PROJECT Oak root knife handles
54 The Woodworker & Good Woodworking September 2019 http://www.getwoodworking.com
to cut out the pieces, always keeping at least
1-2mm from the line. A sharp chisel was used to
clean up the cutout in the maple layer, checking
this against the respective blade tang for a sliding
fit. This done, a stick of hardwood was planed
to match the same cross-section (photo 6). This
would make it easier to hold and work with the
assembled handles during the final shaping and
finishing. The next step was to use drum sanding
attachments in my pillar drill to carefully refine the
shapes (photo 7), leaving just a hairline thickness
of wood around the pencil line. It’s important that
this is done accurately if the handles are to clean
up neatly once glued together, and with the blade
emerging in the correct position (photo 8).
Gluing
I decided that epoxy might be more resilient
than wood glue in this application, and maybe
even lend extra strength. A little glue was mixed
up and applied to the middle layer only of each
handle. They were then clamped (photo 9), and
the hardwood stick mentioned above repeatedly
slid into each cavity, and wiped clean, to clear
out any glue that had squeezed into the centre.
I spread the remaining glue into any obvious
gaps and cracks in the oak – it sets clear,
and once sanded and polished, should be
indistinguishable from the final lacquer.
Although I used quick-set epoxy, I left the
handles to cure thoroughly for a day or so to
become hard enough to sand easily. It was
then back to the drum sanders to clean up
the outsides of the handles, taking off enough
material to true up the edges (photo 10), before
doing a quick test fit of the blades (photo 11).Final shaping
With this done it was time to begin the final
shaping process. If this is the sort of thing you
feel able to do with a carving knife or chisels,
then you have my absolute respect. Personally,
I would almost certainly have either broken lumps
off the oak or whittled away so much wood that
most of the new handles would be in chips on
the floor! Instead, I opted to put an initial rounding
on the edge using the router (photo 12), and then
go back once again to the drum sanders for the
final shaping.
Working with such small pieces on a routertable never feels like the safest thing in the world,
so if you’re in any doubt, give it a miss. Personally,
I feel that as long as you prioritise having a firm
grip on the workpiece, always work in the correct
direction, and remain ever-mindful that your
fingers are just inches from a spinning blade, it’s
possible to make this process no more dangerous
than any other use of a power tool in the home
workshop. The advantage of creating a consistent
rounded edge at this stage is that as soon as you
hold the rounded handles, it’s immediately easier
to judge where more shaping is required.
With the initial rounding done, I then used
a variety of sanding drum sizes to create a
comfortable variation in width along the handles
and then blended this into the profile of the
design (photo 13). It was also necessary during
this process to do a test-fit of the blades again,
and mark a pencil line around the bolster as
a shaping guide (photo 14).
Final finishing was done by hand (photo 15),
running up through the grits to get a smooth
finish that would look (hopefully) flawless under
lacquer. Again, I spent a little time repeatedly
testing the handles on the blades to ensure13 Final shaping is carried out using a sanding drum5 ... and their shapes marked out and cut 6 A simple stick will help hold the handles later
9 The layers sandwiched together and clamped12 A router does the initial rounding8 Accuracy is important at this stage
11 A quick check to make sure everything looks OK
7 Sanding with a drum to clean up the parts10 Once cured, the edges can be trued up