# My first handles



## andur (Aug 6, 2012)

Made a few handles for my knives that came with plastic ferrules. The octagon is made of apple/cherry/pear (don't remember but from my own back yard) wood and buffalo horn, the D shaped is oak with buffalo horn. 

Octagon handle is for my Santoku from Hideyuki Tanaka and the big D shaped one is for my 165 Shimatani Deba.

Filing the tang hole is heavy work, especially with hard woods. Took me a few hours but I got them good enough to tap in without glue. 

Too bad the images don't do the polish any justice since I got the horn to a shine from 180 to 3000grit paper and used a polishing machine with M83 to finish off the shine. I'm not too good with photography!

Making the horn fit without glue is an art and I don't imagine I can make a handle without glue just yet but I guess it can be done. Mine are pretty tight but still I used epoxy to glue the ferrule on. 

I'll be making some more because there are still two knives with plastic ferrules that need changing!


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## Bryan (Aug 6, 2012)

Hi, Did you find any good web resources?


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## andur (Aug 6, 2012)

Well I think I did google every word concerning handles, tangs, buffalo horn for a month etc but I didn't find any good guides. I think there were some videos of old japanese masters with long white beards making handles but I can't seem to find any good ones now. From some of the videos I learned to heat the tang red and push it into the handle with a puff of smoke. 

I was so scared of ruining the tempering, I wrapped the knife in soaking wet toilet paper and then wrapped some aluminium foil around the blade to shield it from the heat. I constructed a simple forge out of an old car brake drum and moms hair dryer. 

So I'd suggest read the older posts of this forum and then browsing through youtube and google to anyone who wants to make handles. Matching the oval buffalo horn hole (mortise?) to the handles oval bit (tenon?) was the hardest part.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Faq8fG7emYQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DczhTaGuFIg

The second one is a really really useful video! I had no idea how to tap the handle off, it's actually very easy!


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## Taz575 (Aug 6, 2012)

I use a scrap of lumber that is longer than the blade/handle, hold it to the side of the blade at the top of the handle and hit it with a hammer. Similar concept!


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## knyfeknerd (Aug 6, 2012)

Good job andur. Have you mounted any yet? If so, more pics plz. 
P.S. on the plastic ferrule thing-I hate plastic too !!!! I would pay extra(even on the cheapo knives) to have one without plastic!


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## Taz575 (Aug 6, 2012)

Just looking at the pics of a buffalo horn, you can tell they are nicely polished!! I tend to get the best pictures in natural light on a somewhat cloudy day. Forgot to say those handles look really nice!!


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## obtuse (Aug 6, 2012)

Nice!


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## andur (Aug 6, 2012)

Just some quick pics. The mini yanagiba handle is a new one I just made. The handle needs some more wax. But the kasumi is nice, isn't it? Uchigumori fingerstones.


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## Taz575 (Aug 6, 2012)

I was going to say those blade roads look awesome!!! So do the handles!


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## andur (Aug 6, 2012)

And may I add the mini yanagiba is a very handy little knife. These two knives are my go-to knives. Small work gets done with the yanagiba (fish, chicken fillet etc) and chopping/veggies are left to the santoku. I suggest everyone get this small Ikeuchi yanagiba, I think it's the best $30 I've spent in the kitchen. So much use and the edge retention is superb. 
The previous handle was a little bit smaller and also the D handles side line is a bit off the ideal placement but it works OK. I might make a new one if I get bored some day.


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## Marko Tsourkan (Aug 6, 2012)

andur said:


> And may I add the mini yanagiba is a very handy little knife. These two knives are my go-to knives. Small work gets done with the yanagiba (fish, chicken fillet etc) and chopping/veggies are left to the santoku. I suggest everyone get this small Ikeuchi yanagiba, I think it's the best $30 I've spent in the kitchen. So much use and the edge retention is superb.
> The previous handle was a little bit smaller and also the D handles side line is a bit off the ideal placement but it works OK. I might make a new one if I get bored some day.



Those look very good. 

M


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## richinva (Aug 7, 2012)

Those look nice.

I would say that the first one is cherry.


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## andur (Aug 9, 2012)

Another one coming!
A teaser here.. 





That's 320 grit showing, made it to 2500 last night and now the wax is drying. I will polish it and post pics. I also did the tang hole which was super long and narrow but I hope it's ok and I can tap it in tonight!


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## chinacats (Aug 9, 2012)

Did you use epoxy or glue on the tang? I saw where you heated it first, but figure you must use something to hold it in place?

They look great!


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## andur (Aug 9, 2012)

Nope, I bang the tang in with a hammer. Put the tang into the tang hole and then lightly tap with a hammer from the back end of the handle. The inertia of the blade will drive the tang well into the handle. And cleaving the handle in half is also very likely if the hole isn't perfect and you tap it too far in!


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## SameGuy (Aug 9, 2012)

I think we'll need a step-by-step or WIP of your work flow. The sandpaper picture above is a trick; it makes me assume you are only using hand tools!


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## andur (Aug 9, 2012)

Yeah you're right I did use other tools - a small lathe and handheld belt sander. I used the lathe to get the end of the handle round and I drilled a hole in the horn. The hole was about 1-1.5mm bigger and I used epoxy and wrapped a soaked fiberglass thread around the round end of the handle and squeezed on the horn. Then used a belt sander to rough it all into a handle shape and then continued smoothing it by hand. My first ones I didn't use a lathe because I made the hole in the horn collar ellipsoid and cut the end of the handle to match exactly (without any fiberglass thread). The fiberglass thread is to make it harder to split when hammering the tang in (just an idea that I had and thought I'd try). I managed to split one very easily because the horn has very little tensile strength.

On one picture where the handle is inserted you can see exactly how far it will go without tapping. From this length I hope the last 8mm or so will go in by tapping (one way to find out!). 
u









The tang hole is made with a 6mm drill bit and then the small files. I ran out of charcoal and this time it is made only by filing. The files are old and worn so it has taken me a few hours to get it this far! And my fingers hurt.





Ok so here you can see that the wood bit inside the collar is round compared to an oval shape. The round bit took me 5 minutes to make, an oval one I think two or three hours to match the horn collar. 






Secondly you can see the 1mm fiberglass ring between the two. I hope this will keep it from splitting. The same technique is used by Katsushige Anryu only he uses a copper ring between them. I had run out of black pigment or I would have made the epoxy black to hide it. I'm happy how the faceted end turned out. I just used a flat surface and dragged the handle at an angle on fine sandpaper to do this. 


I think I will tap the blade in and then polish it a bit further. You can see I have lightly polished it and it has a grain that resembles wood a bit. That's why it doesn't come out plasticy, the grain gives away it is a natural material. At least that's how I see it 

Anyways I'll take some more pictures from this yanagiba and the other ones I've finished so far. Sadly the small lathe I used belongs to grandfather and I didn't take pictures of the previous steps. Maybe for the next one I'll take a photo after every step :angel2:


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## andur (Aug 9, 2012)

Quick update! It needed a hard tapping but went in all the way and *didn't crack!*


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## El Pescador (Aug 9, 2012)

I really like WIPs like these, I feel I learn so much and end up with a greater appreciation of the craftsmen that make our knives.


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## andur (Aug 9, 2012)

What's a wip? Work In Progress?


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## El Pescador (Aug 10, 2012)

Yes. WIP=work in progress.


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## Line cooked (Aug 10, 2012)

Very Nice!!


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