making a set of knive handles

[Sparky Paessler]

My wife gave me this set of knife kits for Christmas from Woodcraft so I am working on making curly maple handles for them. I am stablizing the wood in a vacuum jar with a thinned ploy. This will maks them waterproof and the finish will not wear off. I do the same for my pen blanks. I also have enough maple to make a knife block. Next step will be to epoxy the handles onto the knives. Then start shaping them.

[Todd Burch]

So, is the theory that you suck out all the air, which includes the air in the wood, and the poly fills the voids left by the air?

Does the air leaving the wood cause all the bubbling in the poly?

Did you take a weight measure of a handle before and after to see how much poly went into the wood?

Will they be dishwasher safe after doing this?

What flavor hardware will you use to fix the hafts to the tang?

Todd

[Sparky Paessler]

Todd

Yes the ploy bubbles a lot at first until you get most of the air out of the wood. Yes I think the theory is by pulling a vacuum the air is sucked out of the wood and when you release the vacuum the poly is injected into the wood. I didn't weight the wood. I usually pull a vacuum on it let it sit and bubble a while and release the vacuum and then do it again for several cycles. The blanks will evenually sink into the ploy and at that point I will pull a vacuum and let it sit for several hours (or overnight). Been doing it on penblanks for several years and I have one i carry every day that still looks new after a couple years of use. I would think they could go into the dishwasher but I would not recommend it. Shouldn't put good knives in there anyway! I sure these will probably get run thru there a few times though. The knives came with Rivets to attach the handles but you can also just epoxy them to the knives which is what I am going to try. If I have trouble in the future with them comming off I will then make new ones and rivet them on. I think they will look better without the rivets though.

[Carl Beckett]

The bubbles are also in part, the air/gas being pulled out of the liquid itself

[Sam Layton]

Sparky,

Very interesting. I saw those at Woodcraft and really liked them. The stabilizing is interesting. I like the idea of stabilizing pen blanks. When you are finished with your pen, do you just polish, or do you add more finish?

Please keep the progress photo's coming. I have always wanted to make a knife.

Sam

[Rich Engelhardt]

The knives came with Rivets to attach the handles but you can also just epoxy them to the knives which is what I am going to try.Just an FYI...the "handles" are called scales.

I used to subscribe to a custom knife listserve years ago.

Looks like it's going to be a fun project.

[Andrew Kertesz]

Looks interesting. My question is: Who does the most food prep and maybe these were really just a present to herself with you doing the work..:D

[Sparky Paessler]

Sparky,

Very interesting. I saw those at Woodcraft and really liked them. The stabilizing is interesting. I like the idea of stabilizing pen blanks. When you are finished with your pen, do you just polish, or do you add more finish?

Please keep the progress photo's coming. I have always wanted to make a knife.

Sam

Sam

on my pens I just polish them (wet sand up to 12,000) and then I do use a little wax. These scales I would think I could do the same. I will probably sand them up to 600 grit or so and then buff tyhem with my Beal buffing system.

Andrew

I do most of the cooking around here so they really are for Me but I will share them with her!

[Chris Ainsley]

I like the stabilizing setup! I make outdoors style knives from O1 ground stock on my 1x42" belt grinder. I may have to make a vac setup and give it a try, so far I've only use exotic woods that are dense and oily enough not to need it.
I also epoxy my scales on but for rough use knives I use corby bolts. That ensures they won't budge.

[Bill White]

Just a note from a knife sharpener:
NO knives should be put in a dishwasher. Call me a purist if ya will, but I sure spend a lot of time and the customer's money repairing knives that have been poorly treated. I guess that that might be good for my cash flow, but I always include a note with the invoice telling the customer to stop screwing up anotherwise good kitchen tool.
Bill

[Michael Mayo]

I like the stabilizing setup! I make outdoors style knives from O1 ground stock on my 1x42" belt grinder. I may have to make a vac setup and give it a try, so far I've only use exotic woods that are dense and oily enough not to need it.
I also epoxy my scales on but for rough use knives I use corby bolts. That ensures they won't budge.

Chris can you point me in the direction of these "corby bolts"? I bought the wife a nice Dexter 7" cleaver for Christmas and the damn thing had the rivets fall out of the handle the other day. She called Dexter and they are sending her another cleaver and when she asked if they wanted her to ship the old one back the lady said throw in the trash. Well I will be damned if I am going to throw a perfectly good cleaver in the trash. So I want to actually make new scales for it maybe out of some walnut I have laying around and reattach them to the cleaver tang. I want to make absolutely sure that the scales will never again come apart so if these corby bolts are the ticket then I need to get some. Thanks!

[Sparky Paessler]

Chris can you point me in the direction of these "corby bolts"? I bought the wife a nice Dexter 7" cleaver for Christmas and the damn thing had the rivets fall out of the handle the other day. She called Dexter and they are sending her another cleaver and when she asked if they wanted her to ship the old one back the lady said throw in the trash. Well I will be damned if I am going to throw a perfectly good cleaver in the trash. So I want to actually make new scales for it maybe out of some walnut I have laying around and reattach them to the cleaver tang. I want to make absolutely sure that the scales will never again come apart so if these corby bolts are the ticket then I need to get some. Thanks!


Michael you might look at
http://www.knifemaking.com/category-s/75.htm

They seem to have the Corby bolts and a lot of others.

[Sam Layton]

Sparky,

Thanks for your reply on the pens. I am looking forward to seeing your finished knives.

Sam

[Sparky Paessler]

Got the handles (scales) glued onto the knives last night. Will let the epoxy harden a day or two and then start sanding and shaping.

[Todd Burch]

Looking good!

[Sparky Paessler]

Well I started sanding and got one of the knives done last night. The curl doesn't show up much in the picture. It is a light curl.