Wa handle

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Jan 20, 2013
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I am curious of various ways to make a Wa handle. My issues are these:
I am not a fan of burning the tang into the handle and it looking sloppy where the tang enters the wood.
I always put brass/copper faceplate on the handle for a clean transition from handle to blade, not real sure its technical term.
I am only working with a 2x72 grinder, no disk sander.

So I guess, if y'all wouldn't mind, show me how ya Wa.
 
I don't have much to add as I'm working on my first wa handle. The ferrule I'm making is a sandwich of black linen micarta, paduak, and black linen again. I fit the front piece of black linen like fitting a hidden tang guard. Once the piece fit on the end part of the tang, I decided to see if I could burn it on a little bit. I heated up the tang, then slid the black linen piece on and it turned the sloppy hole into a nice square slot. I continued doing that until it was the majority up the tang and then hand filed the rest.
 
Or in the case of some of the Carter higher end wa handles, technically an octagonal "frame" handle with a solid slotted ferule.
Nick EBK said:
So its basically an octagonal hidden-tang handle?
Click to expand...
 
If you do a search on Bladeforums, you will find several wa handle tutorials by myself and others.

The Cliff notes version is:
Drill out the handle as any other hidden tang. The hole can be rather oversize, as the resin will fill it.
Make the front bolster block ( or a thin metal front plate) to fit the tang snugly.
Slip the block on and then slide the resin filled handle onto the tang.
When the epoxy is cured, shape the handle.
 
Another method is to dowel the handle. There is at least one good tutorial out there on that method. I am working on a way to cut a .100 slot in a 3/8 dowel on the cheap Ryobi router table. I figure the big drill press and the HF mill drill will do the rest.
 
Another trick is to turn a tenon on the end of the handle block ( using the drilled tang hole as a center) and bore a matching pocket in the back of the bolster block. This makes a much thinner bolster section to slot and gives a really nice looking, .... and STRONG, ... bolster fit-up. This is often done when using buffalo horn for the collar.

On doweled wa handles, the horn/wood is usually drilled all the way through so it makes a simple ferrule on the tenon. This keeps the end from splitting as the tang or dowels are driven in. This works well on "D" and oval handles, too.
 
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