Stacked Leather Hunter

Great work! I'm about to start on a stacked leather knife myself and I've been studying everything I can hoping to avoid some pitfalls. Would you mind offering some helpful tips to avoid potential gotchas? The knife my customer wants will be a full guard with a pommel. I'm planning to do a hidden tang tapered to a threaded end. What I'm torn on is whether to make the handle as a separate piece and install it when done, or stack it on as squares with epoxy and let it cure, then shape it once the knife is all assembled. Thoughts?
 
That is a beauty of a blade. The brass and stainless give a nice color transition to the blade from the handle. I may have to make one similar color scheme to clean up my leather scrap bin.
I'm with Mr Wilson, any suggestions?
 
Thanks guys.

The biggest tips are :
Start with the firmest leather you can find, from the same hyde. I've never used pre-cut washers, they leave little option for shaping unless you like the broomstick look. No matter what the knife, I cut rectangles 1-1/2" high and 1-3/8" wide. Individually fit them to the tang, keep in mind they'll easily compress at least a half inch. I glom the whole knife together with epoxy and shape it as one piece after cutting out the general shape on the band saw. In 30+ years, the best belt for this has been a Trzac A-65 belt, I do 80% of the handle with it. At any point in shaping, don't be afraid to dunk the handle in a can of polyurethane for a few minutes, let dry and resume the process. This really helps eliminate the fuzzies. After a couple, you'll get your own ideas. Go to my pics and you'll see the looks different leathers gives.


Rudy
 
Rudy, thank you so much for the tips. I never would have guessed using a trizact on leather. That's a real gem I don't think I'd have ever discovered had you not mentioned it. Ditto the polyurethane.

Do you ever wet the leather with water and let it dry to stiffen it up beforehand?
 
John Wilson said:
Rudy, thank you so much for the tips. I never would have guessed using a trizact on leather. That's a real gem I don't think I'd have ever discovered had you not mentioned it. Ditto the polyurethane.

Do you ever wet the leather with water and let it dry to stiffen it up beforehand?
Click to expand...

You're welcome.
No , water has never done anything good for leather. I cut enough leather for 5-6 knives, 22-24 washers per and put them under vacuum in polyurethane for 3 days or until no more bubbles come out of the leather, let dry...that's it. I have had leather stabilized for stacked handles but the end result was no better than my method and expensive. It took a long time to get the feel and look I wanted, I'm not going to over think it. With the Trizac belt, roll your handle upwards into the belt and always make your transition from guard, bolsters or pommel onto the leather. I should add that all this is done on a slack belt.


Rudy
 
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So working with stacked leather is similar to burnishing leather, go the opposite direction of the belts travel? I did one rehandle on an old Camillus bird an trout with a stacked leather handle and managed to match it up to the original profile but the cutting of the center hole was tedious with only a razor knife.
 
Rudy, I just checked out your album pics. Love the look of your stacked leather handles. Haven't tried stacked leather yet, but I have been wanting to. Thanks for sharing some of your techniques with us.
 
Thanks MV.
Stacked leather handles are my favorite thing to do. They remind me of being a kid in the early 60s and drewling over the Western Auto knife display case, it seems (to me) that 99% of knives had stacked leather back then. You'll do a couple or three before you're really happy with your results.

Rudy
 
As a newbie knife maker, Im working on my first stacked leather handle right now, glad I came here for some insight! I've never heard of dunking the handle in Polyurethane. That's something I will keep in mind when I start shaping the handle. question: would thinning the poly with some Mineral spirits help or just use straight up Poly?
 
Hi Thomster...welcome aboard. This thread is about 4 yrs old. So perhaps original posters will not see your question...

But on the poly idea...I use minwax fast drying clear gloss polyurethane for handles...it's so "watery" I can't imagine needing to thin it further. Hope this helps. I use the clear gloss because I can achieve an level of finish I need by using steel wool or very fine paper...

haven't done any stacked leather...

Hope this helps.
 
Smallshop said:
Hi Thomster...welcome aboard. This thread is about 4 yrs old. So perhaps original posters will not see your question...

But on the poly idea...I use minwax fast drying clear gloss polyurethane for handles...it's so "watery" I can't imagine needing to thin it further. Hope this helps. I use the clear gloss because I can achieve an level of finish I need by using steel wool or very fine paper...

haven't done any stacked leather...
Click to expand...

Smallshop said:
Hope this helps.
Click to expand...
good hint! it wasnt until after I had posted to this thread that I saw that it was 4years old. Thanks for the reply!
 
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