Worthwhile to prototype steak knife handles?

Fixall

Fixall

Brian
Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
Joined
Mar 26, 2018
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Hello, I hope you are all doing well tonight!

I have a nice piece of .063" MagnaCut (thanks Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith !) that I think would make for some really killer steak knives (among other things). Rather than just diving right in, I was thinking of using a piece of .5" thick, finished poplar to prototype some handles to see what feels the best.

Good idea? Bad idea? Is there a better way to go about it?

From there I was thinking I could make a stencil of the handle/blade profile from some leftover G10 liner to ensure all six steak knives are roughly the same.

These are some rough sketches I came up with last night. Any really big glaring issues? Other than the fifth one down (which I came up with after squishing around some Play-Doh), none of the designs are very original as I derived them from steak knives I saw online. I have zero plans of trying to sell these at any point so unoriginality shouldn't be an issue. Don't pay attention to the blade shapes, I'm still deciding on that. I'll also be redrawing the handles before I start to clean up and straighten lines.


Ama4YBv.jpg
 
Number one is a winner.

Two, four and six are nice too, specifically in that order. Maybe more of a guard on four, though.

Three I could live with.

Five and seven do nothing for me, except make me reach of one of the others.

A really easy way is to use cardboard.
 
David Mary said:
Number one is a winner.

Two, four and six are nice too, specifically in that order. Maybe more of a guard on four, though.

Three I could live with.

Five and seven do nothing for me, except make me reach of one of the others.

A really easy way is to use cardboard.
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Cardboard was my first thought for the prototype because of some posts here, but I thought the poplar would give me a better idea of how the knives would fill the hand with the contours (while also giving me some more practice with the belt sander). Maybe it's not worth the effort though?

Thanks for the feedback on the handles! Haha, yea... A finger groove definitely wasn't what I had in mind for steak knives. But then I saw a post here on BF of a set that turned out really well. I played around with some Play-Doh and the shape that kept popping up over again was similar to number five when I held the Play-Doh in the pinch grip I use while cutting steak.
 
The way I see it, any way you choose to go about it is worth the effort if it stimulates your creative process and helps you progress in your craftsmanship. There may come a time when you intuitively know how a certain handle will feel and perform before it even leaves your mind, and if you get to that point, then it probably wouldn't be worth the effort, unless you needed practice on your tools before you could confidently pull it off.

I haven't sanded poplar, so I don't know if this applies, but I typically find, of the handle materials I have used, G10 is the most machinable, and takes a different touch than wood. G10 is harder to burn when contacting more surface area to the belt than wood is, but easier to burn when touching smaller surface areas to the belt. So they require quite a different approach, especially as belts begin to wear, unless you're made of money, in which case, just use belts like they're free, and change as soon as they start to clog or smooth out too far past optimal cutting. My point is practicing with wood doesn't necessarily prepare you to grind on G10. Maybe it does for micarta though!

As for getting a feel for the contours: Easily done with cardboard. Don't use corrugated, but the kind a cereal box is made from. Use a couple drops of superglue in the place where you would have pins, and glue enough rectangles together until you have the right thickness, then cut the contours in with a sharp knife. Probably a little faster than mocking something up with wood, will save you belt wear. It's just an idea.
 
David Mary said:
The way I see it, any way you choose to go about it is worth the effort if it stimulates your creative process and helps you progress in your craftsmanship. There may come a time when you intuitively know how a certain handle will feel and perform before it even leaves your mind, and if you get to that point, then it probably wouldn't be worth the effort, unless you needed practice on your tools before you could confidently pull it off.

I haven't sanded poplar, so I don't know if this applies, but I typically find, of the handle materials I have used, G10 is the most machinable, and takes a different touch than wood. G10 is harder to burn when contacting more surface area to the belt than wood is, but easier to burn when touching smaller surface areas to the belt. So they require quite a different approach, especially as belts begin to wear, unless you're made of money, in which case, just use belts like they're free, and change as soon as they start to clog or smooth out too far past optimal cutting. My point is practicing with wood doesn't necessarily prepare you to grind on G10. Maybe it does for micarta though!

As for getting a feel for the contours: Easily done with cardboard. Don't use corrugated, but the kind a cereal box is made from. Use a couple drops of superglue in the place where you would have pins, and glue enough rectangles together until you have the right thickness, then cut the contours in with a sharp knife. Probably a little faster than mocking something up with wood, will save you belt wear. It's just an idea.
Click to expand...

I'm definitely not there yet. Calling me a novice would be overstating my skill at this point, lol. I've actually never used a belt sander for shaping scales just yet. I've made a few handles, but I've done all the real shaping and contouring with files and dowels with sandpaper so far. I have a little cheapo 1x30" Harbor Freight belt sander in storage though and I thought I would give it a go. I'll be heading back to Bob's soon to finish the chef knife and will be using a 2" x 72" belt sander and figure any practice would help.

I have some nice, stabilized curly walnut and a nice slab of stabilized walnut burl. I was thinking of using one of those for the handles. Since these are for my own household, I'm positive they won't be going in the dishwasher, so I was also thinking about using some unstabilized cocobolo. PaperStone is another idea, but I've never worked with it before. I definitely won't be using G10. I just don't like how it feels for some reason. I think I'll be using wood (natural and stabilized), Micarta, and maybe some TeroTuf from here on out.

I think I'm going to take your advice on the cardboard. Prototyping seven wood handles sounds like a lot.
 
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I like profile #4. It is clean and simple. A steak knife is a simple cutting tool and needs no special handle shape or extra blade curve.
 
Good call on the cardboard. It after holding the cutouts it was instantly apparent that a couple weren't going to work at all (#2 and #7), no need to bother with making wood prototypes of those. A couple others needed some tweaks.

Here are the duds:

1ymJWt8.jpg



And then then ones I think I'm going to make test handles out of poplar:

#1 was the least favorite of the bunch and I might not make a proto of it. Still felt decent though.
#2 felt nice but maybe has too much of a swell.
#3 was my wife's favorite.
#4 was my favorite.
#5 was my wife's and my second choice out of the bunch.

S6jJu4z.jpg





Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith said:
I like profile #4. It is clean and simple. A steak knife is a simple cutting tool and needs no special handle shape or extra blade curve.
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As Dick Marcinko would say... Keep it simple stupid. I think you on to something considering that piece of cardboard came in second place with both me and my wife.

After I figure out which handle feels the best, I'll match up a blade. It'll likely be a blade similar to either #2 or #4 in the original post. I figure something with a long, sweeping belly would work well.

I'm also thinking about picking up a couple of wooden "steak plates" and forgoing serrations, but I'm not sure about that one yet.
 
Looks like you're on the right track. I like profile #4 as well. Have you considered making matching forks to go with the steak knives? The picture below is a knife set PEU PEU posted early in 2020 that I think is really nice. I think he uses pre-made fork blanks, not sure where he gets them. Jantz offers a couple of fork blanks and I've seen one by Sheffield cutlery on etsy. It seems pretty easy to make the forks if you start with a pre-made blank and they would really complete the set.

lawLbbv.jpg
 
try a paint stirring stick to prototype the handles.. they are 1/4 thick and a bundle of 5/6 is only like 2-3 bucks..
that way once you have the shape you/wife like you have a pattern to work from .. also good for making a blade/handle combo from ..
most are 1 1/2 wide and about 18 inches long..
i also think the #4 is good....
 
#4, which seems now to be your #2, is a classic shape. As soon as I looked at it, I thought "steak knife for sure". The way you initially drew it had a bit less swell, and I agree the cardboard mock up of it would be a little less suitable due to the extra swell.

Fixall said:
I'm also thinking about picking up a couple of wooden "steak plates" and forgoing serrations, but I'm not sure about that one yet.
Click to expand...

I think that's a brilliant idea.
 
For prototypes, I buy 1/4" sheets of particle board from home depot. 2'x2' for less than $5. Its easy to work and thick enough to get a good idea of the feel of the final product. It's also durable enough to use as a pattern. I have years worth of patterns in my library. Unsolicited shop tip.
 
Hubert S. said:
Looks like you're on the right track. I like profile #4 as well. Have you considered making matching forks to go with the steak knives? The picture below is a knife set PEU PEU posted early in 2020 that I think is really nice. I think he uses pre-made fork blanks, not sure where he gets them. Jantz offers a couple of fork blanks and I've seen one by Sheffield cutlery on etsy. It seems pretty easy to make the forks if you start with a pre-made blank and they would really complete the set.

lawLbbv.jpg
Click to expand...

Thanks!

Haha, I brought up making some forks to the wife today and she replied with "Are YOU going to handwash them every time?"

Fair enough. I think the forks are a no-go for now, lol!
 
Pinoy Knife said:
try a paint stirring stick to prototype the handles.. they are 1/4 thick and a bundle of 5/6 is only like 2-3 bucks..
that way once you have the shape you/wife like you have a pattern to work from .. also good for making a blade/handle combo from ..
most are 1 1/2 wide and about 18 inches long..
i also think the #4 is good....
Click to expand...

Great idea! I have a couple sheets of white 1/16" G10 and nothing to do with it, so I had planned on using those to make patterns with for now. I figured it would be durable enough that I could just throw the patterns in the craft box without too much risk of rounding the corners and whatnot. I'll have to go snag some paint stirring stick when I run out of the G10 and half inch poplar. :)
 
David Mary said:
#4, which seems now to be your #2, is a classic shape. As soon as I looked at it, I thought "steak knife for sure". The way you initially drew it had a bit less swell, and I agree the cardboard mock up of it would be a little less suitable due to the extra swell.



I think that's a brilliant idea.
Click to expand...

#4 from the original post is #5 in the pictures of the winners. #2 from the winners is #6 from the original post. Both profiles are based on the Whustoff Gourmet steak knives, with #5 (in the pictures of winners) being a lot more modified (less palm swell, rounded the heel more, and got rid of the finger guard). Whew, hope that made sense, lol.

Right? I'm sick of serrated steak knives!
 
Earthcrack.Knives said:
For prototypes, I buy 1/4" sheets of particle board from home depot. 2'x2' for less than $5. Its easy to work and thick enough to get a good idea of the feel of the final product. It's also durable enough to use as a pattern. I have years worth of patterns in my library. Unsolicited shop tip.
Click to expand...

I was wondering if particle board might work, but I was worried the sawdust would fall out the edges, ruining the lines. I've got a bunch of particle board and mdf on hand, I'll have to give that a go. I really like the idea of having a bunch of patterns set aside so I can replicate any knife I've made in the past.
 
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