Fashion a batch of feel-good grips.
Surprisingly, the Achilles’ heel to a good knife rests in the palm of your hand. Casual encounters with kitchen sponges and seasonal changes in humidity can break the bond between the wooden handle halves, or scales, and the steel tang. Considering that figured woods tend to move more than straighter-grained stock, the nicest handles come with the greatest likelihood of coming apart at the seams.
To eliminate the risk of future failure, I attached the scales with epoxy and rivets (included with the knives). Riveting involves a few extra steps and a special drill bit, but once you have the gear, the process requires a minute or two more than using epoxy alone. Besides providing long-term mechanical attachment, the rivets align and clamp the scales to the tang, eliminating the time and hassle associated with fiddling around with clamps.
Making the Knife
1. Use precut scales or mill your own 3⁄8"-thick strips from a board that’s long and wide enough to safely plane and rip. For each knife, cut two scales. Make each piece 3⁄8 × 1 1⁄2 × 5", or approximately 1⁄2" wider and longer than the tang. Stick the paired scales together with double-faced tape, good faces oriented out.
2. Affix the blade to the scale pair using double-faced tape, and trace the tang’s outline on the wood.
3. Chuck the Whiteside drill and counterbore (see the Convenience-Plus Buying Guide) into your drill press. Using the holes in the tang as a guide, drill the rivet holes (Photo A). Next, detach the blade, adjust the drill depth, and drill 1⁄8"-deep counterbores on both outside faces (Photo B).
4. Scrollsaw or bandsaw the scales to shape, cutting just outside the lines.
5. Build the Rivet-Setting and Knife Scale Sanding and Routing Jigs shown in Figures 1 and 2.
6. Clean the inside faces of the scales with acetone to ensure a strong bond. Then mix up a small amount of epoxy. Working quickly, brush a thin film on both sides of the tang and the inside faces of the scales, and press the parts together. Now insert the rivets, set the head of the bottom rivet against the end of the bolt in the Rivet-Setting Jig, and then set the rivet using a ball-peen hammer and transfer punch (Photo C).
7. Insert the blade into the Sanding and Routing Jig, and securely tighten the knobs. Using an oscillating spindle sander, sand the scales flush with the tang.
8. With the knife still in the jig, chuck a 1⁄8"-diameter round-over bit in your table-mounted router. Set the bit so that the cutter does not create a ridge on the face of the knife, and rout the outer edges of the scales, as shown in Photo D. Turn off the router, flip the blade in the jig, and repeat with the remaining face.
9. Finish-sand the scales through 400 grit, and then apply the finish of your choice. I wiped on three coats of Waterlox Original, allowing each coat to dry overnight. Between coats, I knocked down any rough spots with #0000 steel wool.
