A little over a month ago I took a blacksmith class and made two knifes. My intention was to finish each at home, one with a wooden handle and the other with a leather wrap handle. I have finished the first, at last, and the process has been fun.

First, I had to locate hardwood to use for the handle. It has been next to impossible to find anything beyond a construction grade wood around here. This has surprised me as I thought it would be easy because of all the crafts in the area. I located a wood mill in Sylva but the smallest amount of lumber they will sell is 500 board feet, way more than I needed. Finally just by luck, I found the Franklin Wood Warehouse.

The owner, Buddy, carries a good selection of hardwoods and he sells small cutoffs which is what I needed.  I selected four small pieces, one each of cherry, walnut, red oak and African Padauk. We also spent a little time chatting and swapping stories. I took my treasures home knowing that one would be used for the handle.

My next step with the knife was to continue to work on the blade. I wanted to make it sharper and to clean the metal some more. Using files and a vise I continued with the sharping until I managed to cut myself. It was sharper than I thought. Before starting to do more work on the handle, I wrapped and taped the blade for self protection. With the files, I worked the rough high spots off the handle so I would be able to fit the wood.

I had no idea how to attach the wood to the metal so I went to google for answers and sure enough I found what I needed. While there are different methods to attach a handle, the one I chose was to use a steel rod and a two-part epoxy. The epoxy is more for keeping moisture from getting under the wood than for securing it to the metal.

I bought a quarter-inch steel rod and decided to use the African Padauk for the handle. I went with if because of the grain and color, and I had never worked with this type of wood.

For a shop, I use part of the garage. I have a number of hand tools I have kept over the years since I stopped woodworking for a living. I have some power hand tools but most of what I do now is with regular hand tools. I cut the wood to a length and width I could shape, but my first challenge was due to the fact the wood was three-quarters of an inch thick. If I used it at that size the handle would be over one and one-half inches thick. That size would be to big to hold comfortably, so, without a table or band saw the question was how to half the piece of wood.

To solve the problem, I clamped a piece of wood three-eights of an inch from each side of my saw blade on the backboard of my hand miter saw. I place the Paduak, on its edge, between the two pieces, which held it straight and centered if for the cut. I used the saw and to my surprise I made a good clean cut and halved the piece.

Next I cut two pieces of the steel rod a little over an inch long. I marked two spots on the tang, and drilled two holes using a small bench drill press. I then placed one side of the handle to the tang, and using it as a guide drilled the holes in the wood. To keep it aligned, I place a one-quarter dowel through one of the holes in the wood and tang. I placed the other piece of handle and drilled through the wood, tang and other handle side. I moved the dowel to secure the other side and finished the drilling.

I shaped each wooden side by removing the opposite side and working the wood while attached to the metal. I cut the wood using a coping saw and then shaped using wood files while holding the blade in a vise. With the first side roughed out, I reversed the process and both sides were roughly shaped.

Since both sides were close to the shape I wanted I decided to mount the handles and finish the shaping with them in place. I mixed a two-part epoxy and spread it on the metal and the rods. I tapped the first wooden side on and it went well. As I tapped the second side, the wood split. Ouch, was one of the gentler words that came out of my mouth! I decided to clamp it together and fix it later. I was not sure why it had split, but I believe the steel rod had a rough edge at the end which made the rod larger than the quarter inch hole, creating to much pressure as it passed through the wood.

I was not sure what to do for a fix. I though maybe I should switch wood but I really wanted to use the Padauk. I chiseled the split wood off and cleaned the metal. I went through the process of creating another half-side piece for the handle. I filed the ends of the steel rods so there could be no rough edge to affect the wood as it passed over it. I mixed the epoxy and started placing the new piece over the rods. Well, I could not believe my eyes as I watched the wood split again. It must have to do with the grain of the wood. I clamped it, turned the lights off and went to the house.

I was feeling pretty down but started thinking about the fact that every step of this was new to me. I realized that my perfectionism was butting heads with the reality of my limited experience and skill level with making a knife. While I was not real happy with this awareness I managed to achieve a reasonable level of acceptance. It was either that or quit and I didn’t see that happening.

My next step was to cut the rods flush with the wood handle sides. I then took the coping saw and rasps and worked on shaping the handle while ways to deal with the split kept swirling around the back of my head. I decided to clean the split as best possible and fill it with a small sliver of the wood, followed by epoxy colored with dust from the Padauk. It worked but did not blend as well as I had hoped.

I continued to file and sand the wood the get a finish.

Since the knife is a gift to a friend I needed a way to present it. This gave me an opportunity to do something else I have never done, create a dovetail box with hand tools.

I got some quarter inch strips of poplar from a local store to use for the box. Before starting I practiced making a dovetail on some three-quarter pine. While the results were functional, they were not particularly pretty.

With this experience I was ready to tackle the poplar. Again, my results were functional if not particular pretty. I joined my side pieces and then using a knife and chisels I cut a rabbet joint on the bottom piece. When it was ready I sanded the pieces and glued and clamped them to set. I planned to hinge the top to the box but the smallest hinges I could find were too big. I decide to cut a piece of popular the size of the inside dimensions of the box. This I centered and glued to the top. I liked this better than the hinges so I’m glad they were to large. I cut a piece of leather to wrap the knife inside the box.

While I waited for the box to dry I continued to sharpen the knife. I had past the stage of filing and was using a fine wet stone. I decided it was sharpe enough after cutting myself a couple more times.

I finished the project by using boiled linseed oil on the knife and the box. I am glad I finished this and did not let the fact that there are imperfections in both the knife and box stop me.

Next I need to figure out how to tie a leather strip handle to the second knife.