To answer the question: "How to make a knife handle?" - you need to know why it is needed. For the material and shape of the handle often determine the functionality of the blade. This article is intended to help with the choice of material and will provide some useful tips on how to make a knife handle.
The handle can be made of wood, metal, leather, birch bark, various plastics, braided from wire or nylon cord. As you can see, the choice is very large and if the knife is not made in order to decorate the collection, you need to approach its equipment very responsibly.
Is material really important? Huge So, for example, a knife with a metal handle is hardly suitable for a tourist. It is too heavy for a hike, and in the cold it will simply be impossible to pick it up. But knives with a set handle made of leather or birch bark will not last long for the hunter, since after the first freshening of game the blood will fall on such a handle, and after a few days the smell will be such that the knife does not want to be picked up. What to say about throwing knives, where any handle can just scatter into pieces.
Similarly to the material, the shape of the handle is also chosen according to how the knife will be used. If this is a universal tool for a tourist or a hunter, then the form should be simple, without recesses under the fingers and the like excesses. So that the knife could be held with different grabs, and it was equally convenient for them to peel potatoes, open a tin can, cut a tree or repair equipment. If the door is going to be punched with a knife, then, of course, the more additional ledges there will be on the handle for reliable holding, the better.
Now consider the most popular techniques for making a knife handle.
1. Types of pens. Such handles are made of leather, birch bark and all kinds of synthetic materials (plexiglass for example). The essence of the technique of how to make a knife handle is to form the body of the knife handle by layering the material on the shank. The selected material is cut into approximately the same pieces (larger in size than the diameter of the assembled handle). All pieces are stacked, which is strung on a shank and clamped with a bolt. Then the grinding handle is given the desired shape. Such handles are light, beautiful, strong enough and lie pleasantly in the hand, but easily gain moisture, dirt, blood and the like.
2. Lining. This method of making a knife handle is probably the most famous. Its essence is simple - from two opposite sides of the shank, plastic or wooden linings are riveted to it or glued. For a serious knife, gluing is not suitable, and riveting requires compliance with several rules. Firstly, you cannot beat rivets in one line (the lining will crack), and secondly, you cannot put a rivet in place of the index finger grip (the shank may crack). A great option is a large number of small clips on the edges of the pads, but this method is rarely used.
3. One-piece handles. With this option, probably, everything is clear without explanation. Anyone knows, or at least guesses, how to make a knife handle from a solid piece of wood, horn, hard rubber or the like. However, it must be remembered that the hole in the handle should maximally correspond to the cross-sectional shape of the shank and be through-through for reliable fixation on the back with a pommel.
4.Woven handle. There are a lot of options on how to make a knife handle for weaving. In order to describe them you will need a separate book. And this is somewhat beyond the scope of a short article. On this topic, I just want to note the variety of such handles. They are both a real piece of jewelry and weapons art, and a simple braid on a training throwing knife.