shape the end caps and handle to the final shape, not letting the metal pieces get too hot. Once the final shape is done on the grinder, I unscrew it all, glue it up with epoxy, and tighten snug. After the epoxy dries, I cut the excess tang off just proud of the end cap, peen the stub lightly. and grind the end flush. Sometimes it is almost invisible.
those are really great instructions thats a pretty nice tip, one of my pt blades is getting put aside just for that i think. thanks for all your help btw. wood glue being favored for bonding birch bark over epoxy makes sense i didnt even think about that. before my next puukko i clearly have a bit more research to do but theres so much more freedom than knife scales (of which ive only done 10 or so def not an expert there either or anything)
 
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those are really great instructions thats a pretty nice tip, one of my pt blades is getting put aside just for that i think. thanks for all your help btw. wood glue being favored for bonding birch bark over epoxy makes sense i didnt even think about that. before my next puukko i clearly have a bit more research to do but theres so much more freedom than knife scales (of which ive only done 10 or so def not an expert there either or anything)
gonna sand it down tomorrow, probably wont bring the peened over tang exactly flush since my end cap is so thin but it will still look good polished over and rounded i think. already have some thicker plates for the next one. might be a little tough to get everything even with the 1x30 belt sander i have right now but should still be fine for roughing the oval shape out just a bit extra hand sanding.

also gonna play around with my huge old hickory butcher/hunter stock a bit more, would like to try the corby bolt thing on one maybe and some mosaic pins i have been waiting on finally came in. the 8 inch butcher and 5.5 hunter models are 18$ online right now fyi for anyone also learning they are very forgiving and look pretty nice rehandled
 
gonna sand it down tomorrow, probably wont bring the peened over tang exactly flush since my end cap is so thin but it will still look good polished over and rounded i think. already have some thicker plates for the next one. might be a little tough to get everything even with the 1x30 belt sander i have right now but should still be fine for roughing the oval shape out just a bit extra hand sanding.

also gonna play around with my huge old hickory butcher/hunter stock a bit more, would like to try the corby bolt thing on one maybe and some mosaic pins i have been waiting on finally came in. the 8 inch butcher and 5.5 hunter models are 18$ online right now fyi for anyone also learning they are very forgiving and look pretty nice rehandled
actually i think i could print out a replacement drive wheel for my belt sander that would allow me to mount sanding discs. might be worth trying first
 
i ended up just using the 1 inch belt, came out okay i was thinking about maybe dying the wood portion but i will probably just douse it in tru oil since thats all i have laying around. was going for the fully straight oval pattern but i ended up liking the feel of it flaring out a bit.
 
either way i have been wet sanding with alcohol so its going in the mineral oil jar for a bit lol
 
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one more pic just to show the side profile a little better, suppose i should learn to make a sheath for this guy next
 
once again thanks for all the help everyone! really sped up my process. cant wait to put this guy to use, will say even though my harbor freight belt grinder is a trooper was way more time consuming than necessary. before the next one im definitely either getting a disc sander or hacking together that sanding disc mounting drive wheel idea i had for the 1x30 belt grinder. think it would only really take small modifications to existing stl files but on the other hand a full upgrade would be nice
 
oh one last question for those that use tru oil or linseed, is it necessary to tape off brass? will the finish just wipe off the brass easily like i suspect or would it form an even coat over everything? is it fine to just coat the brass too? ive always taped off everything that wasnt wood and this knife took too much work to start experimenting on but if u have any firsthand experience let me know would save me some time in the future/maybe ive just been screwing myself out of protecting the brass too lol. I ask because i watched a ton of thetopicala's builds on youtube as references and osmo almost never seems to tape off bolsters and stuff when he oils but also doesnt show himself wiping it off or anything either after.
 
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Wipe it off. Acetone will also help remove spots you miss.

You said "Linseed". There is a big difference between Linseed oil and Boiled Linseed Oil (BLO). Linseed oil may take weeks to months to cure. BLO takes a couple days.
 
Wipe it off. Acetone will also help remove spots you miss.

You said "Linseed". There is a big difference between Linseed oil and Boiled Linseed Oil (BLO). Linseed oil may take weeks to months to cure. BLO takes a couple days.
oh i see i have only used the tru oil and just know its essentially boiled linseed with some stuff to help it dry fast/ food safe stuff i usually just go with the mineral oil and beeswax thing people do for cutting boards to be extra sure
 
so i took this advice into account and clamped the hell out of it right after glueing and right before peening. prevously i had hammered everything down over the tang with random block that had a hole drilled to soften the blow but clamping added another half inch of tang out of thin air. my go to epoxy is devcon 2 ton and luckily its got a pretty long working time. only bit im really worried about is rouge epoxy i did kinda rush the glueing between layers.

You're gonna be shaping the handle anyway, so it shouldn't make much difference!
 
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