Veneer Knife Handle

An different knife handle made of veneer, horn, leader and "blood sweat and tears".

Tools:

1. Sharp scissor preferably a heavy duty
2. Plastic or rubber glow
3. Vise to press the veneer blocks when gluing
4. Saw, preferably a japan draw saw
5. Needle files
6. X-ACTO knife
7. Power drill
8. Drills in 3 - 6mm diameter
9. Clamps
10. Jigsaw
11. Contour saw
12. Hack saw
13. Heavy duty plier
14. Files
15. Sandpaper

Supplies:

1. Veneer (I use oak and beech)
2. Clean film
3. Goat leader (1 - 1,5mm thickness)
4. Buffalo horn in 1mm and 5 mm thickness
5. Polyurethane glue
6. Epoxy glue
7. Pieces of scrap wood
8. Tung oil

I uses two types of knife blade.

1. New blades, I use blades from Mora kniv
2. Repurposed knife blades I use blades from bought knifes where I remove the wood/plastic handle, example IKEA Vörda as their plastic/rubber handle is easy to remove.

So choose a knife blade that fit your knife project (kitchen knife, woodworking knife, outdoor knife or other ideas).

Use a hacksaw and a vise or a heavy duty plier or other tools of your imagination.

1. Just cut the handle halfway without cutting into the "tang" in 2-3 cm segment.
2. Twist the plastic handle of the "tang".

Now you have a knife blade that you can make a handle to.

Start by drawing a grid of 5 x 12 cm on your veneer sheets.

Use a scissor or a heavy duty scissor depending on the veneer wood species hardness. I uses a heavy duty scissor for the oak but for the beech I can use a normal kitchen scissor.

For each block of veneer i use six pieces of beech and six pieces of oak.

And you need six 1/4 pieces of a blocks of veneer for a knife handle.

You need 1 1/2 pieces of veneer blocks to makes a knife handle.

So cut 12 oak and 12 beech pieces.

I use Polyurethane glue for gluing the veneer pieces. Polyurethane glue must be handled with care, follow the instructions as the glue can cause cancer by skin contact.

Note! Use rubber glows when working with the glue.

1. Cut a piece of clean film that can be wrapped around the veneer pieces.
2. Use a piece of plastic, wood to spread out the glue on the veneer pieces in a thin layer.
3. Stack the pieces of veneer (six oak and ix beech) in the pattern you wish to have.
4. Wrap the pieces in the clean film.
5. Use a vise or clamps to press the veneer pieces. I uses a scrap piece of wood to spread the pressure evenly on the block of veneer pieces.

Note! Poly urethane glue expands into a foam as it expands o all glue that i pressed out of the block will convert to foam. Use a knife to cut it away from the veneer block after it has cured.

I divide the "veneer block" into four smaller pieces.

A knife handle need six smaller pieces so you need 1 1/2 veneer blocks for each knife handle.

I uses a japan draw saw for cutting the smaller pieces.

Take:

1. 1 piece of 1 mm thick horn
2. 1 piece of 4-6 mm thick horn
3. 6 piece of the mall veneer pieces
4. 6 piece (3 x 5 cm) of the goat leader

On the picture above I have decided to make a angle on the veneer piece that follows the knife blade.

Each hole has a angle of ~20 degrees.

1. Start by laying out the pieces (horn, veneer and leader) and draw the tangs shape on each veneer piece.
2. Start with a thin piece of horn. Cut it to size and drill a hole and file it to the size of the tang.
3. Drill a hole that is approx the size of the smallest dimension of the tang. I use the vise to hold the small pieces when drilling.
4. File away so the veneer piece fits on the position it's going to have on the tang. Here can a vise be helpful to hold the mall veneer piece when filing.
5. Cut a hole in the leader piece that fits the position on the tang. I use a X-ACTO knife to cut a squared hole in the leader.
6. And repeat the process for the next layer.
7. The end of the handle is a thicker piece of horn (just for visual effect) and this piece has no hole in it. o cut a piece of an estimated size. Use sandpaper (120 - 1000) to make the side facing the end of the handle into a smooth finish.

Note! I start with a horn piece to get a more stable start on the knife handle than the veneer can provide. Just do a squared hole in the same way as the veneer pieces.

Note! In the case where the tang is shorter than the handle I have used a piece of stainless steel (screw with the head cut of) in parallel with the tang (not the hole length, just 2-3 cm over lapping).

Preparation:

Clean the tang from any oil, dirt and grease so the gluing get maximum strength.

Use a sandpaper lightly on the tang and then clean it with Isopropanol, or isopropyl alcohol.

I have two pieces of scrap wood where I have cut a slot with a saw that the knife blade fit into.

Gluing:

You can glue the handle in steps or whole.

1. Mix the amount of epoxy glue you need
2. Apply some epoxy glue on the first piece (thin horn) and fit it on the handle.
3. Apply some epoxy glue on the first piece of veneer and fit it on the handle.
4. Apply some epoxy glue on the first piece of leader and fit it on the handle.
5. Repeat step 3 and 4 for the rest of the veneer and leader pieces.

Clamping:

1. Use a piece of scrap wood with a slot for the knife blade wrapped in clean-film and another piece of scrap wood with a slot for the knife tang to press the pieces together with some clamps.
2. I have also used a piece of scrap wood on the tip of the blade and a clamp to press the knife blade into the handle so you don't get a gap between them.

For this step you can draw a template on a piece of paper that you glue to the side of the knife handle.

1. Saw one side so you get a parallel surface with the blade.
2. Draw the shape or glue a template of the shape of your handle to your handle.
3. Use a jigsaw, contour saw, band saw to cut the shape ruffly.
4. Do the same for the contour of the handle for the other direction.

Use the method of your choice to continue the shaping of the handle shape.

Note! I don't glue the last horn piece until I have got a close to finished shape on the handle. This is because on the end of the knife handle you can see the tang (or screw) so you have a good idea where the center of the tang is.

This make it easier to get a symmetrical knife handle.

Glue the thick horn piece to the end of the knife with epoxy glue. Use the scrap wood pieces with slots in them to get some pressure while the glue cures.

Use files, sandpaper to get the same shape as the knife handle. At the end, use wet sandpaper of 1000 or 2000 to get a smooth finish.

As a finish I use tung oil to get a shiny, scratch and water resistance surface. But there is other methods to get a finish that you like.

The drawback with tung oil is that you need to reapply tung oil regularly (every half year or so) depending on usage. My opinion is that this drawback is overshadowed by the surface finish that a tung oil give.

How to apply tung oil.