First knife about done, that was fun!

[rshaver]

I bought a genuine Pakistan steel knife blank from ebay, to put scales on. I thought it might be a practice run to learn some techniques and figure out what tools were needed. The knife is for my son, for his reaching Eagle Scout rank. We put modeling clay on the tang, and he squeezed the clay hard, to give me a hand print. Then I set about shaping the sandalwood scales to match the shape of the dried modeling clay.

Its not perfect, but it was a fun project.





The only power tool I used was a drill. So what do the experts think about this style of handle? Most knives I see have smooth low profile handles. I have pictures of the progression from block of wood to sanded handle on my website.

[Ray Rogers]

I think it's a good way to do it. I've used that same technique myself from time to time ...

[hondo76]

I think its pretty cool !!!!!!!

[metal99]

That's a pretty good idea! Good job on the handle

[Ray Rogers]

The reason most handles are fairly smooth and straight is that the handle you made fits your son's hand perfectly - but only in one grip. And, that one grip may not be the one he will actually use most often when he really uses the knife. Certainly, he can use that knife in other grips but it may not be as comfortable as it could be in those situations. Let him use it a lot for several different types of cutting tasks and see how it goes. He won't want to complain because you made it for him but if you don't get honest feedback you won't be able to fine tune your work ....

[thales]

Not an expert here, but I am so overburdened with opinions that I have to give some away.

That handle shape is practically ideal for one hand position, but only that one hand position. It may become a bit of a hindrance for other grips. The grip that is implicit in that handle shape, which might be called a forward power grip, is useful for coarse whittling. It is also useful for stabbing, or if you want to use the butt of the handle as a striking tool. But that's not all that you might do with a knife.

You might want to turn the knife in the hand so that the edge is toward the strong side shoulder rather than away from it. This is useful when removing twigs and bark from sticks or for coarse sharpening of sticks.

For slicing and preparing food for cooking, or for general precise end trimming of things like fiber and withes (bushcraft!), you might want to use a pinch grip where the proximal end of the blade is pinched between thumb and forefinger. The other fingers either clasp the blade to the palm without extending below the handle, which may be handy when slicing or chopping on a cutting board, or they can wrap around the handle as usual when the hand is off the side of the board for more power.

A similar grip would be the precision grip, where the thumb lies along the side of the blade and the index finger extends as far as practicable along the spine of the blade, with the other fingers wrapped around the handle. You might find this useful when doing fine work with the point of the blade as when removing splinters, splitting laces, drilling small holes, etc. Good for skinning, too.

A different precision grip is where you hold the knife with the blade edge up and with the thumb near the proximal edge of the blade. The thumb is used to help control the position, engagement, force, and angle of the blade with respect to the work. This grip is useful for fine whittling, like sharpening a pencil or tapering a sinew.

Still another grip would be a reversed power grip or stabbing grip, where the blade extends out from the little finger side of the hand. It's not just for stabbing. It's also good for heavy slicing work on the pull stroke, like when boning large game, rough cutting leather on a cutting board, etc.

So the handle shape that I tend to favor is, yes, overall fairly smooth and simple in shape in order to make it versatile. The spine side of the handle is broader than the edge side, so the handle is kind of egg shaped in cross-section, and there are no sharp edges or bumps that might raise a blister. The handle is thickest (in the spine-edge axis) in the middle, and thinnest about an inch back from the front bolster where the index finger would be in the normal power grip, and also thin where the little finger would rest. When viewed from the spine side, there is a bit of taper of the front end of the handle in order to facilitate the various precision grips, but the handle is thicker in the middle to facilitate the power grips.

Now, a lot of the handle design, just like the blade design and material, depends a lot on the use that is planned for the knife. So you see different handle designs on chef's knives, carving knives, paring knives, combat knives, etc. The kind of knife-work that I have been describing is focussed on general outdoor work; skinning and butchering game, cleaning fish, splitting and whittling kindling and camp furniture, food preparation, etc.

Finally, since I favor pouch type sheaths, I like to have a bit of a hook in the shape of the handle near the pommel to make it easy to grasp the handle with two or three fingers when drawing the knife from the sheath. I have posted images of my first two knives that should illustrate my ideas. I'll be posting more before long as I get work complete. I hope you find my opinions more useful than abrasive.

Stay warm and on the path.

[Cthulhu]

Also, it should be noted that your sons hand size is going to change as he grows.