# Amboyna burl handle



## KnightKnightForever (Oct 6, 2021)

Here’s my first handle - coming along! About half way there right now. Going on my 210 denka


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## Bensbites (Oct 6, 2021)

Very nice. I saw that over on IG. Do your burl eyes have chantoyance? That’s one of the things I really like about amboyna.


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## Campbell (Oct 6, 2021)

I bet that will look beautiful. Are you going to cut in half and do rivets or file down the tang?


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## btbyrd (Oct 6, 2021)

Amboyna is so beautiful. I only have one amboyna handle and it's easily the prettiest in my collection (though I don't invest heavily in handles). 
Your handle has an excellent 2-d shape, though it's very contoured on the Z-axis. I'm sure you've shaped it to fit your grip, but I'm not a big fan of buying highly contoured grips -- unless they're made to fit my own hand. Since it's your work on your own knife, I'm very impressed. 
That's going to be a sexy Denka, no doubt about it.


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## KnightKnightForever (Oct 6, 2021)

btbyrd said:


> Amboyna is so beautiful. I only have one amboyna handle and it's easily the prettiest in my collection (though I don't invest heavily in handles).
> Your handle has an excellent 2-d shape, though it's very contoured on the Z-axis. I'm sure you've shaped it to fit your grip, but I'm not a big fan of buying highly contoured grips -- unless they're made to fit my own hand. Since it's your work on your own knife, I'm very impressed.
> That's going to be a sexy Denka, no doubt about it.



Yeah I’m making it to fit my hand. Thank you for the feedback though


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## KnightKnightForever (Oct 6, 2021)

Bensbites said:


> Very nice. I saw that over on IG. Do your burl eyes have chantoyance? That’s one of the things I really like about amboyna.



I hope so. The handle is only at 80 grit right now with no oil. Only time will tell!


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## KnightKnightForever (Oct 6, 2021)

Campbell said:


> I bet that will look beautiful. Are you going to cut in half and do rivets or file down the tang?



I’m just going to epoxy the handle in. The denka doesn’t come with spaces for rivets and it’s pretty light. I’ve already cut the hole for the tang


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## Dhoff (Oct 6, 2021)

KnightKnightForever said:


> I’m just going to epoxy the handle in. The denka doesn’t come with spaces for rivets and it’s pretty light. I’ve already cut the hole for the tang



Great  looking good 

how did you make the tang hole?


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## KnightKnightForever (Oct 6, 2021)

Dhoff said:


> Great  looking good
> 
> how did you make the tang hole?



I used a drill press to make a series of holes, and a combination of filing tools and a hand drill to continue to widen out the cavity. This is still ongoing right now. The cavity as of right now is about 1/2” too shallow and none of my bits will reach down there, so I’m going to go get some extra long ones from Lowes tomorrow. 

I’ve actually accidentally drilled through the top of the handle due to incorrect angle initially . I’ll post some pics tomorrow. I’m going to attempt to route a rabbit channel through the top of the handle and inlay some golden Amboyna across the top to cover it up. That and I think I’ve made the tang hole slightly too large width wise. I’m thinking I should have done the dowel method for my first one. I’ll figure it out though.


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## KnightKnightForever (Oct 6, 2021)

Here’s the other side


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## Campbell (Oct 7, 2021)

Ah, I am so used to seeing western handled Denkas, I wasn't thinking that you had a wa handled version! Does yours have a finger choil?


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## KnightKnightForever (Oct 7, 2021)

Campbell said:


> Ah, I am so used to seeing western handled Denkas, I wasn't thinking that you had a wa handled version! Does yours have a finger choil?



Yes it does


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## KnightKnightForever (Oct 7, 2021)

Here are some updated pics. You can see the hole on the top where the drill went through. I'm going to inlay some wood there as a little detail. And the Tang slot is crooked.  All in all, not bad for my first one.


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## cotedupy (Oct 9, 2021)

KnightKnightForever said:


> You can see the hole on the top where the drill went through.



This is incredibly easy to do, hey ho - looks good otherwise though. 

And it should look grand with a little wood inlay anyway. Other thing you could do, depending on your aesthetic preferences, is colour some epoxy with mica powder and use it to fill. Comes in any colour you can imagine and costs nothing.

Tang slot being slightly too wide doesn't matter at all with epoxy. Little tip that makes everything nicer and cleaner though - give your handle a very light oil before fitting. If you get any excess epoxy anywhere it'll just wipe off very easily. Easier and cleaner than faffing around with tape.


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## KnightKnightForever (Oct 10, 2021)

Handle is mounted! Now some cleaning up and detail work along the spine of the handle


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## btbyrd (Oct 10, 2021)

Very, very nice!


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