Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Handle material? That is the question…

Originally, I was thinking of using Japanese deer antler as a handle material for this knife. But once I have set the blade shape as I please, I realized that have made it too large to fit in to the antler I have. I suppose I could fit it together so that the handle is skinner than the blade, but I do not like that type of design and after all, I want something steady and useful / usable knife. So the question, “What should I use for handle???”
Fortunately, I do have quite good mount of different types of wood corrected for this kind of needs, so started to dig in to my material box.
The first candidate came up was a bamboo. It is nice, but will end up being too thin handle. Also I did not quite like the light color. If it was smoked, then might have been real nice.
The second choice was a cherry. But this I do not have much and I have plan of using it for other project.
Then I realized that I just have split the oak log for axe helve. The grain is little boring, but is a very heard wood. This should be good enough for fiction folder.
Pick up the axe and shape it in brick shape, use template to draw the shape then whittle out the rough shape. File / sand it down to more close shape then slice it in 2 pieces.
I was thinking of making it in 1 piece handle, but since I am not putting the stopper pin, I need to make inside of the handle slit quite precise and complicated shape. To do that, I need to have it in 2 pieces handle.
I do not have the pictures of this process, but will putted on next post. Hope, the oak will please me when I am done.

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