- Joined
- May 12, 2010
- Messages
- 303
I'm posting this here because I figure that maybe some of you who are better knife makers than I am can use this as a handle option. I did not do a how to set of pics because I had my doubts when I began. Now I wish I had, though.
I wanted to re-handle a Trailmaster for several reasons. I'm not good enough yet or have the equipment to do the job with wood or antler so I decided to go with micarta.
Basically I covered the blade with plastic wrap to keep the epoxy off of it. I cut shallow notches in the tang for a good mechanical hold and put in a small piece of tubbing through the lanyard hole sticking out about 1/8 inch on each side for the same reason. Epoxy doesn't like bonding to the factory coating in this case. Cut fabric in to strips about a half inch wide and 8 to 10 inches long. In this case I used green, black, and tan.
Clamp the blade to a table. Apply the epoxy to the fabric and and double the fabric up to get thicker bands in the finished handle. Wrap color strips randomly until the handle is at least twice to three times thicker than you think I should be. Try to keep the wrappings tight as you do it. Place the whole knife in an oversized Foodsaver bag and vacuum seal. While in the bag I went ahead and clamped the handle as well so that it would flatten out a little. The Foodsaver will actually suck out some of the excess epoxy and does a great job of applying compression evenly around the handle. In fact the Foodsaver actually sucked epoxy up through the guard toward the Cold Steel logo (not sure if CS should get a demerit for sloppy fittings or if the Foodsaver just works really well). Make sure that you don't have any epoxy on or around the mouth of the Foodsaver bag so you don't screw up your appliance.
Once the epoxy has hardened remove from the Foodsaver bag. The epoxy won't bond to it. Try to remember where your tang is located and carve with a Dremel using one of their router bits. You'll want a respirator during this. Would probably come out nicer with a decent shop equipment like belt sanders and spindle sanders, of which I have none. So after roughing it out with the Dremel I used a regular hand sander and some 60 grit and worked my way up to 600 grit. Doesn't show well in the pics but in real life it has an excellent finish (sorry I need a new/better camera).
If you screw up like I did on my first attempt, don't worry, epoxy will bond to epoxy. You won't have to clean off all of the material. You can use a Dremel (or other tool) to carve down the micarta and re-wrap over the top of it, but you'll want to rough it up for a good bonding.
I wanted to re-handle a Trailmaster for several reasons. I'm not good enough yet or have the equipment to do the job with wood or antler so I decided to go with micarta.
Basically I covered the blade with plastic wrap to keep the epoxy off of it. I cut shallow notches in the tang for a good mechanical hold and put in a small piece of tubbing through the lanyard hole sticking out about 1/8 inch on each side for the same reason. Epoxy doesn't like bonding to the factory coating in this case. Cut fabric in to strips about a half inch wide and 8 to 10 inches long. In this case I used green, black, and tan.
Clamp the blade to a table. Apply the epoxy to the fabric and and double the fabric up to get thicker bands in the finished handle. Wrap color strips randomly until the handle is at least twice to three times thicker than you think I should be. Try to keep the wrappings tight as you do it. Place the whole knife in an oversized Foodsaver bag and vacuum seal. While in the bag I went ahead and clamped the handle as well so that it would flatten out a little. The Foodsaver will actually suck out some of the excess epoxy and does a great job of applying compression evenly around the handle. In fact the Foodsaver actually sucked epoxy up through the guard toward the Cold Steel logo (not sure if CS should get a demerit for sloppy fittings or if the Foodsaver just works really well). Make sure that you don't have any epoxy on or around the mouth of the Foodsaver bag so you don't screw up your appliance.
Once the epoxy has hardened remove from the Foodsaver bag. The epoxy won't bond to it. Try to remember where your tang is located and carve with a Dremel using one of their router bits. You'll want a respirator during this. Would probably come out nicer with a decent shop equipment like belt sanders and spindle sanders, of which I have none. So after roughing it out with the Dremel I used a regular hand sander and some 60 grit and worked my way up to 600 grit. Doesn't show well in the pics but in real life it has an excellent finish (sorry I need a new/better camera).
If you screw up like I did on my first attempt, don't worry, epoxy will bond to epoxy. You won't have to clean off all of the material. You can use a Dremel (or other tool) to carve down the micarta and re-wrap over the top of it, but you'll want to rough it up for a good bonding.
