How to shape a Knife Handle

so I'm working on this knife and I'm up to the point where I'm going to start finishing out the handle and I thought why not make a video on handle shaping layout and that sort of thing so right now I've already beded the tame into the block and I've got my whole drill and a pin in holding it up against the guard so the next thing I want to do is profile it and then we'll start doing the sculpting this is going to be a coke bottle stylish handle that'll have a museum or heirloom fit and and I'll explain a little more of that as we go along but I've got some rough lines drawn out here to get the profile that's about 330 seconds a little little less than the height of my guard so since I got the rough outline done I'm going to pull the pen and go get it profiled to that shape and I'll get it kind of close but I'll save some room for when I start shaping it out so we'll get this pin pulled and go get it [Music] profile okay with the profiling done I'm about 330 seconds higher and lower than the guard from top to bottom that gives me room to finish it out when I get to that point but right now what I want to do is put it back together and start laying out some lines so we can do our sculpting give it a little persuasion I'm going to use a little trick that my friend James King at Redbeard Ops come up with you don't have to have a granite surface plate or a height gauge now if you have that use it but I'm going to use something that you probably have just sitting around your house and make it's cheaper and easier and just as good and fast and now I'll put some reference lines around the top and bottom I know this is hard to see it's hard to set up the camera I'll try to get some better shots here see how close we are on this one pretty close these lines are a little wider than the guard I'm work down to them and then work down to my FIT up here and my final width here but these are reference lines the main thing is this Center Line center of the blade so I'm also going to come here on the front of the handle material I'm going to make a line all the way around the guard right up next to it it's a guid line I don't want to go past that line but it'll give me an idea location how far I need to shape his handle when I get close I'll be fine tuning I'll make many trips back and forth to the grinder checking this line I'm also going to come right here about Midway or thereabout and I'm going to find out where the ball of the handle will fit in my hand best probably right along in here so I'm just going to make a mark right here nothing technical See How Far That is make another Mark over here this will be cut in right here and this will be be cut in to out here it be a lot thinner than it is there but it's just an idea General location all right if I get his pen [Music] out so I'll be roughly contouring this handle up against this flat platin but I like to use a 50 grit belt to do this specifically an aluminum oxide belt however I'm having to use a ceramic belt since I don't have any AO belts in stock just run slow that way you don't burn the [Music] wood as I'm grinding I'm taking my time and I'm watching my line keep reference I want to make sure I don't overcut it and leave room for finish [Music] work now I'm going to switch over to a wheel where I can do a little more contouring and sculpting of the handle I like to run it horizontally that way I can see what I'm doing here but I'm going to be cutting this at an angle I kind of want the ball of that handle to be at an angle it just feels better in my hand [Music] [Music] just shaping it up to where there'll be a little taper from top to bottom on the handle give it a little more ergonomic feel in the hand and that's our basic shape now it'll get more rounding and that sort of thing as we move up in grits and finish it [Music] out and here I'll just fine-tune it until I really like the shape and I'm looking at my Center Line the whole time making sure I have symmetry and that sort of thing now I'll fit it back together take a look at it and now I'm going to go back over my lines at the guard I have to do this several times because they kind of wash away here I want to pay real close attention that I don't over grind and I want to just creep up on those lines now I'm moving to a slack belt I'll remove the platin off of this assembly and Slack belt all the way out I like to do most of the finished work on the slack belt I do very little hand [Music] [Music] sanding I like to use fresh belts for this operation that way I'm getting all the previous scratches out and I can get good clean cuts that way and now we're going to move up to 600 grit which is going to be the final belt and I'm going to work up to where they're almost disappear and that will leave me just slightly under a 16th all the way around and of course this handle is based on the shape of the Guard so but I want to do a museum fit it'll be slightly proud of the guard so I'm going to sneak up on it with this 600 but I want to make sure that all my contouring is right even square but you need to be doing that the whole time so here we [Music] go [Music] and a little contouring right there at the end where we'll get our Museum fit up I just like a small bevel there I'm going to do just a little hand sanding just to smooth out any rough spots I might have [Music] missed and we'll get it buffed up I'm using white Rouge on a muslin wheel [Music] [Music] I'm trying to let the sander do all of my sanding I do very little hand sanding unless it's something major but I I'll come in here and just clean up any sharpness I don't want any hot spots on the handle that's our fit up it's it's not perfect but it's close and I'll show you some shots of the full knife here in just a second but a patron gave me this block of wood actually gave me several and I want to thank him for that means a whole lot helps him make the videos for this channel so I really appreciate that but I hope you got something out this if you got any questions please leave them in the comments I appreciate you watching and here's some shots of the knife [Music] aah a

Channel: Tony Severio Knives

Views: 3,338

Keywords: Knife handle shaping with a 2x72 grinder, Knife handle tutorial, Make a knife handle, bladesmith, coke bottle knife handle, custom knife, custom knife handle, grind a knife handle, hidden tang knife handle, how to make a knife, how to make a knife handle, how to shape a knife handle, knife, knife handle, knife handle design, knife handle shaping, knife handle tips, knife making, knifehandle, knifemaking, knives, make a knife handle, sculpt a knife handle

Id: nXJqfPkfa04

Length: 10min 33sec (633 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 13 2024