How to Make Knife Handles - Beginner's Guide 2019

[Music] welcome back to the kita knife shop today's video is going to be a simple tutorial for beginner knife makers on how to effectively attach handle scales onto their fixed blade knives the goal of this channel is to document my knife making journey and share any tips and tricks that I learn along the way my hope is that the videos will add value to the community if you think they are please subscribe to a channel for future content the method that I'll be outlining today is most effective when the user has a drill press and a can't twist clamp however this strategy can also be utilized with cheaper clamps and a hand drill the first thing you're gonna have to do is Mark out where your holes are going to be and then drill the appropriate hole size for the pins or fasteners that you'll be using in this example I'm drilling to number 12 holes for core P fasteners and then one center hole that is a number 30 drill bit for an eighth of an inch pin the drilling of your Tang will have to be done early in the process while the steel is still soft and before heat-treating after you have ground heat treated and tempered your blade it's time to move on to the steps shown here which is stacking two handle scales under your knife you'll be using the knife itself as a drill guide for these handle scales you'll then take a small clamp and clamp the blade to the stack scales I like using the can't twist clamp because of its small stature and that it does not get in the way of the drill presses spindle and then head over to the drill press to keep everything nice and level we'll use two three two one blocks to support that assembly then I'll line up the drill bit with the first hole and then use a clamp to hold the blade this may be an abundance of caution but I'd rather take the time so that I don't have a helicopter like situation where the blade goes slinging around using the blade as a drill guide we will then drill through both handle scales after the first hole has been successfully drilled I will take the clamp to simile and insert a bit of the same size into the hole this precaution is taken so that the entire simile will stay in the same orientation while I drill the second hole well then return to the drill press and drill the second hole after the second hole is drilled we will also insert another bit into it so that the whole assembly stays aligned then we will move the clamp over to the side so that we can drill the center hole once the hole is drilled you can bring the entire assembly over to your workbench and scribe out the outline of the handle this excess material will be cut off and then you can carefully scribe the front of your handle curvature then it's off to the bandsaw to do some rough cutting of the handle scales as a unit you once you're done cutting them out it's time to take them over to the belt sander I like turning my belt sander down really low so that I don't burn the micarta the first thing I'll do is I will sure up the front of the scales on a 60 grit ceramic belt in this case and then I'll move up the belts to something a little finer normally around the 220 grit belt I'm taking great care to make sure that the top and bottom of these scales are in line with each other I'll then put my work rest on and attach a handy little wooden jig that I threw together for the angles in the front of my scales well then clamp this jig onto the work rest and use it as a guide for the scales but first I need to mark out the lines that I'll be grinding to I use a very sophisticated method here with a pencil on my workbench after the lines have been scribed I'll come back to the grinder to start using my jig I'll make sure that the outside of the scale is facing down so that the angle will be on the outside of the scale like the front of the scales we'll start off with a coarse grit belt first and then move on to a finer grit belt as you start getting close to your scribe lines you'll want to take these two scales and put them together so you can see if they are symmetrical or not after you get it pretty close you can take it over to the hand sanding I then put the two pieces back together and clamp them to a workbench you can bring them up to whatever finish that you'd like however you must note that you will not be able to modify the finish on the front of these scales after a knife is together so it's best to take them up to the finish that you plan on putting on the entire knife handle and then head back to the drill press since I'll be using corby fasteners I need to use a step the bit to drill a counterbored hole I have a more detailed video on the basics of Corbie fasteners that I will put in the cards in the top right of your screen with quarter-inch handle scales I'll generally drill 3/16 of an inch into the scale leaving a sixteenth of an inch for the Corby fastener to seat alone once the counter bores are drill we'll head on over to the granite block and make the scales nice and flat for our glue up before gluing the scales up I'll have to modify the Corby fasteners themselves they normally come with a fairly large dimension from inside the inside so the first thing I'll do is I will shorten both the male and the female sides of these Corby fasteners after doing this many times you kind of get an eye for it but it is test and fit I'm shooting for around a quarter of an inch from inside the inside head also the Corby fasteners are generally a little larger and OD than the quarter-inch hold that drilled so I have to take this down as well until they fit just right now that our pieces are all prepared it's time for the glue up the first step is to put on some gloves and clean everything you want to make sure that all the surfaces are free of any grime or oils so that your epoxy will stick to it very well I use alcohol for this function but I've also seen people who use acetone with great success I also like to wrap the blade itself to prevent any epoxy from getting on to the finished blade in this case I'm using G flex epoxy where I mix equal parts and stir for about 30 seconds the first place that put epoxy is in the holes of the bottom scale I'm calling the bottom scale of the left scale when you're looking down the spine of the knife I put the epoxy in the holes and then I'll put the female corby fasteners in first then I'll apply epoxy to the face of the inside of the scale and then to the corresponding side on the knife itself I try not to get too much epoxy around the holes because you do not want epoxy in the female portions of the core B fasteners and then do the same thing with the other scale to put epoxy where the core B's will be seating and then epoxy the inside of the scale and then that side of the knife as well I'll then line up the two core B's together take off a glove and start using the screwdriver to start the core piece once they're started I'll generally insert the center pin and then go back and finish tightening the core B's you don't want to go too tight with the core B's or you could squeeze out all the epoxy from your joint it's generally a tight enough fit that I don't need to use two screwdrivers since the outside core B is not moving but sometimes if it's too loose I will use another screwdriver I then take some baking paper and wrap the blade and use a clamp to hold it up then I'll take some alcohol and q-tips and clean up the front of the scales you need to do this now because you won't be able to do it later then bring your assembly inside and let it cure at room temperature for 24 hours before grinding on it and that's a wrap in a nutshell those are the steps that you can take to put a handle on your fixed blade full-tang knives in a repeatable fashion with a very small chance of alignment error all that's left to do is shape your handle and make a sheath I hope you all enjoyed this week's knife making tutorial and if you did please make sure to LIKE this video and nail that subscribe button also if you have any of your own tips for attaching knife handles please comment in the comment section below now get out there and build some knives I'll catch you guys on the flipside [Music]

Channel: Red Beard Ops

Views: 30,130

Rating: 4.9607363 out of 5

Keywords: how to make a knife handle, knife handles for beginners, How to attach knife handles, how to install knife handles, how to install knife handle pins, how to make a knife, how to use corby fasteners, Knife Handle Scales, knife handle tutorial, Handle Scales, corby fasteners, knife making, handle pins, knife maker, micarta handle, wood handle, micarta, making a knife, knife handle, epoxy resin, kant twist clamp, full tang knife, corby bolt, handle fasteners, jkeetonknives

Id: 7Zio-gupl-U

Length: 9min 34sec (574 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 28 2019