Just to be clear from the outset, I am not a craftsman and have no particular skills as regards making knives; I simply wanted to show a simple mod I made to a bog standard Whitby knife.
I think the mod I have done will stand up to the use I will make of it eg no hammering of the blade for battening, but if people know that I have made a fundamental mistake in what I have done I am more than happy for you to say so to help avoid other people making the same mistake.
I originally bought the knife because I wanted one that I could open with one hand if needs be. I could do that but the knife was very uncomfortable to use as it has lots of sharp corners on the handle.
All I did was to:
With olive oil:
In the flesh the handle looks much better with the olive oil.
Those familiar with the Whitby knife will see that the little 'prong' that helps you to open it one handed is missing. It unscrewed while I was doing the mod and I only have one half - I have yet to glue it in place but I can actually open the knife one handed without it.
So .... the end result is a knife that is much more comfortable to use and looks better. It is no where near the high standard of 'makers' (eg the two scales are not the same thickness) but it gives me what I want and I enjoyed doing it.
I think the mod I have done will stand up to the use I will make of it eg no hammering of the blade for battening, but if people know that I have made a fundamental mistake in what I have done I am more than happy for you to say so to help avoid other people making the same mistake.
I originally bought the knife because I wanted one that I could open with one hand if needs be. I could do that but the knife was very uncomfortable to use as it has lots of sharp corners on the handle.
All I did was to:
- split a piece of dried hazel about 8" long and 1.5" thick - I didn't cut the pieces to size straight away as I wanted something to hold on to when shaping them
- I then roughly shaped each piece, about 4" = length of handle, to the handle, one for each side
- stuck one of the 8" pieces of wood to each side with Araldite - ie I didn't use any 'filler' (don't know the technical term) I left it overnight to set
- NOTE - be careful not to get the Araldite (other brands are available) on the blade etc or you might find you can't open it the next morning - I wasn't careful enough but a bit of brute force freed everything up
- Then I shaped each side with a knife, cutting off the 'handle' as late as possible with a saw
- I finished off by using an orbital sander to smooth the wood. I held the sander in one hand and put the handles against the sandpaper with the other
- I couldn't find the waxy stuff I bought ages ago for finishing off wooden items so I put some olive oil on it
With olive oil:
In the flesh the handle looks much better with the olive oil.
Those familiar with the Whitby knife will see that the little 'prong' that helps you to open it one handed is missing. It unscrewed while I was doing the mod and I only have one half - I have yet to glue it in place but I can actually open the knife one handed without it.
So .... the end result is a knife that is much more comfortable to use and looks better. It is no where near the high standard of 'makers' (eg the two scales are not the same thickness) but it gives me what I want and I enjoyed doing it.
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