Handle help on WIP

Roger

Well-Known Member
I wanted to try a hidden tang knife and have gotten this far already. I was thinking of stacked leather for the handle, I've seen some of the threads on how to clamp it all together but was wondering how to treat the leather discs. Do they get glued together, soaked in something or what? I want to use another slotted piece of brass on the butt and peen it to hold it on. Also, what is the best way to hold the front brass piece on, silver solder, braze or regular soft solder? I forged this from O1 and it's got a 4" blade.
 

Attachments

  • jerry 001.jpg
    jerry 001.jpg
    58.7 KB · Views: 35
  • jerry 002.jpg
    jerry 002.jpg
    62 KB · Views: 31
  • jerry 003.jpg
    jerry 003.jpg
    36.2 KB · Views: 46
  • jerry 004.jpg
    jerry 004.jpg
    62.9 KB · Views: 37
Start over on the guard. Sorry but I'm seeing a lot of gaps around the slot/tang; you want it so snug you have to tap it on to get it to seat tightly against the back of the ricasso (press-fit). It seems like a huge pain but once it's done right you'll never have to worry about it. Then either silver solder or JB Weld will seal the joint against moisture.

I think the easiest way to build a stacked leather handle is to layer 'em up with epoxy and clamp till it all sets up. Sort of like making leather micarta. Stacy over on BF has a how-to describing using a mandrel (coated with vaseline or other release agent) to build the "blank" and get it close to shape before mounting on the actual tang. Here's the link to the thread.

Also ask this guy, he did a really nice leather handle on a hatchet. :thumbup:
 
Last edited:
Thanks, I never thought of building the handle on a separate mandrel. What is the CA he's talking about and what kind of glue other than epoxy?
 
I experimented with building a stacked leather handle over the weekend. It came out pretty nice. I built one of the wood and all-thread clamps to squeeze it together on a mandrel. I coated the mandrel with candle wax and used waterproof 'Gorilla' glue. I had one of my grandsons helping, he would put the pre-cut leather in water, hand it to me, I'd coat it in 'Gorilla glue' and stack it on the mandrel. Sunday it was coated in hard foam but I cut it off with my pocket knife and used the 4" belt sander to shape it. I got it close to where I wanted it and tried it on the knife and it looked ok. Thanks for the hint on the mandrel. I soaked it for a half hour in Minwax wood hardener. I'll find out what it looks like tonight.
 
Back
Top