# Fujiwara FKM rehandled



## icanhaschzbrgr (Dec 15, 2013)

I really wanted to try my hands on western handles, so I've stolen my wife's favorite knife for a few days to rehandle it. A Fujiwara 150mm petty. Some pictures.











Tried to preserve original shape without much curves here. Used wood from Burl Source: Hawaiian Koa and Ebony. Actually I've used those burls for another wa styled handle, but the remaining parts were big enough to make a new handle for FKM.

Made a number of mistakes, including:

Used too busy design
Not using pins (wanted to use mosaic pins, but my order from some online store could easily take another month or two to arrive). Used a piece of brass tube instead
Spacers are not properly connected in few places 
Scratched the tang and was too lazy to polish it
Still struggling to finish wood properly. This particular one was polished pretty badly by a sandpaper progression from 80 to 400 and a few touches of steel wool. 
Wasn't accurate enough when drilling holes for the metal tube resulted in small wood chipping 

But it was fun and I got a ton of experience, while my wife got her beloved knife back.


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## CoqaVin (Dec 15, 2013)

From pictures it's not bad at all...my personal opinion if that means anything LOL is that I don't think it's too busy


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## chinacats (Dec 15, 2013)

Great job on your first attempt at a western. Looks very nice.


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## mkriggen (Dec 15, 2013)

Looks good bro, I haven't gotten up the nerve yet to do a western (love finishing wood, hate polishing metal).

Be well,
Mikey


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## icanhaschzbrgr (Dec 15, 2013)

chinacats said:


> Great job on your first attempt at a western. Looks very nice.


Thanks, but it wasn't my first western actually 
the first one was very similar however Tojiro 270 ITK breadk knife.





 for the first attempt I didn't use any pins or tubes (because I simply haven't any) so it's just epoxy. And not that I'm that big fan of color spacers, it's just I've found my epoxy isn't strong enough glueing wood and metal together, but if I put spacer in between it becomes pretty strong.

And I used very time consuming method: glued together everything before shaping wood. So all the shaping was done freehand with rasp and file. Probably took me 2 hours or so. Personally I like this handle more then my second (much more complex) fujiwara handle.


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## Burl Source (Dec 15, 2013)

I think the handle turned out better than you are giving yourself credit for.
Now if I could give my 2 cents worth of advice.
Koa undergoes a transformation when you go beyond 600 grit. Preferably 1000+ grit to show off the full potential in the figure.
2nd, you can still turn the tube into a mosaic by inserting different sized metal rods and epoxy. Or crushed turquoise, shell or ....? and epoxy.
All in all the handle you made looks good. 
You are pretty brave learning while using expensive handle material like the koa.


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## Mrmnms (Dec 15, 2013)

I think you are selling yourself way short. From the pictures, it looks terrific.


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## greasedbullet (Dec 15, 2013)

I agree that looks great. I also kind of like the tube instead of mosaic pins.


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## crunchy (Dec 16, 2013)

I don't think it's busy at all. Looks great man!


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## icanhaschzbrgr (Dec 16, 2013)

Burl Source said:


> I think the handle turned out better than you are giving yourself credit for.
> Now if I could give my 2 cents worth of advice.
> Koa undergoes a transformation when you go beyond 600 grit. Preferably 1000+ grit to show off the full potential in the figure.
> 2nd, you can still turn the tube into a mosaic by inserting different sized metal rods and epoxy. Or crushed turquoise, shell or ....? and epoxy.
> ...



Mark, thanks for advices. I'm gonna try refinish this handle and polish it up to 3000 grit. Also I've tried your method of wet sanding to cover wood pores, but probably did something wrong and gonna try it once more. 

Koa block I bought from you was big enough for 2 handles and since I'm running out of unrehandled knives, I decided to use koa on this one. Otherwise I would end up with nice wood and no more unrehandled knives. And you might remember my problems with cracks on ebony so I couldn't just throw it away and cut small pieces to be used as ferrule.

Making my own mosaic pins seems like a fun idea Might borrow some beads from my wife and see if they looks ok crushed and epoxied.


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## icanhaschzbrgr (Dec 16, 2013)

Thanks for the comments guys! 

It's hard to be completely happy with results when you are already spoiled with handles from Mike Henry, Rader, Marko, Fish and other great makers. And I've spent too much time browsing through their galleries


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## chefcomesback (Dec 16, 2013)

I am no handle expert but judging by the picture it looks great, I think you little are hard on your work


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## CoqaVin (Dec 16, 2013)

chef I know someone like that...they over analyze everything they make and are so modest and never think anything that they make is good when it is on point


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## Mrmnms (Dec 16, 2013)

with your standards, I look forward to seeing your next re handle


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## kannamaster (Dec 16, 2013)

I have a similar Fujiwara that I planed to use for my first re handle too! I never liked that handle but did not really consider changing it until I joined this site. Any surprises or things to watch out for?


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## kannamaster (Dec 16, 2013)

ALmost forgot... could you point me int he direction of the handle pin place? I think I will likely re handle a few knives over time so it would be worth it to wait for nice pins if I have too. Thanks.


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## andre s (Dec 16, 2013)

Always good to strive for something better, but I have to agree with comments about not giving yourself enough credit. It looks great from here! DO keep us posted about your next one please...


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## icanhaschzbrgr (Dec 17, 2013)

kannamaster said:


> I have a similar Fujiwara that I planed to use for my first re handle too! I never liked that handle but did not really consider changing it until I joined this site. Any surprises or things to watch out for?



Refer to this great video from Rick http://www.kitchenknifeforums.com/showthread.php/12057-Rehandle-Vid

I don't think this knife has any surprises in terms of rehandling. But if you decided to go with multiple spacers, then triple check they are aligned completely correctly. And after that check once again 

As for pins there are lots of places in US. I've ordered them from brisa.fi not because they are the best, but only because they are in Finland and should arrive much faster then from US shops. The tube I used here was bought in some local hardware shop. 

Btw what is it that you don't like in original FKM handle?


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## kannamaster (Dec 18, 2013)

Thanks for the link and the advise. As for the handle on my Fujiwara knife. The fit and finish on mine could have been better but mostly it just was not a good fit for my hand which is bigger than average. I plan to make some changes on the rehandle to better suit my hand.


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## stevenStefano (Dec 26, 2013)

Looks great. Like something Fish would have made if you're familiar with him


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