Stacked Leather Handle Finishes

Tom Militano

Tom Militano

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I'm going to be putting on my first stacked leather handle on a tactical knife later this coming week and I'd like to know the different methods makers use to finish these leather handles. Thanks.
 
Simplest way it to wet all the washers and put them on a bolt with nuts and washers on both ends.Tighten down good and tight and let dry for a couple of days.Take of and re-install on the knife tang in the same order,putting epoxy (slow cure) between each washer.Tighten down the pommel nut and let cure for 24 hours.Sand to shape on the belt grinder,going slow.Smooth up with a 400 grit belt.apply a good sealer and buff.Sealers vary as much as makers do.Super glue,Atom Wax (my favorite),tung oil,carnuba,linseed oil,etc.
A trick I use is to make a mandrel to work the handle on.It is a 1/2" bolt which I have flattened to a 1/4" thickness.I assemble the wet washers on it,dry them,re-assemble again with the glue,and when the glue is set but not cured (about 2 hours with the slow set) I unbolt the nuts, place one end loosely in the vise, and tap the bolt out with a mallet.Scrape the extra epoxy off the bolt and re-insert and re-tighten.After the epoxy cures,you can then shape and finish the handle on this mandrel to its near final dimensions before putting it on the knife tang. You avoid damaging the knife while doing all the shaping.You can slip the handle off and on the knife while shaping to test fit it.You can even put your bolster on the mandrel with the washers and grind them at the same time.
 
The way I normaly do it is to cut 11-12 once vegatable tanned leather(sheath remanents) into 1 1/2" ish squars and wet with water real good, stack 6-10 at a time and smush in a shop press. Not the forging press, haven't tried that yet. Let sit a couple of hours, release and seperate and let fully dry. Soak in super thin super glue and restack 4-8 at a time and repress and let dry most of the day. I wrap the dies with wax paper. When I have several blocks made up and they have curred a couple of days I square up on the bandsaw. When ready to mount on a knife I drill out for the tange and accurglass on with a clamp pressure. One thing about the super glue is that it's brittle enough that if you want less layers or want to put spacers in just split however many layers you want off. After the leather is cured I File the end square(getting rid of any epoxy run off) and cap off with stag, normaly a couple of inches of tange, and I normaly drill down beside the tang a little to give the expoxy a better hold. After shaping and sanding to 400 grit I soak the leather down with super thin super glue and sand the coating away. The coating gets into any open pores and fills them. I haven't had a problem with the leather soaking up water or shirnking and expanding, after final buffing I wax with Johnsons paste wax. Leather seems very hard, alsmost like mycarta after this treatment.

I am trying glueing up with accure glass and will see how it works. Only thing is that I won't be able to split layers off to change the layout of spacers. We'll see how it works and finishes.
 
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