# HHH 1st Custom Handle



## Aleque (Sep 12, 2016)

This was my first custom handle and I learned a lot throughout the process. I'm by no means a wood worker and my accessibility to the right tools made this all the more interesting and difficult. 

HHH 165mm Petty knife. The green dyed ferrule piece was gifted to my by Andy777 when I stopped by his house a few months ago. I mentioned to him I was interested in making a custom handle and he tossed a ferrule sized piece of wood to me and said this would give me a nice start. I didn't know what would go with a bright green ferrule piece, so I used my kindergarten color wheel knowledge and went with a red dyed maple piece. 













If I could redo everything over again, there would be some changes. The drill press I bought to insert the dowel didn't exactly give me the depth I would have liked. The $60 8" Wen drill press probably wasn't the best choice for deep drills into wood blocks. Also, my choice of sanding tool, a handheld belt sander didn't provide the most flat surface for making a crisp octagon. I did make use of the back side of my diamond flattening plate along with some sand paper for a flat surface, but it took forever.


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## Godslayer (Sep 12, 2016)

Id rock it, good work. Honestly i think the bright colors work well with the essentric pattern provided.


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## MontezumaBoy (Sep 12, 2016)

Nicely done!


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## Aleque (Sep 12, 2016)

Godslayer said:


> Id rock it, good work. Honestly i think the bright colors work well with the essentric pattern provided.



That's sort of what I was going for. I was debating using a more traditional wood for a bit, but I thought the Damascus pattern could hold up to a funky color combo of wood. 

Some of the lines on the handle aren't perfect, but in usage, they actually make it pretty comfortable with the curve of my grip.


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## HHH Knives (Sep 14, 2016)

Nice work on this. Sounds like ya have a good time working on it!


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## marc4pt0 (Sep 14, 2016)

I think it looks fantastic. One of these days, as I always say in these types of threads, I will attempt this myself


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## Aleque (Sep 14, 2016)

HHH Knives said:


> Nice work on this. Sounds like ya have a good time working on it!



Thanks Randy. It was a fun project to work on. I learned a lot through the processes and there a few things that I would change up for my second attempt for sure. I could also use a few new tools I think. I'm eyeing a disc sander for better lines on the handle. 

Just a quick question though and if anyone has input I'd be interested to know. Is adding the dowel really necessary? I found the addition of the dowel to cause me a lot of headaches and I think had I just drilled the hole for the tang I easily could have joined the handle piece and the ferrule piece together without having the addition of the dowel to cause problems. I ended up using my rasps to file down the dowel which ended up shifting in the joined pieces. Not to mention, without a jig, cutting a straight line in a dowel is very time consuming.


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## Aleque (Sep 14, 2016)

Oh, and P.S. the blade cuts like a dream. So smooth! I had a filet of salmon which I portioned last night and it was so silky smooth going though. I also peeled a few kiwi fruits and the skin came off easy as pie. I'm loving it!


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