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My first effort at making a knife handle


Killshott
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Back in February, I was lucky enough to buy a skinny fieldcrafter knife blank from Matt Fieldcrafter.

 

I intended to have a go at making a knife handle for the first time.

 

Thought you might like to see how it finished up as I had some time over Easter weekend.

 

My first ever effort and thanks to reading lots of threads & watching vids of 'how to', I'm pretty pleased with the result for a first go.

 

Some simple walnut blanks, red fibre liner & brass corby bolts & about 8 hours of hand rasping, filing & sanding later...here this is what I ended up with

 

 

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Apologies for the lack of 'in progress' pics, but once I started, I pretty much didn't stop till it was finished.

 

 

The lanyard hole was not planned. Originally there were 4 corby bolts.

 

But as I shaped the handle, I took off too much brass on one side and ended up exposing the bolt threads on the end bolt which looked ****.

 

After cursing for 10 minutes or so, thinking I had ruined it so close to finishing, I remembered a thread somewhere where a guy had used a shell casing to create a brass lanyard tube.

 

So I drilled out the corby bolt, increased the hole to 6mm and inserted/epoxied a .17HMR casing in the hole, trimmed off, filed flush and carried on with the finishing.

 

A fair bit of polishing and a few coats of walnut oil later, it didn't end up looking too bad really.

 

 

Next up, my first go a sheath making!!!

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Ok, the pics show up in the Management's MacBook...

Very nice job, especially for a first one - waaaaaay better than my first ;)

Looking forward to seeing the sheath.

And now, the crit:

Finish nice, the oil finish looks good, and you haven't rushed through the grits when smoothing down.

Minor quibble on fit:

Fit is generally good, but I'm guessing you didn't have a Corby drill bit, as there appears to be a bit of dipping in the walnut at the boundary between the woods and the bolts.

If (when!) you do another, it would be worth investing the £5 or so in the proper drill bit, as it makes it much easier to get the holes right, in terms of diameter, depth and step profile.

 

Handle shape looks comfortable for serious work, and you have chosen a sensible blade shape size.

 

All in all, a very creditable job.

 

Ref johnphilip's comment above, I'd give it 6 months, tops, before you start making another one... :D

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