How to Build a Knife

Step 7 Getting a grip

Here's the last leg of the race, the run from third to home. Hopefully by now you've chosen your handle material--I'll be using wood and securing it with brass rivets and epoxy.

First, cut your handle slabs. Of course, if you're making a partial tang or through-tang knife this part will be a little different. With a through-tang, you'll most likely be drilling a hole through the handle lengthwise. With a partial-tang you'll also be cutting slabs, but you'll be cutting a channel in each one and gluing them back together. Find info elsewhere on the web if you're doing this--it's out there. My project is full tang, so it'll have two slabs on either side of the tang. Use a table saw or a chop saw if you have one. A hand saw will also do, but you'll have to plane the side of the wood that contacts the tang if it's rough-cut.

First, file down and sand the end of the wood in the ricasso area. Once it's glued you won't be able to shape it any further. Do this by placing both pieces of wood back-to back in a vise and filing them at the same time, as in picture four. This will ensure that both pieces are even. The rest of the handle doesn't have to be cut to shape--in fact, it shouldn't be as this leaves more room for error.

When you're ready, mix your epoxy and spread it on the back of one of the slabs. Lay one of the slabs onto the handle, as close to where you want the handle to be as you can get (picture five). Try not to get too much epoxy on the blade--it can be removed, but if there's a lot of it you'll be in trouble. Put the blade and slab in a padded vise until the epoxy has set enough to be rubbery and not wet--now, carefully, drill through the holes in the blade and though the wood using the same diameter bit you used to drill the handle. Repeat the process with the other slab--attaching it to the remaining side of the handle, putting it in the vise (picture six), and then drilling back through the holes you just drilled to complete the rivet holes. Wiggle the drill in each hole to leave just enough space to peen the rivet.

Scrape any epoxy off the blade with a Brillo pad and, for stuff close to the handle, a razor blade. Be careful with the razor, though, because it can scratch the blade and do other considerably more invasive things to you. Now, put the handle back in the vise and let it dry overnight. At this point you should tape the entire surface of the blade, to prevent scratches

When the epoxy is dry use a jig saw and/or a SurForm file to cut the wood down to the handle. Use a finer file to refine the handle until it's in its final shape. At this point, put your rivet rods in the holes, cut them so that they're about an eighth of an inch above the wood, and peen the ends down with a small ball-peen hammer. See picture eight for how this should look. Once all the rivets are peened, file them down and sand the grip up to about 150 grit. By now it should look like a knife. Just a couple more steps and it'll be done.

Using the tripoli brown compound and a NEW polishing wheel (I.E. you'll have one wheel devoted entirely to the brown compound), buff the wood grip. This should be easy--just a couple passes over the wheel and the wood will be brought up to a nice semi-luster. Take the tape off the blade, and you're ready for the FINAL step, sharpening.

Comments

[magiccowy]

For the taping when you take it off if it has sticky residue use WD40 or RP-7 to wipe it down. This removes residue and may be benificial to the blade. Correct me if i'm wrong and it has adverse affects on some metals but is worked for me so far.

[bombmaker2]

I don't know for sure but I would think WD40 would maybe help with some sort of rust prevention.

[peterlonz]

One rivet hole closest the blade in your pic shows what looks like a "breakout splintering" which is relatively deep & is clearly not removed in the handle sanding operation. I assume you will try to fill this defect with coloured filler? These things are hard to avoid particularly in hardwoods & I wonder if you have found a drilling technique that eliminates this risk? Sorry to be picky but this small defect could spoil an otherwise near perfect job.

[hackmattr]

When you drill using a drill press, make sure there is a piece of scrap wood underneath the piece your drilling. This is one way to prevent the splintering. Another helpful way of avoiding the splintering is to have a sharp drillbit and to take it slow. If you take it slow then the bit has time to clear the shavings and therefore has a better cutting edge.

Those are my tips for drilling hardwoods after about 8 years of woodworking experience.

[Basta]

I was quite a bit disappointed by that one splinter--and yeah, I did try colored filler but the result was sub-par. Since you asked, I have found a way to stop it. When I drill the handle scales I clamp them together with a piece of pine underneath--that way, the little bit of wood at the bottom of the scale isn't affected by the pressure of the drill bit above it, as it's held in place by the pine. It's like drilling through one continuous piece of wood, and any damage done by drilling through will be done to the throwaway wood and not the scales.
Not sure if you wanted to know all that, but in case you did...

[TonyODonnell01]

You could also drill half way thru one way and finish drilling it the other way but you have to find some way to lineup the wholes.

[dejure]

Regarding that splinter, everyone knows such things are merely improvements. Said another way, where there is no solution, there cannot be a problem. It just sounds like an inlay project to me.

[animal0307]

Ok not to bash the taping process, but I would not use duct tape it does leave residue unless you are careful... try painters tape or masking tape... other than that awesome job

[m1sterb0b]

Even if it does leave a sticky residue you can remove duct tape glue with some 99% isopropyl alcohol and an old terrycloth rag. Just take the Isopropyl and soak the rag in it then place it over the sticky residue then let it sit for about 5 minutes, then with the other side of the rag (it will still have alcohol on it but it wont have any residue on it, if its dried out by then add more alcohol to it.) and wipe off the blade. Depending on the kind of metal used you may want to use some sort of fine oil to condition the blade so that it wont rust after wiping it down with isopropyl, because isopropyl will cause(or do I mean promote?) it to rust.

[Basta]

Those would work, too. I didn't have any problems with duct tape, probably because the blade was polished. And as for sheaths, that might be another instructable. It's a very different set of skills you need, though, and I'm not quite as well-versed in sheath making as knife making. Try Google--there's a wealth of information out there. If I make a nice sheath for this knife, though, I'll post some stuff about it.

[fireandshadows]

If you want to make a sheath without any sewing, go to www.primitiveways.com (don't know how to add a link).

[weaponlover]

i have a question what shold the length be of the handle.