# Another western rehandle - start to finish - photo heavy



## RavenMad (Mar 5, 2014)

Hi again, I'm back with another western rehandle on a cheapo knife (hmmm, this is becoming a bit of a "thing" for me I think - I'm gonna run out of cheap blades at this rate :lol2: )

So, this is another ultra cheap knife I had in the garden shed and a neighbour who has even worse knives (basically disposables) so I thought I'd practice handle-making some more and at least make something that would look nice and be better than the absolute shite she has.

This is a "chef's" knife that had quite a strange profile (see last image below) that I re-profiled to be somewhere between a slicer and a french-style chef's. You'll see I ground out the primary bevel and the big-ass shoulder and thinned the whole blade out considerably (you can still see some of the grind marks on the flat of the blade - even after _lots _of polishing - any tips for getting those out?). I also did a slight reprofile on the back of the tang/handle as well to round it out - hated that squared-off end.

Anyway, on to pics:

Before rehandling (nb, the re-profiling has already been done at this stage - I forgot to take a photo before I started any work)




After re-profiling/thinning:




Marking out the new handle profile:




Shaping out the scales (jarrah & silver birch):




Scales glued and rough shaping out of the handle:




Fine shaping (note the homemade mosaic pin :happymug:




Finished product:




















Before & After:





Hope you like it. Again, I know this could be better but those curved joins were trickier than they look and than I expected! C&C welcome as usual. Thanks for looking.

Adrian


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## WarrenB (Mar 5, 2014)

Saw the first one you did and now this one, for first attempts they look brilliant:biggrin: Much better than the first attempt I just posted.
Will be trying another one myself after seeing this, guess it gets addictive


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## icanhaschzbrgr (Mar 5, 2014)

I'm gonna buy a bunch of cheap knives and send them to you for rehandling 
That's an awesome job you've done there!


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## mkriggen (Mar 5, 2014)

Nice work, and yeah, it does get addictive

Be well,
Mikey


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## Sam Cro (Mar 7, 2014)

While I realize this is a re-handle job and you did a bit of grinding on the blade I ponder why you did not clean sand the blade in all directions to give it a clean appearance with the New handle . other then that it looks good .


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## RavenMad (Mar 11, 2014)

Thanks for the comments and kind words, guys. Inspires me to keep at it . 



WarrenB said:


> Saw the first one you did and now this one, for first attempts they look brilliant:biggrin: Much better than the first attempt I just posted.
> Will be trying another one myself after seeing this, guess it gets addictive


Would love to see another from you Warren - your first one was a beauty.



icanhaschzbrgr said:


> I'm gonna buy a bunch of cheap knives and send them to you for rehandling
> That's an awesome job you've done there!


Thanks chzbrgr! That's a real compliment as I love the handles you've putting out as well :thumbsup:



mkriggen said:


> Nice work, and yeah, it does get addictive
> Mikey


Thanks Mikey! It sure does get addictive - working on fixing up a worn small utility and turning it into a paring. Hope to up some pics soon.



Sam Cro said:


> While I realize this is a re-handle job and you did a bit of grinding on the blade I ponder why you did not clean sand the blade in all directions to give it a clean appearance with the New handle . other then that it looks good .



Mate, I hand-sanded that thing until my arms almost fell off! :surrendar: I even ghetto-rigged a drum sander out of a couple of tins and some wet/dry paper but I just couldn't get the worst of the scratches out. To be honest, I gave up in the end partly because it's just a cheap blade but also because it actually looks a lot beter in real life - the photos seem to exaggerate the scratches. My neighbour was delighted with it. Thanks for the comments - very much appreciated.


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## Mute-on (Mar 13, 2014)

Well I think it's just spectacular!! Well done :doublethumbsup:

Cheers,

J


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## Sam Cro (Mar 13, 2014)

Raven Mad,

Good to see you took my comment in stride it was meant to help not hinder your future efforts . when you are having an issue with scratches left from sandpaper say from 100 grit and you are using 320 you might want to back up to a 150, 220, 300, and ect. to get rid of the scratches from the last paper used . it applies to bone ,stone,metal,and wood . it should help you in the next Blade you do . also sand in an X or cross pattern to rid the last grit before moving on to the next grit paper . 

Well Done on the Knife Forge on and Make Beautiful things.


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