Handle for a blade that was found

[Bob_and_Ben]

Ok, here is our story:

My son found a knife while walking in the woods. All that was left was the blade. Whatever the handle was is completely gone. My son would like to put a new handle on it.

The blade is about 10 inches long total. The blade part is about 5 inches and the tang about the same. It has no guard on it, and it is clear that it never did because the rivets (3) were still in the tang so it could not have slipped off. The blade part is probably 2 inches thick at its widest. The tang is kind of narrow, about half the width of the blade, or so. The tang has only been polished on the top edge and on the end. The bottom edge of the tang was clearly never polished becasuse of the marks and the fact that it is a grey dull color and the rest of the knife is still very bright and shiny. The marking on the knife say Maxam - Japan. Even if it isn't the best quality, we still want to put a handle on it.

We are guessing that the handle was not scales like those offered for sale in catalogs (for example, Jantz Supply) because the entire edge of the tang is exposed with that type of handle, and this knife appears to have had some other type of handle, though we cannot guess what it looked like.

So here is our question. What kind of handle should we put on this knife? And whatever type of handle, what do we need to know to do it right?

Thanks in advance.

[Chris Daigle]

Bob & Ben,

Is there any way you can post a picture of the knife? The construction sounds a little different.

And welcome to the CKD.

Chris

[Ray Rogers]

That type of tang is fairly common on inexpensive Japanese kitchen knives. I don't know if there's really a name for it but it basically requires a mortised handle.

The handle slabs from Jantz and other suppliers are what you need. You'll need to use a Dremel, router, or similar tool to cut a depression in the slab just deep enough to allow the tang to be in there when the slabs are placed together. Use a pair ove Loveless bolts and some epoxy to secure the handle.

After the glue is dry, finish shaping the handle any way you like with files and sandpaper or a belt sander if you have one. Dymondwood slabs would probably be the easiest to work with...

[Bob_and_Ben]

Thanks for the info.

I think I understand what you mean about the mortise, though I suspect that it will be hard ot get it the right shape and depth.

Is there any advice you can give about what shape to give the handle? Also, I guess I am worried about using epozy to glue the handle on the blade. What happens if it is glued on and you mess up the shape of the handle? It isn't going to be possile to get it off to try again, is it? Or can you grind it off?

Sorry for all the questions

[Ray Rogers]

It's not that difficult to get the cutout the right size and shape. All you do is trace the tang on the handle material and grind out whatever is inside the tracing. If you grind a little too much the epoxy will help fill it.

Make the handle any shape that feels good to your hand. You can't go wrong with a basic oval shaped handle about 4.5" long.

Depending on the type of epoxy you can het it to soften it, or soak it in acetone, or just grind the whole handle off. The purpose of the epoxy is to seal the handle so water can't get in and rust the metal. If you don't care about that, you won't need the epoxy...