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Sanding handle material down to the steel

daveinvegas

daveinvegas

Joined
Jan 2, 2009
Messages
309
I have only recently been making handles for knife blades (kit blades). I was wondering what procedure ya'll use to sand the material down to the steel. At first I used a band saw to cut away as much excess material as possible to limit the amount of sanding required to eliminate the excess. I also use a Dremel to get closer to the steel. I use the router table for the Dremel. In an earlier post I was advised to get sanding drums for my drill press. I did that. Works well. However, sanding Micarta is a lot slower than wood because it is so dense. Hand sanding even the last 1/2 mm of Micarta is slow. Wood and bone is not as time consuming. I like Micarta be cause it is dense. But I have to remember to use a lighter touch when working with other materials. Anyway, the point is, I don't mind tackling some jobs I've never done before. I once offered to tune up my cousin's car. She asked if I had ever tuned up a car before. I told her that I had not but I had seen it done. As to applying handles to knives I've never seen it done so I feel like I'm making stuff up as I go so I figgered I'd ask all ya'll. After your input I'll tell you what technique I settled on and maybe you can have a good laugh.

A related question, I have a pretty good eye for shaping the handles since I've been making gun grips for years. However, I still find it extremely difficult to get the shape of both sides of the handles to match. At first I did it by hand with a Dremel or with a belt sander. For the first one I just rocked the handle/knife back and forth on the band saw to obtain a curved surface. Worked OK since the handle was fairly straight. But I could tell that wouldn't work on the second one because of the curved handle and finger grooves. I have since come up with a way to round the handle edges on handles with flat sides. I'll tell you about that technique later as well. If you want to see the results so far check out my photo album.
 
Hi Dave,

Have you tried the old tried and true method...files and rasps? I find they're the easiest to control. Since filing and rasping goes somewhat slow and you're working quite literally by hand it's easier to have a sense of the balance from side to side and top to bottom.

Good quality carbide burr rotary bits would probably make short work of that stuff. Some folks use 1" belt sanders for the tighter spaces of handle work.

It'd be good if you could post photos here that way more folks will take a look at them. How do we get to your photo album?

Good luck, Phil
 
Hi, Phil,

That's a couple I forgot to mention. I did use a carbide bit on one and I do have two 1" belt sanders that I use. I hate to say this but with all the sanders and grinders and saws and stuff, I haven't gotten around to using a file. Mainly because I don't like filing against the grain on wood so it wasn't something I thought about for Micarta. I can tell you I'm getting a workout with sand paper tho.
 
Phil,

Geez, I'm not sure how you can get to my photo album here. I can see it if I click on my name. Maybe you can try that, too.
 
Clicking on your name and going to your profile page lead me straight to those photos. Looking good!
 
Thanks, Phil, I appreciate it. Until I am able to make blades myself I'm concentrating on making the nicest handles I can. I'm gettin to be an old guy so I just hope I have time to learn to make blades. I would kinda like to start making blades from files but I'm sure how to do that yet. :)
 
James, thanks. The one with the Dymondwood is the second handle I made. I sandwiched a piece of brass between the Dymondwood and the spacer. It is a bit heavier than the one with bubinga. I tapered the handle toward the blade make it easier to hold. But I wasn't happy with the corby bolts on that one so I used pins on the other one. They were fun to do.
 
I am a CAD designer and I am seriously into precision. To a certain extent this is carrying over into my handle making. While I think some of the blades I have installed/attached handles to lend themselves more toward a freehand style, I think others look better when I try to be precise as to matching the shape of both sides of the handle. I have tried to express a little creativity like adding the brass between the spacer and Micarta or placing an angle on the forward part of the handle but I am obsessive/compulsive with symmetry.
 
daveinvegas said:
...but I am obsessive/compulsive with symmetry.
Click to expand...

I am an enginner myself as well and at first I was obsesed with simetry just like you. After some time I noticed that a handle doesn't need (indeed it DOESNT HAVE TO BE) absolutely simetric to provide a nice grip. I tend to look at knives like tools so if the handle works for me, that's good enough. I agree with you about symmetry looking good, but I don't get obsesed with it any more.
I make my blades with hand tools and my handle material (home made micarta) so even If I wanted to, perfect simmetry is out of the question.

Mikel
 
Mikel,

As a designer my work has to be absolutely perfect. As a grip maker my grips have to perfect. It is noticeable if they aren't, or worse, they don't fit. I've built 1911s since the mid 70's and that work has to be as perfect as possible as well. It's hard not to want to be able to use a mill or lathe so I can control the dimensions. I even use a caliper to check the depth of the counterbored holes for the Corby bolts and the thickness of the handle scales. Is that sick or what?
 
Dave, if you enjoy that kind of precision work, maybe you'd like building folders, too. The guys who are serious about it get down to some pretty tight tolerances.

Back to your original question, on a full-tang I grind or dremel as close to the steel as I can, file a bit closer, then sand (paper wrapped around a file or roundstock). It's no biggie, just that you don't want to go too fast and put deep scratches in the tang with the grinder or file.
 
Dave. I'm in about the same boat as you having made a few kit knives and ready to step up to making my own blades. Check out my photo album for pics of the fillet knife with white paper micarta. I found that the best way to shape and remove material from micarta is definatly a rasp. Work with your rasp untill your very close to your final dimension and switch to hand sanding with a slow shoeshine motion. This ended up getting the best result for me without clogging the sand paper. I found that small diameter sanding drums in the drill press were almost instantly clogged with material and useless and that a 3x18 woodworking beltsander was about in the same boat. Not alot of experience to go on but this is what worked best for me. Your knives really look great with whatever methods you've been using !
 
I just went and looked at your knives very nice . I think micarta would be very durable and weather resistant for the hard core hunter. I make all my handles so far from wood and would grind in my drill press with a flat end deburring tool set the pulley speed to super fast and go hard. I used the drill press drum sanding kit and works deadly a spindale sander would be nice but i dont need it yet.
 
James,

What I ended up doing is using my table router with a flush trim bit to take the material almost all the way down to the steel. I run the steel against the bearing. One must eyeball the height of the bit very carefully though. On the handles with flat sides (see my example of the grizzly in my album) I use a round over bit to maintain consistency all around the handle. I still have to do some finishing work with sand paper. It does tend to speed things up a bit as well. It also help limit the cramps in my hands and fingers. So, what do you think of my solution?
 
JAD and Hellgap (and everyone else),

Thanks for the nice comments on my work so far. It's very encouraging, especially when I feel like I really don't know what I'm doing, you know, the way it's supposed to be done. I'm still just flying by the seat of my pants.
 
JAD,

I just looked at your album. VERY NICE. I can only hope to be able to do work like that one day. Compared to your work, mine looks like crap.

Maybe I should stick to building guns. :)
 
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Hi Dave, I think most folks here are using their belt grinders for this work. I use the small wheel attachment, contact wheels and slack belts to do most of my handle shaping. Pretty much the only other way to do it is files.

If you don't have a belt grinder, you can probably do most handle work with a 1x30 or 1x42 belt sander. You need a slack belt area since these sanders won't have attachments. If you get an unsupported length of belt (like taking the platen off) you can use the belt in a shoe-shine or flossing fashion to get into inside curves and finger grooves. If the 1" belt is too wide, you can split it with a utility knife.
 
Hi, AcridSaint,

I have a 1" 30 and 42. I haven't had either one very long and I'm still practicing with them. Even with 400 grit belts (until they have been used for a while) I end up removing way too much material too fast. I was actually thinking about splitting the belt on the 30".

Thanks
 
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