Trying my hand at handle making

S

SFM1971

Joined
Mar 6, 2011
Messages
19
Hey guy's, Here's a photo of my BK2 handle project. I'm making the handle out of red oak, that's the only thing I could get locally. I'm going to order some cocobolo soon but thought it would be cheaper to do my first inexperienced project with this. I'm using hand tools for this project, as you can see I have rough fitted the scales to make sure my holes are aligned and everything fits good, next I will remove them and drill my lanyard hole. Then I will profile the contours to match the originals. I am open to critique and helpful tips.
BK2Project.jpg
 
woo!

Are you going to stain them or leave 'em au naturel?

-Daizee
 
Looking good thus far. Thinking of giving this a go myself.
 
I'm going to stain them after I finish profiling them, Here's the first profile, now I have to sand it.
Handleprofile.jpg
 
Looks nice. How much time do you think you've invested so far?
 
~3 hours so far, going slow as this is my first handle creation. Also using hand tools is a slow go but I like hand tools and they don't make so much noise in the house and that keeps my wife from screaming at me.
 
I just ordered some maple burl blanks to do the same thing for my BK-2, as well as my BK-11. The "training wheels" version makes a lot of sense to me, any chance you took a bunch of pics for a how-to? I'd love to learn what you did so I can make mistakes all my own! :eek: :D Thanks!
P.S.- If no how-to pics, could you tell me what tools you used for the job? Thanks again!

-Matt-
 
I started a thread on this topic last night. It is very incomplete, and I do have more to add but the power is out, here at the house.

It's a how to - wood handle making or something like that. Think its on page 2.
I'll get more up soon.

By the way those oak scales look good and your doing the right thing by not using the real spendy stuff for the 1st ones.

Once you get the holes drilled and milled out and everything lines up, the hard part is over.
 
I don't have how-to pics but the tools I used are: bench vise,coping saw,wood rasps,brace and bits and sandpaper.
 
When I first started I was drilling 1 side and then the other and had a bitch of a time keeping them lined up. Now if I have 2 separate pieces I glue them together before I do any drilling. They line up that way. Every time.
 
OK, I finished profiling and sanding, now I have some minor touch ups and I'm ready to stain. Don't know if i'm going dark or light though.

FinishedHandles.jpg
 
To get mine aligned I carefully clamped them together with leather padded vise, and it worked out good. There are definitely some things I will do differently next time. That's how I learn though....trial & error. Now I need to order a BK9 and by the time it gets here I'll be finished with this one. I'm going cocobolo next time though, that's some pretty stuff to me.
 
Wow, great work. Really looking good. Looking forward to the final product.
 
Finally finished, The stripping and polishing took me as long as making the handles. May I present my first customized Becker......

FinishedProject.jpg
 
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