Knive Handles

Here’s fun little project for a Saturday. The Case folding knife is one I’ve had. It’s marked a lot of calves and cut a lot of hay twine. One of the scales broke and the other cracked. I tossed it on my bench next to the stamp block and kept thinking about it.

The other day I got caught up and spotted a 1/4 inch thick piece of Jarrah from some project or another and by it was piece of walnut. Ah Ha, says I to me, knife scales!! I filed off the two brass studs near the bolsters and took the flare off the center one. I cut the wood to shape and drilled the center hole. Then I smeared 5 minute epoxy on both the wood and the knife and stuck them together. I then went to work with the disc sander and the OSS. I finished it off with sand paper and steel wool. I had some stain mixed up and slapped some on the walnut. Danged if it didn’t make it look like Jarrah. Two coats of shellac and some wax and in the pocket it goes.

The belt knife came from Woodcraft. Monte, who owns the Boise WoodCraft asked if I could make a sheath to show the possible buyers how good the knives looked. I bought a kit and it laid around for over a year. I marked out a piece of Jarrah and left it with the blade and rivets. They never could seem to get together. Well, I finally got around to it. The process is about the same as the folder. I thought this might be a good time to try inlaying something. Ebony and hard Maple were available. I’m certainly not on a par with the guys here who really do inlay but it was fun to try. Of course, I couldn’t disappoint , so I carved a sheath for the knife. All in all a fun time and pretty darned easy.

-- Thos. Angle, Jordan Valley, Oregon