Custom Knife With Instamorph Custom Molded Grip

Now by no means is this anything fancy, but it is cheap and useful. My job is in shopping center maintenance. This job has me doing clean outs of old stores on a fairly regular basis, which leads me to bring home all kinds of junk that i think i have some use for. In this Instructable I decided to make use of one of the knives from a recent clean out.

What was a 7.5 in.  1/2 tang Chef's knife is now a full tang knife with a custom molded grip. I started by tracing the knife onto paper to work out the shape i wanted. Once that was decided, I drew the shape i wanted onto the blade. I also made 2 indentions in opposite directions to prevent the handle from slipping once molded.  If you are careful and have enough patience you can make the cut using one cut off disc. #409(dremel) After the cut was made i took the knife over to the grinder working it down,then onto sand paper , finally to the whetstone. Now it is quite sharp. I toyed around with different ideas for the grip from para-cord to a nice wood or stone handle. The latter two i decided I'm not talented enough for,YET.

Then i find this amazing stuff called "INSTAMORPH". At room temp it is hard plastic, @ 140 Deg. it is soft and moldable like putty.
I have found many uses for it, but so far this is my favorite. i brought about 4 cups of water to boil. Then poured in  about 2 oz. of instamorph. Once it turned clear i removed glob and worked quickly to mold it while it was still hot  so that it all fused together. Now that the plastic had bonded I positioned my had comfortably around the handle and squeezed just enough to leave my grip in the handle.Finally i put the knife in the  freezer to quickly set the plastic to prevent drooping.

The final part is that if you are camping with this material as your grip the handle can be re melted in boiling water to make hooks, barbed spearheads, bobbers,the list goes on. so hope you have enjoyed.