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Thread: Trying To Get A Handle On Things
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26th January 2014, 07:40 PM #1
Trying To Get A Handle On Things
You know how children get fads on things. It's either all on or all off. Well it appears that I have not grown up proving that well known comment espoused , mainly by the female of the species, that men don't grow up, their toys just become more expensive. Well I could be falling into a certain category here, but I won't dwell on the issue as it is probably not very flattering.
The way it all started was that SWMBO broke her youngest sister's ceramic knife while she was visiting her down in NSW. She cut and avocado in half, then chopped into the stone and gave a twist to yank it out. Only this time a half moon shape came out of the blade. Although her sister said not to worry about it we felt we should replace it. However the ceramic knife was pretty useless so I suggested that we get her a JP knife, particularly as she had been very pleased with the two JPs that I made up for her friend (details in a previous thread).
I purchased a stainless steel VG10 Santoku, but I had been particularly impressed with some of the custom handles Neil had linked and I wanted to rehandle them.
These handles were the inspiration (and indeed those that Neil posted too).
JP Handles 1.jpg
This is the knife as it arrived with it's western handle
JP knives 003.jpg
and this is it with Casuarina Oak (I can't tell whether it is Bull oak or Hairy Oak as they got mixed up. If I had to make a bet, I'd go with the Hairy oak) and Spotted Gum.
More JP Knives 007.jpgMore JP Knives 006.jpgMore JP Knives 018.jpg
Now this is where the problem comes in as I really like the Santoku shape and SWMBO was quite receptive to having another knife. I saw another couple I liked but couldn't decide which and on top of that I thought it would good to have a traditional Nakiri as well: So to cut a long story into only a moderately long story I bought two more Santokus and a Nakiri!
I thought that SWMBO could choose which she wanted and I would re-sell the others.
These were the knives I bought:
JP knives 007.jpgYamawaku Santoku.JPG
I also bought a Blue steel Santoku, but I must have deleted the pix from my camera for both Santokus so above is the sellers pic for the Yamawaku, but the blue steel knife is not currently available so no pic of the original .
This is how they were re-handled with Gidgee and Spotted Gum
The Nakiri:
More JP Knives 013.jpgMore JP Knives 014.jpgMore JP Knives 015.jpg
The Yamawaku Santoku:
More JP Knives 011.jpgMore JP Knives 012.jpg
The Blue Steel Santoku:
More JP Knives 009.jpg
It wasn't all plain sailing and after three early disasters I was beginning to despair. Forming a long narrow hole is not the easiest of tasks and I had chosen three very hard and dense timbers. I'd get so far with the hole and then it would come out the side .
More JP Knives 001.jpg
I took the opportunity to use the last one for a size trial. Also the failure on the left had a Tallowwood collar instead of Spotted Gum.
These were some of the tools used to make the holes for the tangs:
More JP Knives 005.jpg
SWMBO decided she wanted the blue steel Nakiri and the laminated Santoku, which worked out really well as my son's mate who joined us over Xmas was taken by the knives and said he would take one and his preference was for the blue steel Santoku. It turns out that in a former existence he was a chef specialising in Indian foods and he was on the lookout for a new knife.
Having said that he has only seen the knife as a blank and hasn't seen the new handle.
The handles were finished with shellac. I thought they would come up less shinny and I was aiming for a satin finish, but I don't mind the look. Oiled and buffed next time perhaps .
Regards
Paul
(Edit: A couple of the Blue Steel Santoku pix ended up down the bottom of the page. Sorry about that. They don't seem to want to move even when I tried rectify them in the preview.)Last edited by Bushmiller; 26th January 2014 at 07:43 PM. Reason: Pix out of place and still are!
Bushmiller;
"Power tends to corrupt. Absolute power corrupts, absolutely!"
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26th January 2014 07:40 PM # ADSGoogle Adsense Advertisement
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26th January 2014, 08:49 PM #2
Some nice knives there Paul.
This time next year if you make Jerilderie you can give us a demo on how to handle things.
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27th January 2014, 01:31 AM #3Senior Member
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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.
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27th January 2014, 08:32 AM #4
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27th January 2014, 08:45 AM #5
A crown like this perhaps
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27th January 2014, 10:45 AM #6
Ha ha.
King . What a wonderful pic.
Regards
PaulBushmiller;
"Power tends to corrupt. Absolute power corrupts, absolutely!"
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29th January 2014, 08:29 PM #7
Bushmiller - Great handles, very interesting posting...
Neil
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29th January 2014, 10:34 PM #8
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
PaulBushmiller;
"Power tends to corrupt. Absolute power corrupts, absolutely!"
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2nd February 2014, 05:49 PM #9
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
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2nd February 2014, 08:50 PM #10
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
PaulBushmiller;
"Power tends to corrupt. Absolute power corrupts, absolutely!"
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9th February 2014, 07:35 PM #11
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
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9th February 2014, 08:42 PM #12
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
PaulBushmiller;
"Power tends to corrupt. Absolute power corrupts, absolutely!"
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9th February 2014, 09:03 PM #13
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9th February 2014, 09:04 PM #14
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
PaulBushmiller;
"Power tends to corrupt. Absolute power corrupts, absolutely!"
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9th February 2014, 09:16 PM #15
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.
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