Santoku Chef knife- ideal handle thickness for woman with small hands?

[GrizzlyBear]

Hey guys.

I'm building a Santoku Chef's blade for my fiancee's sister for Christmas this year. She has small hands and I'm on the fence as to whether or not the scales I've chosen are thick enough or need a matching g10 liner.

The blade thickness is 0.095", the scales are acrylester measuring right at 5/16" which puts the handle at about 23/32" unfinished.

Should a 1/8" matching G10 liner be added to this just to be on the safe side?

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

I would use them as is, unless you know she like fat handles.

 

[Patrickknives]

For small hands I have been going with 1/4 thickness scales, the other thing to check is the depth of the handle, she should be able to get her fingers wrapped around the handle without touching on the other side

 

[watercrawl]

3/4" thick seems to be the best "non-specified" handle thickness in my experience and most are for men. 23/32" is under that and if you add 1/8" (I'm assuming 1/16" both sides) you'd be over that by enough that I don't think you'd want it that thick.

 

[fast14riot]

My wife is a rare and exquisite miniature, she's not even 5' tall, so I think I can help answer this. She is also a chef, I have found that she likes handles about 3/4" thick for most work, slightly thinner for a paring knife, so sounds like you're in the ballpark. Plus that thickness doesn't feel small to me with my large hands.


-Xander

 

[GrizzlyBear]

Thanks for the quick replies.

The 1/8" would have been on each side, adding 1/4 to the total handle width, bringing it close to 1" before contouring and shaping. I thought about 1/16" per side but didn't figure adding 1/8" total would be enough to matter.

She's not a chef , but she does like to cook and I didn't want it to be too thin or too thick. In fact, I figured a bit thinner would give her more control over the knife.

 

[Bill Burke]

If she has small hands no liner would be needed just sculpt -and contour. If she has larger hands or likes fat handles then add the spacers. about half of the knives I make I use 5/16ths or 3/8ths scales makes a nice thin-ish handle.