Thread: Trying To Get A Handle On Things

Some nice knives there Paul.

This time next year if you make Jerilderie you can give us a demo on how to handle things.

Can't read in detail at the moment, Paul, but I'm sitting here looking at those handles and drooling! They're absolutely beautiful!

I'll be back later for a full education.

Originally Posted by DaveTTC

Some nice knives there Paul.

This time next year if you make Jerilderie you can give us a demo on how to handle things.

ThanksDave

I think that I would have to wear my charlatan crown as I am very much a novicein this area.

Regards
Paul

A crown like this perhaps

Ha ha.

King . What a wonderful pic.

Regards
Paul

Bushmiller - Great handles, very interesting posting...

Neil

Thanks Neil

Possibly I should have explained how I made the handles. Now you have to bear in mind I had very little idea of what I was doing: Only what I wanted to achieve. Initially I tried cutting some timber pieces and butting them together to achieve the contrast in material.

I wasn't too happy with the result of that so after a rethink I decided to turn a spigot onto the Spotted gum and place it in a hole drilled into the Gidgee. The first attempt was not sufficiently square and they did not butt together well. I worked out that the face of the spotted gum had to be turned just very slightly concave. This was easily checked with a small rule (somebody explained to me recently that a ruler is a person in authority such as a king or a dictator). Just the smallest of gaps is all that was needed.

In fact the collar and end cap were turned as one and then the dowel in the middle was cut as required. They could then be glued and clamped (all three pieces at the same time) without too much chance of the bits shooting off in different directions.

The holes were drilled next. I thought the brad point drill would be the way to go, but mine were not long enough or too big a diameter so a bought another set just for the 3mm drill. I am now the proud owner of two full sets of 300mm brad point drills which I almost never use .

I drilled as far as I could with the short brad point drills and then got stuck in with the 300mm bit. That was the second time the hole came out the side .

On reflection I should have sacrificied the bit and cut it down to perhaps 150mm. The problem was that it had too much whip in it in that diameter. In the end I worked away with my long twist bits and the mini pig stickers that I made up from vehicle leaf springs. The handles are some left over Cooktown Ironwood from the Forum chisels that I recently handled. The narrower pig sticker is 2mm and the thicker is 2.5mm. I also had a 3mm JP chisel which I used on the hole for the laminated blade, which was the thickest of the knives at the back of the blade. It is also the sharpest! I had an old 3/8" chisel on which I ground down the back so I could chisel the sides of the holes.

I made the holes first while there was still more material on the handles. Leaverage is minimal as the sides of the hole will disintegrate even in these tough woods.The handle was planed down with an HNT Gordon smoother initially in conventional fashion and then with the blade in bevel up mode, using it as a scraper plane, to prevent pick up in these timbers.

If I was making the handles again I would taper them towards the handle and make them slightly smaller in length and overall girth.

Regards
Paul

Thanks Paul for the detailed step-by-step.

You didn't say if you did your drilling on the lathe, ie the drill bit held in tail stock and blank spinning in headstock chuck. I find that increases my chances of drilling down the centre.

Neil

Neil

The Spotted Gum ends were turned on the lathe and the Gidgee body was drilled each end on the lathe. It was the series of holes for the tang that were problematical.

Actually there was a second problem to which I have not made any reference. It is not cutting yourself on those extraordinarily sharp edges. In fact the blades got me twice: Once it was the heel of a blade as I turned the knife over and the second time as I picked up something while holding the knife .

Thank you for posting the pix of your handles in an earlier thread and supplying various links. Without those I would never have dreamt of re-handling in this way.

Two handles - image 1.jpgTwo handles - image 3.jpg

Regards
Paul

I have started a new thread with some information on how to drill an accurate hole in handles using a lathe. It might be of interest to knife handle makers, but I have made it a separate thread as it may also be of interest to other types of handle makers; Drilling holes in handles.

Neil

Neil

Thanks for posting the new thread and link to Brendan's "Holes made easy." That is certainly a better method than mine for drilling a long hole.

However it wasn't the initial hole that troubled me. That went fine even freehand. It was the subsequent holes in a row that were problematical. The first knife needed ideally five holes in a row to form the slot. In practice that was impossible and I settled for three holes and broke out the timber in between with my mini pig-sticker.

As the hole got to full depth I couldn't exert leverage for fear of breaking the timber out top and bottom. I used the drill bit at angles to achieve this. The part that got me resorting to language not commonly found in standard dictionaries was drilling the third hole, which despite my best efforts, still came out the side. I solved that in the end by angling in towards the centre hole so if the bit wandered it tended to move in to the centre and not out the side. I then chiseled the waste away to widen the hole.

Just out of interest, my son has had a little experience in drilling end grain. He makes beautiful didgeridoos from solid Ironbark and begins by drilling a 32mm hole and then enlarging that with the use of long handled chisels. The longest hole he has drilled so far is 2700mm. It wandered off centre by 10mm at the end: Not too bad! He has made a special drilling machine to achieve this.

Thanks again for the link. I have to go back and view Brendan's skew chisel tutorial.

Regards
Paul

Originally Posted by Bushmiller

Two handles - image 1.jpgTwo handles - image 3.jpg

They are really lovely handles Paul. Nice selection of timbers. Good job that man!

You may recall that the first Santoku knife in Stainless Steel was for my sister-in-law. I advised SWMBO that the knife had it's new handle and it could be posted off, but I was rewarded with that somethings not quite right look.

Me: "What?"

SWMBO: "The knife's very sharp."

Me: "That the whole point. You could have gone to the two dollar shop if you wanted a knife the children can play with."

SWMBO: "It'll get damaged in the drawer."

Me: "That's the way they come from Japan."

SWMBO: Nothing spoken, but bad body language.

Me: "I'll tape some cardboard around it."

SWMBO: Nothing spoken, but bad body language. Increasingly ill-disguised attempt to contain contempt.

Me: "I'll see what I can come up with." (spoken without enthusiasm. After all if the thing is too dangerous for her perhaps we should have sent a tube of super glue and she could have stuck the half moon back on the ceramic knife that was broken.)

.

This is what I came up with. I also made a scabbard for my son's mate, who is buying the Blue Steel version (top knife in the pix.) I didn't want there to be any discrimination . If the blades look rusty in the pix, they are not. I must have picked up some reflection from something. Photography is not one (another) of my strong points.

Knife scabbard 001.jpgKnife scabbard 002.jpg

The timber is TallowWood.

I have also had to make something to store our knives, but this is still in progress and I had a different approach to that. I will put something up at a later date when finished.

Regards
Paul

Good old Tallowwood and Spotty. Both vastly underrated. Maybe if you drizzled some oil inside the scabbards to help with rust prevention?

I've got an idea forming to do with rare earth magnets and stuff.......I'll get back to you.