Lauri and Polar whittler stcked birch bark handles

[brancho]

Well I have made a couple more stacked birch bark handles as some wanted me to make him one. Iwas aked for a Polar whitller but I ordered a Lauri when a load of other Lauri blades and managed to add the Polar before the order was shipped so I made two knives. The finish on teh Lauri blade is what I got when I tried to polish the scale off but I liked so I left it as it is.

Before shaping them


Lauri & Polar stacked birch 1 by alf.branch, on Flickr

The one at bottom was made a while ago.


Lauri & Polar stacked birch 2 by alf.branch, on Flickr


Lauri & Polar stacked birch 3 by alf.branch, on Flickr


Lauri & Polar stacked birch 4 by alf.branch, on Flickr


Lauri & Polar stacked birch 5 by alf.branch, on Flickr

What do you think of them?

 

[outdoorpaddy]

Absolutely beautiful work! Its given me a hankering for one of them now! Where did you get the birch bark? i would have thought that the bark in the UK would have been too thin for sort of thing.
Wonderful stuff.

paddy

 

[robin wood]

absolutely lovely. Simple elegant work with clean lines, great user blades too.

 

[Toddy]

Those are beautiful Brancho
They really just look 'right', iimmc. It's a really lovely handle in use too, is birchbark

cheers,
Toddy

 

[crosslandkelly]

Lovely looking knives, great work.

 

[jorn]

Nice! i like those droppoint blades, they're practical too.

 

[Hugo]

Nicely done Brancho mate, love the birch bark, think I might try that some time in the near future.
I find peening the ends of the Polar blades difficult, as sometimes the steel is so tough / hard.

 

[HillBill]

Nice work I think they turned out really well.

 

[brancho]

Really glad you like them guys.

As has been said these blades are great users and the bark handles are lovely to hold feeling warm in the hand.

The bark was from Brisa and is up to 3 mm thick I did collect some from a dead tree in germany just over 1 mm thick was great to use.

Hugo are you anealing the end of the tang as the whole thing is heat treated.

 

[shaggystu]

they're lovely, really practical looking.

one question if you don't mind; when you stack the bark on is it just placed on "dry" as it were, or is there any kind of glue involved in the process?

cheers

stuart

 

[brancho]

I dont bother with glue as the stack has been compressed you would struggle to get it off in one go anyway.

I compress it with this rig then rivet the end of the tang


A test fit of the stack by alf.branch, on Flickr

 

[shaggystu]

I dont bother with glue as the stack has been compressed you would struggle to get it off in one go anyway.

I compress it with this rig then rivet the end of the tang

thanks for that. i presume that when you compress the handle ready to be peened that you have a hole in the top plate of your jig to give clearance for the peening process?

cheers

stuart

p.s. top work with the jig, i like how you made a bit of box section from two bits of angle, lovely bodging!

 

[brancho]

As long as you dont make the oles in the bark too big after they are compressed they stay in place until I put the end cap in place pien it over. I find the stack stays in place whether its leather or bark if its well compressed first.

 

[shaggystu]

As long as you dont make the oles in the bark too big after they are compressed they stay in place until I put the end cap in place pien it over. I find the stack stays in place whether its leather or bark if its well compressed first.

thanks for that.

i imagined that the bark would just sort of spring back off, it didn't really occur to me that it'd stay compressed without something to hold it in place

 

[Hugo]

I am indeed annealing the ends, might have cooled too quickly mind, one was so hard I ruined a hacksaw blade on it believe it or not. you paid for birch bark, what is the world coming to.

 

[fishfish]

inspiring!

 

[brancho]

I am indeed annealing the ends, might have cooled too quickly mind, one was so hard I ruined a hacksaw blade on it believe it or not. you paid for birch bark, what is the world coming to.

You air cool them mate. As for buying birch bark where have you found it over 0.2 mm thick in the UK as a knife handle 100 mm long will need a few of those. I even split some of the bought stuff as its 3mm thick.

i imagined that the bark would just sort of spring back off, it didn't really occur to me that it'd stay compressed without something to hold it in place

I use a hole punch to make the holes as its the quickest way and by making them slightly tight to push on they seem to knit together in a way that they are really difficult to get back off.

inspiring!

Oooh errr

 

[Mesquite]

Lovely looking knives

Any chance of a top view of the jig you use to compress the handle?

 

[demographic]

I really like the slightly oval cross section of the leather stacked Estwing hammers and these are a natural progression from them.
Those look really nice.

 

[Dreadhead]

those are beauties! superb work really like those