Wooden handle for a hidden tang knife

K

kaizo

Joined
Oct 17, 2014
Messages
798
Hi everyone I want to make a hidden tang knife where the handle is made from one single block of wood but I have a few questions I wondered if you could kindly help me with:

a) Which wood should I use? I am looking at cocobolo at the moment. I've worked with kirinite and G10 liners before but not wood.
b) Would the design of the handle below be ok? (the smallest square on the graph paper is 2mm).
c) After I shape the handle how would I give the handle a nice shinny finish like the one below (sorry if I used your photo).

18157087_10155112852851083_7988546860955195751_n.jpg

18198641_10155112848761083_104565597547989572_n.jpg


Thank you for your help in advance :)
 
That should work.
Cocobolo is beautiful, handsand then micro mesh as high as you like (12.000)
 
Kaizo, I have an alternative method of finishing cocobolo. I hand sand to 600 grit and then buff with pink scratchless. Then a couple coats of car wax with carnuba in it. Buff that off and good to go. I use to hand sand cocobolo to very high grits. Cocobolo really responds well to that treatment. However for some of my work knives the handle got pretty slippery.
 
Horsewright said:
Kaizo, I have an alternative method of finishing cocobolo. I hand sand to 600 grit and then buff with pink scratchless. Then a couple coats of car wax with carnuba in it. Buff that off and good to go. I use to hand sand cocobolo to very high grits. Cocobolo really responds well to that treatment. However for some of my work knives the handle got pretty slippery.
Click to expand...

Dave! Thank you very much for your help again. :) I was actually looking at your skiver with the cocobolo handle just now. Beautiful work! I'll definitely give that a go. Does the car wax have a varnish effect or should I treat the handle in some way before giving it that final buff? Thanks for your help again :)
 
Certainly gives it a little gleam but mostly protection. I wax the handle after buffing. The wax helps clean off any gunk from the buffing compound. Then I mask off the handle and do the bolster and whatever needs doing to the blade. When thats done I pull the tape and re wax the entire knife. I keep a soft buff on a buffer that is dedicated just for doing the wax. I do that to all knives not just cocobolo handled ones. On light woods like olive etc I don't use a buffer to remove the wax, just cotton balls by hand. Thanks bout the skivver, Paul Long designed that knife.
 
Horsewright said:
Certainly gives it a little gleam but mostly protection. I wax the handle after buffing. The wax helps clean off any gunk from the buffing compound. Then I mask off the handle and do the bolster and whatever needs doing to the blade. When thats done I pull the tape and re wax the entire knife. I keep a soft buff on a buffer that is dedicated just for doing the wax. I do that to all knives not just cocobolo handled ones. On light woods like olive etc I don't use a buffer to remove the wax, just cotton balls by hand. Thanks bout the skivver, Paul Long designed that knife.
Click to expand...

Brilliant, thanks Dave I'll do exactly that! :)

I'll post it up once its done. Thanks for your help again :)
 
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