# Another rehandle - blade i made at Will C's



## TB_London (Dec 2, 2011)

So after doing the Chinese cleaver i thought i'd rehandle the kitchen petty blade i made at Will C's (formerly-Raisedbybrocks) in the summer. Due to lack of time but a want to use it i had just cobbled together a rough octagonal one but it was never planned to be the final one.
I thought i would give it a more western style handle just to make a change and try something new, a kind of intermediary step before i try to rehandle one of my western knives.

Where i had made the knife a stick tang i planned to make a laminated handle to wrap around this and simulate a full tang, plus it is the first laminated blade i have made and i like the idea of a laminated handle on a laminated blade.

I had a piece of yew that i thought would look good with a middle layer of ebony, so after flatting all the pieces on a surface plate with a bit of sandpaper i glued them together. 

Glued up:


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Checking the blade still fits:


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Once the glue cured it was time to start shaping up the handle. As i had only started making the handle last night at about 7pm it was about 9pm by the time the glue had cured enough to let me take the clamps off, so no chance to use any power tools (living in a flat has it's disadvantages), so i got out the trusty Mora and started to carve to shape in front of the TV.

Carving underway:


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After 45 mins it was roughly to shape so time to put it down until this morning when i started sanding it down. Working through 180, 280, 600 and 1000 brought it up to a really nice finish. 
180g:


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1000g:
Spine:




Side:




Close up:





I think it fits the blade really nicely and feels good in the hand. The balance is just at the end of the wood which keps it feeling quite agile.

The san mai of the blade barely shows, not sure what the steel was-it was what Will let me have a play with. Both the outer layers and the core were hardening steels in case i didn't manage to keep it central , but i managed to - much to my relief.

San mai:


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Sharpened it with a heavy asymetric bevel 90/10 (RHS/LHS) convexed the RHS and it cuts like a star 

I'd like to thank Will for helping me to make the blade: letting me use his workshop, telling me what to do, dealing with the heat treat and for fixing the tang after my attempt to tweak it just a little bit more with the power hammer ended up with it at 90 degrees to the blade :eek2:


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## tgraypots (Dec 2, 2011)

Very nice!


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## kalaeb (Dec 2, 2011)

Hidden pins? Or just epoxy?


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## TB_London (Dec 2, 2011)

Just Epoxy, it's a pretty small and thin so i'm hoping will be strong enough as won't be getting any hard use. Was a bit of an experiment making a handle like this, hopefully it won't fall apart, if anything the leverage on the tang may force it through the ebony liner, but thought it was worth experimenting to see. Had considered pinning it but didn't have any pinstock so that idea was short lived, if it fails i'll probably make another with pins. Would be nice to get some Stainless to make a bolster with as well, hopefully i'll get the chance to try and make a few more.....


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## Marko Tsourkan (Dec 2, 2011)

Really cool, keep doing and perhaps you will get us motivated to try on our own.


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## Mike Davis (Dec 2, 2011)

LOL Marko! I have thought the exact same thing! Very nice looking knife! Looks comfy


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## Marko Tsourkan (Dec 2, 2011)

Double post. Mods please delete it.


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## Marko Tsourkan (Dec 2, 2011)

Mike Davis said:


> LOL Marko! I have thought the exact same thing! Very nice looking knife! Looks comfy



A picture is worth a thousand of words. I actually like the hidden tang construction a lot - namely, where wood is glued to wood, rather then wood to metal with a full tang. Helps to address wood movement. 

M


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## WillC (Dec 2, 2011)

Very nicely done Tom:biggrin:


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## Eamon Burke (Dec 2, 2011)

Bravo. Never seen a hidden tang done with a Mora on a kitchen knife!


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## TB_London (Dec 2, 2011)

Cheers for the comments. Biggest thing i found making this handle is the effort needed to try and keep everything symmetrical, this one is quite a way off but it felt right in my hand so i stopped. In future i'll probably shape the side profile before starting to round everything.

It's good fun playing about with handles, and as i'm the only on using them most of the time if they fail it's not that big a deal as i'll learn something and have an excuse to make another.....

The glue bond is quite strong, had an offcut from the end of the stack that i sawed off before shaping and it took a few whacks with a hammer to separate so i'm hopeful that it won't come apart in normal use.

Haha, my Mora gets used for everything, love that knife-gets a lot of (ab)use


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## jmforge (Dec 2, 2011)

I have talked to guys who owned or worked on cold molded custom fishing boats and they say that they have cut plugs out of 40 year old epoxied cold molded hulls that had been taken care of properly (multiple layers of mahogany or similar wood glued together to for a "monocoque" hull that does not need frames for bracing") and they said that their was no degradation whatsoever. The only fasteners that are used in the process are bronze nails or staples to get the wood into place in order to glue it up. They are removed once the planking sets up. My personal experience on knives this size is that epoxy alone of more than strong enough. With that said, If I am not using a pin, I will created kind of a "mechanical connection" by notching the tang a few times on the end with a dremel tool or drilling a couple of holes in it. if you look at some of the take down knives that guys are making with stag handles, they get most of their structural rigidity by coating the tang with wax, Vaseline, mold release compound or teflon tape and pouring epoxy down into the piece of stag with the knife rounghly assembled. Once it cures, you just pull the tang out and finish the knife. It fits tightly with no wobble and will slide right apart. Karl Anderson actually passed the ABS JS perfromance test with a take down knife. Why? Well, he is a bit crazy, but it worked.:lol2:


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