# Misono child's knife rehandle



## Vils (Jan 17, 2016)

Some years ago I bought this knife for the kids to use while helping out in the kitchen.







A nice knife but the handle is horrible and I thought that the kids should adjust to wa-handles.
Since I have no shop and just hand tools I decided to buy a pre made wa-handle with d-profile. Will receive it next next week so then I'll see if it will work with the knife.

The tang will require some work, i.e. grinding off a fair amount of metal. Any suggestions on how to do this? Hack-saw, file or maybe an Atoma diamond plate (140)?
Any advice much appreciated.


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## icanhaschzbrgr (Jan 17, 2016)

Yap, hack-saw and files are your friends. Atoma would be pretty much useless for this task.


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## Vils (Jan 17, 2016)

I suspected so. (Bought the Atoma along with the handle for restoring an old hand forged hatchet). Thanks for the input!


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## Vils (Jan 17, 2016)

Work in progress:









Edit: Not sure why the pics are rotated like that. Showed up correctly on the computer. Sorry about that.


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## mr drinky (Jan 17, 2016)

Martell re-handled my Misano kids knife several years ago. I fully support this project. 

k.


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## Vils (Jan 17, 2016)

Nice! Any pics of the finished knife?

I sandwiched the blade between to pieces of wood so that I could use my scroll saw and speed the project up:


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## mr drinky (Jan 17, 2016)

Vils, I think this is the permalink to the post in Dave's thread. 

http://www.kitchenknifeforums.com/s...stern-Re-Handles?p=65081&viewfull=1#post65081

With that said, here is a picture of my kids knives. At least one of the knives was gifted away.


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## strumke (Jan 17, 2016)

How sharp do you all keep the kids knives? We all know a sharp knife is safer than a dull one, but sharp ones are definitely less forgiving when meeting a finger.


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## mr drinky (Jan 17, 2016)

strumke said:


> How sharp do you all keep the kids knives? We all know a sharp knife is safer than a dull one, but sharp ones are definitely less forgiving when meeting a finger.



They are sharp so care is required. Sharp heels are the killer IMO though. The Konosuke in my pic (the little nakiri-like knife) was the sharpest of all with the pointiest heel. I wouldn't use it for a kids knife, but I do use it as a cheese knife instead. 

k.


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## WildBoar (Jan 17, 2016)

For those that have these knives, how old were your kids when you let them use one? Our son is one month short of 3 years, and tries to help during prep/ cooking. He has a butter knife now that he uses to cut, but it is so dull it won't do much, which gets him frustrated. I need to give him something that works better soon, but not something that will mean an emergency room trip and daggers shooting at me from mommy's eyes.


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## mr drinky (Jan 17, 2016)

WildBoar said:


> For those that have these knives, how old were your kids when you let them use one? Our son is one month short of 3 years, and tries to help during prep/ cooking. He has a butter knife now that he uses to cut, but it is so dull it won't do much, which gets him frustrated. I need to give him something that works better soon, but not something that will mean an emergency room trip and daggers shooting at me from mommy's eyes.



I have to say my view has changed on this over the years. When I had my first kid, it was a lot easier as I could manage instruction, safety etc. and she had her knife a lot younger. When kid number two was around, it became harder. And when kid number three arrived, it became nearly impossibly for me to manage cooking with kids to keep them away from hot things, let alone instruct them on the use of knives and sharp things. 

So my not-so-simple answer is this: it depends (1) not upon the child's age but his/her dexterity and only parents really know this and (2) how much parenting resources you have at the time (e.g. number of kids versus number of parents). If I were alone and gave my 4 year old a knife, my 2 year old would scream bloody murder and want to use one too -- or distract me so I couldn't keep eye on my 4-year-old. One parent's attention divided by two is less safe, especially when dealing with different skill levels and kids trying to copy each other. I simply found that cooking with 2 or 3 kids of differing ages and skill levels was just not realistic. 

Maybe others have that ability, but I do not. And if a kid cuts himself really bad and needs to go to the hospital, it would suck to high heaven to have to treat a wound, pack up the kids, get into the car, and then wait for hours with multiple kids in an emergency room. 

With that said, I find the magic age where the child's dexterity catches up enough to minimize this scenario around 5-6. I'm a lot more at ease in this age range now -- though a dextrous late-3 to 4 year old should be no problem with one-on-one parental attention. 

That's just my take. 

k.


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## WildBoar (Jan 17, 2016)

haha, thanks for the thoughful response. Only one little one here, so thankfully I can sit down a little more often then you can.


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## mr drinky (Jan 17, 2016)

WildBoar said:


> haha, thanks for the thoughful response. Only one little one here, so thankfully I can sit down a little more often then you can.



Lucky guy.

k.


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## Vils (Jan 18, 2016)

mr drinky said:


> I have to say my view has changed on this over the years. When I had my first kid, it was a lot easier as I could manage instruction, safety etc. and she had her knife a lot younger. When kid number two was around, it became harder. And when kid number three arrived, it became nearly impossibly for me to manage cooking with kids to keep them away from hot things, let alone instruct them on the use of knives and sharp things.
> 
> So my not-so-simple answer is this: it depends (1) not upon the child's age but his/her dexterity and only parents really know this and (2) how much parenting resources you have at the time (e.g. number of kids versus number of parents). If I were alone and gave my 4 year old a knife, my 2 year old would scream bloody murder and want to use one too -- or distract me so I couldn't keep eye on my 4-year-old. One parent's attention divided by two is less safe, especially when dealing with different skill levels and kids trying to copy each other. I simply found that cooking with 2 or 3 kids of differing ages and skill levels was just not realistic.
> 
> ...



Well put. I helped the oldest with cutting tasks from the age of 3, but now when they are 11, 10, and 8 and we have a really small kitchen I rarely let them help at all.
It just gets to complicated.

The handle will probably arrive tomorrow, it will be interesting to see how much it must be shortened and how well it works with the knife.
If it doesn't work I'll make an octagonal handle instead, but I can't say I'm to thrilled over that option. Without belt sander, drill press, etc. it will be a time consuming project.
So let's hope the ready made handle works.


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## Vils (Jan 23, 2016)

Almost complete:


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