How can I rehandle a knife?

[NikolaTesla]

I bought a Hultafors GK knife, while hating it, I modified it a little. I made it into a scandi grind, then I took the handle off for no reason...

How can I rehandle it? It has a stick tang, what would be the easiest way? I still have the two scales I made from hazle, they've been in my house for about 6 months now.

Any help would be greatly appreciated

 

[Mike Bowler]

Is the Hazel very dry? if so you could cut out the shape of the tang on both of the scales,and glue them together pin the handle and shape the handle. or glue together and drill it out and put tang into the scales and pin

 

[Dannytsg]

As has been said you have 2 options.

1) You can mark each scale and cut out recesses deep enough for the blade to sit flush when sandwhiched between the wood. Then mark and drill them to allow you to pass a pin through the wood and the tang. Then use a good solid 2 part epoxy to secure them together and pin it. Finally shape the handle to your liking and you are done.

2) If it's a stick tang you could also get one handle scale of any wood (say 10mm thick) and drill and recess this singular piece of wood. Then do the same as in drilling and pinning to get the tang to stay in place and then shape the handle.

For an idea here's my thread that I did something similar with

http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=93379

Hope that helps

 

[John Fenna]

You say you modded it to a Scandi grind... I thought it CAME as a Scandi.... confused!
To put a handle on I would rebate one or both of the scales to take the tang, glue everything together and then shape your grips.
If the scales are too thin for this I would just make new scales
Or - make a centre board the width of the blade with a cut out to take the tang (making the size and shape up to that of a full tang blade - if you see what I mean.). fit the tang into the centreboard and then the scales onto the centreboard.
Contrasting woods would make a very good looking knife
Good luck!

 

[NikolaTesla]

You say you modded it to a Scandi grind... I thought it CAME as a Scandi.... confused!
To put a handle on I would rebate one or both of the scales to take the tang, glue everything together and then shape your grips.
If the scales are too thin for this I would just make new scales
Or - make a centre board the width of the blade with a cut out to take the tang (making the size and shape up to that of a full tang blade - if you see what I mean.). fit the tang into the centreboard and then the scales onto the centreboard.
Contrasting woods would make a very good looking knife
Good luck!

Well it's sorta a scandi, but it has a secondary bevel.

I think I will try the single piece of wood way to make a handle.

Thanks guys

 

[John Fenna]

Well it's sorta a scandi, but it has a secondary bevel.

I think I will try the single piece of wood way to make a handle.

Thanks guys

I think I see what you mean - you ground it to a full single bevel edge, removing the secondary bevel.
I would be wary of chipping the edge - the secondary is there to help stop chipping.
I tend to finish most of my knives with a fine convex edge for strength, be they full flat or Scandi.
Have fun with your handle
It can get addictive!

I have done about 100 rehandling jobs on varios knives....

 

[NikolaTesla]

Well I don#t have any rivets or pins, what would be easy?

Can I saw some hazel and somehow jam the tang inside the piece of wood?

 

[mrcharly]

You can.

I've made a couple of rough handles and one neater one.

The easiest method by far is to use two pieces, whittle out hollows for the tang and glue, as described. You need to clamp hard to avoid gluelines.

For rivets, I used copper nails, commonly available for fastening up pictures. Hammered nail through, cut off head and point, sand flush with wood. You could use almost anything - a bit of thick copper wire, fitted through a drilled hole would also do. Or even contrasting wood. I did one rough handle like this in about 10 minutes with 2 tools - the knife is still going.

Using one piece of wood, drilling a hole for a tang and fitting sounds easy, but actually it is more difficult. Unless you have a drill press it is difficult to drill a precise series of holes. Best way is to use an oversize piece of wood, fit the blade and let glue set. Wrap blade in masking tape and whittle handle to shape. Doing this way allows you to shape the wood to the alignment of the blade.

 

[brancho]

If you want to do it hidden tang look HERE for a stick tang look HERE
On the hand you can make it a standard stick tang. As the tang is probably quite short I would keep it simple with just abolster and a single piece of wood.

Here is a knife I rehandled after the handle broke this was for my Scouts to use


Broken Mora handle and reground blade by alf.branch, on Flickr


Broken Mora rehandled by alf.branch, on Flickr

 

[NikolaTesla]

Still haven't got around to it, but 100% going to do it tomorrow.

Thanks for the help guys, if the handle turns out nice I will post pictures

 

[brancho]

Dont rush it take your time to get things the way that suits you.