Handling a scale knife?

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

Thinking I could use a new little knife or two for little bits of carving and what-not when making small parts. Been thinking about picking up a couple of the Hock knife blades (http://hocktools.com/Knives.htm), as they look like the profiles I'm thinking of. Figure I've got enough little off-cuts, I might as well make my own handles.

A quick google search turns up all sorts of tips for handling or making knives. Some of them are quite questionable or odd (like the fellow who recommends heat treating your blank by both setting it on an electric stove and hitting it with a mapp torch at the same time) but even in the handle attachment, there's a variety of ways discussed. I figure there's a lot of folks here who've certainly had experience in this matter, and whose opinions I hold in high regard, so I thought I'd ask what you folks like for this sort of task.

If someone has preferred suggestions for blades over the Hock ones, I'd be interested as well, I suppose, although I'd like to avoid heat-treating at this time.

[george wilson]

Got any used up jointer knives laying around? They make great small blades. Make it like a German violin maker's knife: The knife is made similarly to a flat carpenter's pencil. Only,the jointer blade is the lead,and it is larger,of course. Leave the end sticking out and grind it to the shape you want. Also,grind the bevel off so you can fit the longer shank of the blade into the wood neatly. Then,glue the wood halves together.

[Matt Lau]

Try a Murphy Mill knife blade (http://www.leevalley.com/US/wood/page.aspx?p=31080&cat=1,130,43332,43339,31080).
I really love the plain point blade.
The knife handle itself is a bit overkill.

At under $8, it's hard to go wrong.

-Matt


Thinking I could use a new little knife or two for little bits of carving and what-not when making small parts. Been thinking about picking up a couple of the Hock knife blades (http://hocktools.com/Knives.htm), as they look like the profiles I'm thinking of. Figure I've got enough little off-cuts, I might as well make my own handles.

A quick google search turns up all sorts of tips for handling or making knives. Some of them are quite questionable or odd (like the fellow who recommends heat treating your blank by both setting it on an electric stove and hitting it with a mapp torch at the same time) but even in the handle attachment, there's a variety of ways discussed. I figure there's a lot of folks here who've certainly had experience in this matter, and whose opinions I hold in high regard, so I thought I'd ask what you folks like for this sort of task.

If someone has preferred suggestions for blades over the Hock ones, I'd be interested as well, I suppose, although I'd like to avoid heat-treating at this time.

[george wilson]

Those knives are pretty heavy. I prefer a lighter knife. We had an old one floating around the cabinet shop forever. It was brass,though. Maybe this one would be lighter,but still a bulky knife.

I like the Swiss made carving knives that Woodcraft carries. The one with the straight edged blade and the down curving back on the blade,and the handle that curves down to a point from the side view.(They used to taper to a point in all views.)

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

I actually picked up a couple of the hock blades, and handled them with some padauk scraps I had hanging around. So far, I'm pretty happy with them, although I might like something larger, (although my pocket knife is fine for some of that). Having these makes me want to pick up an angled one to try and learn chip carving - played around a bit with that technique and it's more fun than I would have guessed.

It wasn't until after I added the handles to them that I realized the odd shape of the tang on the hock blades must be designed so they can fit in a stopped tablesaw kerf; not that that would have done me any good not having a table saw. (and I can't think of a way to do that operation safely with a circular saw.)

[Tony Joyce]

I've been looking at this set of blades. I'm not sure about the quality of the metal.

http://www.texasknife.com/vcom/product_info.php?cPath=119_299_470&products_id=644

Tony

[george wilson]

I could do very little with those wide,fat knife shapes as far as wood carving,inlay work,etc..