Some description and pics of how i went about rehandling a kitchen knife. i've probably gone overboard with the pics, and the description may have a lot of basics and obvious bits in, but i thought i'd put them in incase they're useful for someone, or for someone to tell me i could do it a different way 
The big thing i struggled with is keeping symmetry in the handle. If anyone has any hints or tips they would be most gratefully received.
Knife is a Togiharu inox petty (Korin's house brand http://www.korin-france.fr/nos-coll...ux/togiharu-couteaux-japonais/inox-steel.html). It's a pretty nice knife, stainless, thin, takes a good edge and has reasonable retention. Not sure who OEMs them but if i were to guess i'd say Misono.
After rummaging through my wood box i found a piece of Koa that was around the right size for the knife. This took longer than it should have, but i kept looking at some of the scales i've picked up from Pikebite and umming and ahhing. The handle was quite small so there'd have been a lot of wastage from most of the precut scales i have, which is why i went for this bit of Koa. Plus it's really nice wood.
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Start off i centre punched the rivets to try and keep the drill bit from wandering off
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Then proceeded to drill out the rivet heads ( I found it easiest with a drill bit smaller than the head but larger than the shaft)
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The tang was a bit of a rusty mess as the knife had been immersed in water for a while, which was the reason for rehandling it.
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Interestingly, to me anyway, the bolster was hollow and just welded around the edges. Thinking about it this must make getting a tight fit on the parts that show easier, and reduce the amount of weight added to the knife.
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After cleaning off the tang with some sandpaper, and sawing the block off wood in half i needed to flatten the inside faces of the scales to ensure a good fit against the tang. (I used a granite plate as i have one but anything flat would work)
By sanding the sawn faces of the wood you make sure that the grain of the wood follows around the tang, so it's worth marking bolster end/butt end and tang side / hand side to keep track of everything.
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With everything flat and lining up nicely i then made sure the faces meeting the bolster did so without any gaps.forgot to take a pic of this but i held the scale against a set square, and then with the scale on the edge of the sandpaper and the set square running along on the granite sanded it flat and true to the freshly flatted face.
with everything meeting up nicely i mixed up some 2 ton epoxy and glued on one of the scales, making sure that the scale was tight against the bolster. Wiping of any squeeze out with a damp cloth can help to see if everything is meeting as it should.
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With the scale glued on and the epoxy cured i wrapped the blade in tape to protect it from scratches and me from the edge so it looked like this
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Then at the drill press, with a 4mm bit (the same size as the holes in the tang i drilled through the scale, using the tang holes as a guide. i found drilling after glue up meant there was less chance for the scale to move in relation the tang, which could have resulted in a glue line next to the bolster.
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i then glued up the other side in the same way as before
[HIDE]
[/HIDE]
Using the holes on the drilled scales as a guide i then drilled through the other set of scales. When drilling through to avaid breakout having a bit of scrap under the exit point will help to prevent any breakout, and make sure you watch out for the whole thing windmilling.
[HIDE]
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I then used some 4mm stainless pin stock through the holes. Could have used cutlers rivets again, or corby's etc but it's not a hard use knife so epoxy and pins should be enough, hopefully. once the glue has dried i find filing the excess off the pins is easier to grinding as less worry about getting them too hot and burning the wood around the pin.
[HIDE]
[/HIDE]
I wanted to try a sculpted handle so played around making a template out of paper
[HIDE]
[/HIDE]
Folding a piece of paper down the middle and cutting both sides as one so it's symmetrical. i tried to follow the creases where my fingers met my hand. Not sure if this was the right way to do it? couldn't see anything online after a quick google and it seemed to make sense to me that this shape would be comfortable.
I used the belt grinder to remove the excess wood around the profile of the tang. the pencil lines were put the same distance from the edge up the top and bottom of each scale to give me a visual guide when starting to round the handle, but i then thought i should sculpt the sides first.
Using the template i transferred the shape to the scales with some black marker pen
[HIDE]
[/HIDE]
i then went to the belt grinder to rough out the shape (you can also see i remembered which piece was which so the grain runs accross the tang)
[HIDE]
[/HIDE]
[HIDE]
[/HIDE]
Once i was i happy with the shape (read frustrated from taking a bit more of one side, and then the other, and then back to the other a number times until it was as close to symmetrical) i then put my pencil line back on the faces and started to round them over
[HIDE]
[/HIDE]
[HIDE]
[/HIDE]
Once the shape felt comfortable and looked even on both sides i started to work through the grits which made the grain start to show a bit better and the chatoyance shows
[HIDE]
[/HIDE]
i then switched to hand sanding to finish off, using hard packing when running over the pins to try and keep them level with the surface of the wood. As the stainless is harder it gets abraded more slowly so can have a tendency to crown above it's surroundings making it feel like a nasty boil.
And the more or less finished result was this. After taking the pics i noticed some bits that needed going over again (e.g. one scale wasn't quite level with the spine at the butt end), and i was too lazy to take any more pics, plus it's dark when i get home from work and these were taken in the sun
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And the profile
Old
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If i did anything the wrong way around, or anyone has any tips that would be great. This was the third set of scales i've done, and whilst it's better than the first there are a few bits i'm not happy with main ones being:
-Symmetry was a PITA and at the butt end it's a bit off still
-I nudge the bolster on one of the sides against the edge of the platten and made a little divot on one of the sides so there's a little low spot
-break out around the centre pin
-metal dust getting into the grain of the wood adding a darkenend halo to the pins
Was a learning experience though, everything fits tight without any glue lines, and hopefully the next one will be better.[/QUOTE]
The big thing i struggled with is keeping symmetry in the handle. If anyone has any hints or tips they would be most gratefully received.
Knife is a Togiharu inox petty (Korin's house brand http://www.korin-france.fr/nos-coll...ux/togiharu-couteaux-japonais/inox-steel.html). It's a pretty nice knife, stainless, thin, takes a good edge and has reasonable retention. Not sure who OEMs them but if i were to guess i'd say Misono.
After rummaging through my wood box i found a piece of Koa that was around the right size for the knife. This took longer than it should have, but i kept looking at some of the scales i've picked up from Pikebite and umming and ahhing. The handle was quite small so there'd have been a lot of wastage from most of the precut scales i have, which is why i went for this bit of Koa. Plus it's really nice wood.
[HIDE]
Start off i centre punched the rivets to try and keep the drill bit from wandering off
[HIDE]
Then proceeded to drill out the rivet heads ( I found it easiest with a drill bit smaller than the head but larger than the shaft)
[HIDE]
The tang was a bit of a rusty mess as the knife had been immersed in water for a while, which was the reason for rehandling it.
[HIDE]
Interestingly, to me anyway, the bolster was hollow and just welded around the edges. Thinking about it this must make getting a tight fit on the parts that show easier, and reduce the amount of weight added to the knife.
[HIDE]
After cleaning off the tang with some sandpaper, and sawing the block off wood in half i needed to flatten the inside faces of the scales to ensure a good fit against the tang. (I used a granite plate as i have one but anything flat would work)
By sanding the sawn faces of the wood you make sure that the grain of the wood follows around the tang, so it's worth marking bolster end/butt end and tang side / hand side to keep track of everything.
[HIDE]
With everything flat and lining up nicely i then made sure the faces meeting the bolster did so without any gaps.forgot to take a pic of this but i held the scale against a set square, and then with the scale on the edge of the sandpaper and the set square running along on the granite sanded it flat and true to the freshly flatted face.
with everything meeting up nicely i mixed up some 2 ton epoxy and glued on one of the scales, making sure that the scale was tight against the bolster. Wiping of any squeeze out with a damp cloth can help to see if everything is meeting as it should.
[HIDE]
With the scale glued on and the epoxy cured i wrapped the blade in tape to protect it from scratches and me from the edge so it looked like this
[HIDE]
Then at the drill press, with a 4mm bit (the same size as the holes in the tang i drilled through the scale, using the tang holes as a guide. i found drilling after glue up meant there was less chance for the scale to move in relation the tang, which could have resulted in a glue line next to the bolster.
[HIDE]
i then glued up the other side in the same way as before
[HIDE]
Using the holes on the drilled scales as a guide i then drilled through the other set of scales. When drilling through to avaid breakout having a bit of scrap under the exit point will help to prevent any breakout, and make sure you watch out for the whole thing windmilling.
[HIDE]
I then used some 4mm stainless pin stock through the holes. Could have used cutlers rivets again, or corby's etc but it's not a hard use knife so epoxy and pins should be enough, hopefully. once the glue has dried i find filing the excess off the pins is easier to grinding as less worry about getting them too hot and burning the wood around the pin.
[HIDE]
I wanted to try a sculpted handle so played around making a template out of paper
[HIDE]
Folding a piece of paper down the middle and cutting both sides as one so it's symmetrical. i tried to follow the creases where my fingers met my hand. Not sure if this was the right way to do it? couldn't see anything online after a quick google and it seemed to make sense to me that this shape would be comfortable.
I used the belt grinder to remove the excess wood around the profile of the tang. the pencil lines were put the same distance from the edge up the top and bottom of each scale to give me a visual guide when starting to round the handle, but i then thought i should sculpt the sides first.
Using the template i transferred the shape to the scales with some black marker pen
[HIDE]
i then went to the belt grinder to rough out the shape (you can also see i remembered which piece was which so the grain runs accross the tang)
[HIDE]
[HIDE]
Once i was i happy with the shape (read frustrated from taking a bit more of one side, and then the other, and then back to the other a number times until it was as close to symmetrical) i then put my pencil line back on the faces and started to round them over
[HIDE]
[HIDE]
Once the shape felt comfortable and looked even on both sides i started to work through the grits which made the grain start to show a bit better and the chatoyance shows
[HIDE]
i then switched to hand sanding to finish off, using hard packing when running over the pins to try and keep them level with the surface of the wood. As the stainless is harder it gets abraded more slowly so can have a tendency to crown above it's surroundings making it feel like a nasty boil.
And the more or less finished result was this. After taking the pics i noticed some bits that needed going over again (e.g. one scale wasn't quite level with the spine at the butt end), and i was too lazy to take any more pics, plus it's dark when i get home from work and these were taken in the sun
[HIDE]
[HIDE]
And the profile
Old
[HIDE]
[HIDE]
If i did anything the wrong way around, or anyone has any tips that would be great. This was the third set of scales i've done, and whilst it's better than the first there are a few bits i'm not happy with main ones being:
-Symmetry was a PITA and at the butt end it's a bit off still
-I nudge the bolster on one of the sides against the edge of the platten and made a little divot on one of the sides so there's a little low spot
-break out around the centre pin
-metal dust getting into the grain of the wood adding a darkenend halo to the pins
Was a learning experience though, everything fits tight without any glue lines, and hopefully the next one will be better.[/QUOTE]
