# Knife Making & Repair



## johngoes (Dec 22, 2008)

*Replacing a kitchen knife handle*

I decided that it's time to tackle the knife handle I've procrastinated on. We have had a nice kitchen knife for years that really felt good in the hand, held its edge, and sliced very well. However, the handle rotted away and I decided to do my first handle replacement. I had a perfect sized piece of canarywood left over from box construction that will become the new knife handle.

One surprise (see picture) was that the knife tang was a lot smaller that I anticipated. The blade top aligns with the handle all the way to the end of the handle



*Plan of action:*
1) I plan to resaw the blank down the middle. 
2) Plane the two faces super square and flat 
3) I'll carefully mortise out the tang shape in each half. 
4) Then I'll glue the halves back together with the watered-down glue and paper method. 
5) I'll rough-shape the handle, split apart and epoxy the blade into the handle 
6) Give the handle a final shaping and finishing.

If anyone out there has dealt with knives, let me know if I'm off track here.

*Making knife material*



While searching for articles on how to replace knife handles, I found an article on making marking knives. It seemed pretty easy so I salvaged a reciprocating saw blade from my brother and decided to make my own marking knife. The article used a hacksaw blade but I thought the old hacksaw blade I had was rather thin and when I stumbled upon the reciprocating saw blade I knew it was perfect for what I wanted to do. I'll make a left and right knife and use the piece of mesquite pictured for the handle.


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## brianinpa (Mar 16, 2008)

johngoes said:


> *Replacing a kitchen knife handle*
> 
> I decided that it's time to tackle the knife handle I've procrastinated on. We have had a nice kitchen knife for years that really felt good in the hand, held its edge, and sliced very well. However, the handle rotted away and I decided to do my first handle replacement. I had a perfect sized piece of canarywood left over from box construction that will become the new knife handle.
> 
> ...


I have some old fishing fillet knives that I have been meaning to re-handle, and your blog is nudging me in the direction of getting started. If only it was warmer in the shop.


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## johngoes (Dec 22, 2008)

johngoes said:


> *Replacing a kitchen knife handle*
> 
> I decided that it's time to tackle the knife handle I've procrastinated on. We have had a nice kitchen knife for years that really felt good in the hand, held its edge, and sliced very well. However, the handle rotted away and I decided to do my first handle replacement. I had a perfect sized piece of canarywood left over from box construction that will become the new knife handle.
> 
> ...


I spent 1.5 years in Mass and decided to move back home to Texas because it was too cotton-pickin' cold! I'm sorry the weather keeps you from work because I just love puttering around in the shop and could imagine being frustrated at not being able to work.


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## Chipmonk (Jan 6, 2008)

johngoes said:


> *Replacing a kitchen knife handle*
> 
> I decided that it's time to tackle the knife handle I've procrastinated on. We have had a nice kitchen knife for years that really felt good in the hand, held its edge, and sliced very well. However, the handle rotted away and I decided to do my first handle replacement. I had a perfect sized piece of canarywood left over from box construction that will become the new knife handle.
> 
> ...


My mum in law has severe rhumatoid arthritis. The handle of the knife she uses for cutting bread disintegrated in the dishwasher. With this particular knife the handle is at 90 degrees to the blade. I decided to make her a larger one, but discovered as you did that the handle was not well supported when the original handle was removed. But this wasn't too important as only a part of the handle was to be used and this was just where the shaft and handle meet. I also found the drilling stainless steel can be difficult and discovered that if you use a masonry bit at a lower speed it will be cheaper and faster than more expensive bits which you will throw away after one use. To stop the bit from wandering when drilling use some electrical tape on the blade. I also used s/s screws and nuts. For the the handle I used a piece of waste Hickory.


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## johngoes (Dec 22, 2008)

*Groovin' n gluin'*

Today I concentrated on the knife handle repair. On the bandsaw I split the canarywood blank in half and saw a really nice bookmatched colored stripe figure inside. So I decided to flip my blank to have bookmatched handles.

I planed the sides smooth using the new benchtop small parts jig I built yesterday. Then I carefully traced the odd-shaped skinny tang on the inside face. I began to sweat bullets as I sat there and quailed at the thought of chopping that odd shape out of the handle while getting a perfectly smooth face. I decided to take another look at the rotten handle and saw that the groove ran straight through the handle and thereupon I had an epiphany! It was routed! So I whipped up a flat bottom routing bit and a couple of scrap passes later I had a perfect setup for the handle.

*Router table set-up for blade handle groovin'.*



Another examination of the old handle showed that the blade shoulder was embedded in the handle most of the way. So I chiseled a slot for the shoulder to fit.

*Shoulder fitting*


And after admiring the fit a bit (and showing it off to my wife who responded with a bored, "uh huh"), I cut a piece of paper bag and glued the halves together sandwiched around the paper. First time to try this but I've seen Norm do it so hopefully I won't have any problems splitting the halves later.

*paper sandwich glue-up*



After a bit of drying I'll trace the original handle shape over the new blank and bandsaw it to shape and rasp/sand it to rough shape.

So far so good!


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## StevenAntonucci (Aug 14, 2007)

johngoes said:


> *Groovin' n gluin'*
> 
> Today I concentrated on the knife handle repair. On the bandsaw I split the canarywood blank in half and saw a really nice bookmatched colored stripe figure inside. So I decided to flip my blank to have bookmatched handles.
> 
> ...


I just read the first and second parts of your method of work, and I have always done it slightly different in order.

Once you have the handle split and inlaid, I would have drilled the recessed side for the pins or split nuts. Next, I would epoxy the two sides together to the knife. Finally, I would drill the final pin location and size through both sections of handle, using the hole on the one side to locate it. Setting the pins and final shaping is easy from here…


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