Maple Knife Handle, by hand, mostly.

the yellow handles knives were destined for Iceland
fishermen but the deal fell through. I got the knives for 30 SEK ($4.55 Cdn)
each. The blades are stout and very sharp, the handles will be replaced.  

  I brought those knives home from Sweden last spring and have finally got around to making  a replacement handle.

  Don't get me wrong, the yellow plastic handle is excellent and probably easier to hold on to when wet than my maple handle. After all Frost/Mora are world class knife makers.  But, the handle is yellow plastic, its just not pleasing to my eye.

  The first stage of the process was to grind the plastic handle off.  I used my angle grinder and a course abrasive disk, easy and quick.  Every shop needs a 4 1/2 inch angle grinder. 

  Once I cleared the plastic away I drew a design for the handle, by tracing the blade and drawing around it.

  I picked maple for this handle. I picked a board twice as long as I needed. First I ripped the board in half, the length of the handle. Then I cut the rough shape of the handle on the band saw.  This let me cut both halves of the handle as though I had stacked them for cutting, with the uncut end providing plenty of support.

   Once I got the rough shape cut I used my dremel tool  to hollow out half the thickness of the blade on each side of the handle.  When the blade fit tightly into the hollows I glued the blade in and the sides on with contact cement.  I know there are plenty of new high tech epoxy style glues out there but....contact cement has never let me down.  You just have to give it the time it needs to set.  As the blade is inset into the handle I am not concerned that it will wiggle.

  After I finished with the Dremel  I settled in to watch a Youtube series on Queen Jane of England. ( reign 10 July 1553 - 19 July 1553).  I know that I spent a little over three hours shaping the handle with rasps, files and sand paper.  Three episodes plus coffee drinking time. I sanded the handle to 600 grit.  It was so smooth it felt soft.  

  

   That is the chaos of my work space as I shaped and sanded, if you look closely you can see the knife in the middle of the photo with green tape on the blade.  I think that a belt sander could have done the job 3 or 4 times quicker, but I didn't feel like the noise or aggression that comes from power tools this time.

  

   I finished the handle with two coats of orange shellac.  Maple is so close grained and so hard that I didn't even try to stain it, the stain just sits on top.  Old style maple furniture if usually finished with tinted varnish.   I picked orange shellac because it has a old style traditional colour and feel to it.

  The handle is a bit rustic and probably too small for most tastes but I quite like how it fits my hand.

  I have few more of these blades. My plan is for the next knife handle  be made from walnut or some other dark wood.  The handle will be a bit longer and more round with a hole in it for a leather thong too.   I am also thinking of drilling the blade to put in a couple of brass rivets, more the the look of things than any other reason. 

   I should gather together the knives that I have put handles onto.  I think I am getting better. Maybe in a coming post. 

cheers, ianw