# nakiri - 3 times a charm?



## andre s (May 16, 2015)

here's a re-re-handle.
I first did work on this yuki nakiri with blackwood, copper and maple. Since the maple ferrule split very early on, this became a candidate to try jobillo with avonite and white plastic spacers.

original






first rehandled





most recent handle:















any comments welcome (improvement? evolution? devolution?)
thanks for looking!
Andre


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## Godslayer (May 16, 2015)

I love the evolution, the blade went from young and fresh, fun and exciting and blossomed Into a much more mature sophisticated nakiri, think teenager to 40 year old. It reminds me of haburns stuff for whatever reason. Anyways good work and love the change, it's not even the same blade anymore.


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## andre s (May 18, 2015)

Hey thanks! that's an insightful way to look at it. I trust people here would tell me if/when it grows into 70 year old guy trying to look like fresh and fun teenager, right?


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## Mrmnms (May 19, 2015)

I like them all.


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## stereo.pete (May 20, 2015)

Beautiful work! Any growing pains that you went through as you learned how to make wa-handles?


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## _PixelNinja (May 20, 2015)

Simple and elegant without being distracting from the blade. In fact, I think in compliments it nicely. Me gusta.


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## andre s (May 22, 2015)

Hey thanks for the comments all!



stereo.pete said:


> Beautiful work! Any growing pains that you went through as you learned how to make wa-handles?



I've tried and finished a grand total of 4 Wa handles:

- First one was on my first J knife. I bought some buffalo horn on amazon which serves as a ferrule to a yellowheart handle. it came out surprisingly well. i didn't do mortise/tenon, in the name of simplicity. figured that the tang would keep it all together. not quite: wood nor horn is stabilized. there's a small gap between the two. but, we still have it. looks good and is comfortable

- Second one is above with blackwood. First try with mortise / tenon. i thought i was clever to make the tenon same width as tang (near heel). It became an issue because i forced the blade into the handle a bit too aggressively and it created some pressure against the maple ferrule which in turn split, ever so slightly. always bugged me, but kept it that way for a while anyway. didn't use it much, but mostly because (come to find out) nakiris aren't my thing. this one had an exposed tenon, which together with tenon dimension=tang dimension was my mistake...not to mention lack of patience or precision

- Third one is in a recent post (Toyama Noborikoi). experiences above lead me to hidden mortise and tenon. Instead of a "collar", it's more of a "hat". it feels bullet proof. My mistake here was to finalize the tang hole only after all the pieces had been glued up. And since i didn't leave enough play in the handle void, it took a lot of work to get it right. came out well, but took longer than necessary

- Last one is with jobillo, above. this time, i fit the ferrule cap to tang before being glued to rest of handle. again, very solid. but this time, much much quicker.

I probably *could* have learned more quickly by reading a bit more on the forum about how the experts have done it. that's for the less stubborn, more reasonable forum member. i tend to learn best by trying stuff and being ok with mistakes along the way.

fun for me to look back, thanks Pete!


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## Dave Martell (May 23, 2015)

andre s said:


> any comments welcome (improvement? evolution?)




Both! :doublethumbsup:


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## Sparklepony (Jun 20, 2015)

love that new handle


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