handle wrapping materials

[Jan Dox]

My albums at Imagestation heve expanded. more wrapped handles at the previous album and the new one:
The 3rd BKS show:

http://www.imagestation.com/album/?id=4290637049


click on the images to see more detail

Jan

[Jason Cutter]

Got some shipped over and it works great - its the best looking wrap I've used so far, and seems to need the least amount of tweaking to work well. Strongly recommend it. A local fabric or shoe-products supplier may have it too but I got 20metres of the cord from Kathleen and plan to really give it a good workout.

I strongly recommend it if you've had problems with wraps so far.

Cheers.

(Edited 26th February - removed the url link - something wrong with it - you DON'T get Kathleen's site ... Jason. Will try to come up with something else. )

[Jan Dox]

Jason,

when I click at that link I get a spanish sex site.


can it be edited away?

Jan

[Jason Cutter]

Don't know what happened. I'll make sure I got the correct site, but thats how I've been fast linking to her site for some time. I'll give her a call. I think in the last couple of days, the site was up for sale or something like that. Not very pleasant at all. Sorry 'bout that.

Jason.

[Jan Dox]

this link should work;

http://www.tomeycustomknives.com

Just visited, nice knives, I love them, good links from there

Jan


PS:I added some pics to my albums

[Hibuke]

Hi all,

I'm a newbie here, so please bear with me.

I've been doing mainly customization of ready-made fixed blades and am now "diving into the deep end", so to speak. I really like the Japanese-Inspired Cord Wrapped handles that seem to be all the rage nowadays. I'm now wondering what material to use for the cord wrap? I'd prefer to use nylon, but does cotton matter once it's been epoxy-impregnated? Where do I get the cord? Specifically, where in Australia (I'm living in Melbourne, Victoria). What about gutted paracord?






Much Thanks

[Jan Dox]

In use there is not that much difference between nylon or cotton cord.
After impregnation the cotton cord has fully absorbed the resin and gets impervious to the elements (water/oil/blood/dirt); I feel the impregnated cotton has a better resistance to heat (this also depends on the brand of your resin) than nylon. The nylon has a tendency to melt and the cotton reacts more like Micarta (gets burned and forms a black coaled surface wich can be sanded clean and recoated when the damage is not too bad)
The cotton lends itself better to corrections afterwards.
It is like Micarta or G10 with the difference that the industrial products were made under stricktly controlled conditions (temp. and pressure).
Sometimes the handle needs a finishing coat of epoxy after sanding away rough spots, and you can model or adjust certain knots or details with a cutterblade and some sandingpaper before applying the finishing coat. If you do that right, nobody will notice because it is invisible (but for the very experienced eye and then again).

Try wide black shoelace to start with, that can be found almost anywhere in the world (size for military boots, 6ft or longer) and would be long enough for knife handles. If you don't find them long enough, stick one end in the cut-of end of the other, with a bit of practice you can do it so nobody will notice (place this "weld" just behind the guard or under the turkish knot if you use one.
I discovered a new brand of (synthetic)shoelace in an outdoor, camping and trekking shop and will try that soon.
The only way to find what you really like with or without impregnation is to make handles and test them (even on cheap wooden dummy knives), to get the feeling.


jan

[Defender]

I have used a couple of things to wrap handles but it is mostly on production knives. I am just starting in making my own knives so it will be nice to have a few ideas of what works and what it all looks like.
One thing I have found interesting is a rubber compound used for coating tool handles- comes in a can at hardware stores and usually you just dip the handles in and let the stuff dry but I find that it acts like a nice sealant/adhesive for handle wrappings. I wrapped the kraton handle of a Cold Steel Para-Edge with 20 pound test line and painted a thinned down bit of the rubber compound on it and it is quite a nice handle now- large enough to actually hold on to!
I have done similar things with fine chain as well and it turned out pretty decent.
Def

[Jan Dox]

I have used the synthetic wide flat shoelace from the outdoor shop and it works OK, the result is better than the cotton shoelace if the handle is not epoxy-impregnated.
The latest I have found are the wide shoelaces sold for ice-scates
made of a synthetic and cotton mix (very wear resistent) and also a waxed version of the same, and that was the easiest folding
Japanese style wrap I did ever. Because it's rather stiff and doesn't stretch much it folds beautifully and is easy on your hands. (the first type was black and the waxed version I only found in yellow with a red strand. lengths around 7 ft) When winter season starts and the Ice scating rings open again I go look for other colours.
So far I haven't used "original Japanese silk ito " yet but look forward to it.

Jan

[Herk]

Hey Guys,

I'm a total newbie, but I want to start wrapping handles on some production knives. Where can I get started to learn how to do handle wrapping? Is there a source or book that you guys can recommend?

Thanks

[N. Creel]

Hi everyone. Thought I might share some other sources for silk ito. I haven't tried this one, but it is definitely cheaper.
http://www.japaneseswordsltd.com/frames.html

Kris Cutlery also has some.
http://www.kriscutlery.com/Sandata/A...ck_192665=next

And here are some directions.
http://pages.prodigy.net/tlbuck/tsuka/tsuka.htm

I've wrapped a few handles and have had good success with these directions.

Nathan

[Herk]

Very nice. Thanks!