MEMBER ITEMS FOR SALE
Custom Knives | Other Knives | General Items
-------------------------------------------
New Posts | New PhotosAll Photos



Go Back   The Knife Network Forums : Knife Making Discussions > Custom Knife Discussion Boards > Knife Making Discussions > The Newbies Arena

The Newbies Arena Are you new to knife making? Here is all the help you will need.

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Old 08-07-2013, 12:46 AM
Sandiko Sandiko is offline
 
Join Date: Aug 2013
Posts: 3
Traditional Japanese kitchen knife handle

Hallo.

Does anybody know how to make Japanese kitchen knife handles?
Any information (shape, construction, materials, finishing, re-handling) would be great.



Thank you in advance and good luck with your projects.

Sandiko
Reply With Quote
  #2  
Old 08-07-2013, 08:43 AM
Ray Rogers's Avatar
Ray Rogers Ray Rogers is offline
Founding Member / Moderator
 
Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: Wauconda, WA
Posts: 9,840
Depends on what you mean by 'traditional'. The one in your picture has a traditional shape but the materials don't look particularly traditional to me, not that that really matters - use whatever you want to use. As you can see in this picture I used some burl wood to make one:



The picture isn't very good but, hopefully, you can see that my handle has the same shape as yours. To answer your question, they are made in exactly the same way as any other knife handle up to the point where you shape the handle. The shaping is very simple if you have a belt sander and steady hands.

The subject of how to make knife handles is huge, there is much written on it in these forums and in books as well as videos. Do your homework, read, research, and narrow your question down a bit. We are happy to answer any question you may have or at least point you to somewhere the answer can be found but we can't teach an entire subject in one post.

The handle in your picture is about as dead simple as a handle can get. The maker used two kinds of wood and a piece of copper. Using two woods is traditional in these knives but the type of wood he used is not (I like his wood better than the traditional stuff). He glued the wood and copper together, probably with some small pins in there to hold it together. Then he sanded everything into a square profile, apparently with no taper (to taper or not, your choice). Then he sanded the corners flat to form the octagonal shape. Drill a slot in the end of the handle, stuff the knife tang into the slot with some epoxy and you're done. Not necessarily the way I would do it, but that's about what he did. As for finishing, that depends entirely on the type of wood used and your preferences (huge subject). I like to avoid that issue whenever possible by simply choosing stabilized woods - no finishing necessary.

As you can see, I wrote a small dissertation here and barely scratched the surface of your question(s). Do your homework, narrow your questions to something specific, and we'll try to find answers for you ...


__________________

Your question may already have been answered - try the Search button first!







Last edited by Ray Rogers; 08-07-2013 at 03:39 PM.
Reply With Quote
  #3  
Old 08-09-2013, 12:09 PM
Sandiko Sandiko is offline
 
Join Date: Aug 2013
Posts: 3
Thank you Ray for your reply.

By "traditional J knife handles" I mean shape and anatomy of the handle, not materials.
Handles on my current entry level J knifes are fare away from being perfect and you can't ask more from 50$ knife. So, I would like to make something similar to what you can see in my first post.
It is not a problem to get materials and figure out dimensions of the handle, but I rely don't understand how to assemble all the components together.
I would appreciate any information on handle assembly methods and technique used to shape handles.
Sorry for my poor English, its not my native language.

Sandis
Reply With Quote
  #4  
Old 08-09-2013, 01:56 PM
Ray Rogers's Avatar
Ray Rogers Ray Rogers is offline
Founding Member / Moderator
 
Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: Wauconda, WA
Posts: 9,840
I wouldn't have guessed English was not your first language, you're doing quite well with it.

I would suggest that you start by making a handle with that shape using only a single piece of wood. Once you have learned to shape the handle and attach it to a blade then you can worry about trying to make the handle from several pieces.

Start with a piece of wood that is about 5" long and 1" square. It would need to be square, not rectangular. You can shape it by hand but using a belt sander is much easier. Since you have not told us anything about yourself, where you are or the type of tools you have available, I won't waste time trying to guess - I'll just tell you how I do it.

It would probably be easier to drill the hole to accept the blade's tang in the end of the wood now before any shaping is done to the wood. Drill the hole and shape it into a slot using files or a Dremel if you have one. Now is also the time to fit a metal ferrule to the tang if you plan to use one. Most traditional J knives don't use them but you see one on my knife.

Next, shape the handle by putting the corners of the wood block on your belt sander. You don't need to remove much material but be sure to remove the same amount from all four corners and remove it evenly for the entire length of the handle. Once you have ground down all four corners you will have formed the handle into an 8 sided figure (as long as you don't let the ground edges touch each other).

That's the basics of it. Now just glue it onto the blade. You can make a more sophisticated handle by tapering the wood block before you grind the corners off if you want to. Later, you can make a handle more like the one in your picture by gluing and pinning several materials together before your start shaping. Don't try to do too much at once and you'll get the job done ...


__________________

Your question may already have been answered - try the Search button first!






Reply With Quote
  #5  
Old 08-10-2013, 06:32 AM
Sandiko Sandiko is offline
 
Join Date: Aug 2013
Posts: 3
Hallo.

I'm from Latvia (Europe). Latvia is a small country at the Baltic sea. It is one of the three Baltic countries situated between Lithuania and Estonia.
I do have a couple wood working tools (miter saw, router with some bits, electric jig saw, hand saw, dremel tool and one sharp chisel) and I do have a garage to work. My plan is to buy a budget class belt sander, but at the moment I don't have a clue what I need and what I can afford.
It would be very good if I could see how all the different parts of the knife handle should be attached to each other. Probably there are many ways how to do it and this is what I need to see, in order to choose method that would work for me.

Thanks
Reply With Quote
  #6  
Old 08-10-2013, 11:04 AM
Ray Rogers's Avatar
Ray Rogers Ray Rogers is offline
Founding Member / Moderator
 
Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: Wauconda, WA
Posts: 9,840
I don't know of any place, video, or book that shows how to assemble a handle like that. That's why I said try making a handle from a single piece of wood first. Once you can do that you'll start to understand what you would need to do to use several pieces.

The simplest way I can think of to use two pieces of wood would be to drill a small hole in the center of the two pieces and put a wooden dowel in the hole to hold everything together. Once the glue sets you would be able to work the handle just as if it were a single piece of wood......


__________________

Your question may already have been answered - try the Search button first!






Reply With Quote
  #7  
Old 08-10-2013, 11:24 AM
Fishbum2000's Avatar
Fishbum2000 Fishbum2000 is offline
Enthusiast
 
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: Don't Blink, NC
Posts: 61
These knives are pretty cool looking. I guess I've lived in a cave for a good space of time. Don't recall ever seeing a knife like these.


__________________
My lifeguard walks on water
Reply With Quote
  #8  
Old 08-10-2013, 01:44 PM
Ray Rogers's Avatar
Ray Rogers Ray Rogers is offline
Founding Member / Moderator
 
Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: Wauconda, WA
Posts: 9,840
Fishbum, just kitchen knives. I got a little carried away on mine but my customers seemed to like them...


__________________

Your question may already have been answered - try the Search button first!






Reply With Quote
  #9  
Old 08-10-2013, 01:52 PM
Ray Rogers's Avatar
Ray Rogers Ray Rogers is offline
Founding Member / Moderator
 
Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: Wauconda, WA
Posts: 9,840
Sandis,

If you want to re-handle a knife that you already have you'll need to start by removing the existing handle. Until you do that you won't know how the tang on the blade is shaped and that, in turn, provides clues to how the handle must be attached. Most likely, all the tang amounts to is a short spur of steel. In that case, drill a hole in the handle and glue the tang in there. I've already described how the handle can be shaped in my previous posts. With these handles, you want to do the shaping before attaching the handle to the blade ...


__________________

Your question may already have been answered - try the Search button first!






Reply With Quote
  #10  
Old 08-13-2013, 09:49 AM
Midwinter's Avatar
Midwinter Midwinter is offline
Enthusiast
 
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: Elmira NY
Posts: 37
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Faq8fG7emYQ

If you are going with an inexpensive belt grinder, well, things aren't always necessarily square so a "D" shaped handle might be easier to freehand.

The rebate method is best but you can get away with stacking and using good epoxy to hold everything together as long as you epoxy the tang into the handle as well. You will effectively be pinning the whole thing together but you will be stuck with that handle more or less.

I must stress though you CANNOT burn in the tang with this method as it will ruin the epoxy bond...also, burning in doesn't really work on hard or stabilized woods in the first place in my experience....


...wow...I might have just been helpful......whoa......
Reply With Quote
Reply

Tags
arrow, art, blade, drill, files, first post, flat, handle, how to, japanese, kitchen knife, knife, knife handle, knives, made, make, materials, pins, post, simple, tang, teach, wood, woods


Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
 
Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is On

Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Kitchen Knife Handle Material Doug Adams Ed Caffrey's Workshop 7 06-02-2011 10:42 AM
Kitchen knife handle: Which epoxy? xardoz The Newbies Arena 5 08-29-2006 12:19 PM
Production kitchen knife handle material? Wildman The Supply Center 0 07-31-2004 05:50 PM
Traditional Japanese Chiefs/Sushi Knife sjaqua The Display Case 6 04-03-2003 01:17 PM
Traditional Japanese Chef's Knife sjaqua Historical Inspiration 4 03-30-2003 10:44 PM


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 03:52 PM.




KNIFENETWORK.COM
Copyright © 2000
? CKK Industries, Inc. ? All Rights Reserved
Powered by ...

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
The Knife Network : All Rights Reserved