New Wa Handle for 165mm Deba

I've started my new Wa handle project for my 165mm deba. I've had the deba for only a month. I'm pleased with the white paper#1 blade but kind of "meh" on the handle. I've already made a saya out of Indonesian rosewood and I'd like a handle to match.

credit to mkriggen http://www.kitchenknifeforums.com/showthread.php/19259-WIP-How-I-Make-a-Wa-Handle


The woods I've selected are:
-African black
-Indonesian rosewood, to match the saya
-curly spruce veneer
-black pear veneer


existing handle



I cut to length and predrilled all my wood. The rosewood gets a through-hole and the blackwoods drilled only half way through. I have pre-fabricated the black and white spacers as I have more control when sandwiching and clamping this all together if I have fewer floating parts.


One of the things that bugs me about the stock handle is the obvious shrinkage between the two woods. You can't see it, but you can feel it. To prevent, or at least help prevent this from happening on the new handle, I need to stabilize the wood. To do this I grab a glass jar, place my blackwood and rosewood pieces inside and fill with wood stabilizer. Then place the whole jar in a vacuum pump pickling jar you can get from NoHomesense and suck out all the air. The pickling jar comes with its own hand pump. The black and white spacers do not need to be pickled.




Out comes the air, in goes the marinade. The bubbles means it's cookin' real nice.


I don't need to leave it in the vacuum jar for long, just a few hours while the treatment penetrates. I will, however, leave the pieces submerged for at least 12 hours. Since I have to remove a lot of material to reveal this handle, I may need to re-pickle the whole bit. Having the holes drilled first should help a lot with solution penetration.

got the handle off without cutting. A few good whacks with a 2x4 and mallet and it broke loose. Looks like it was a combination of burnt in, epoxied and then wood filler applied around where the tang enters the handle. does that make sense?




with the handle off I can measure the slot for the tang, AND polish the choil.

Love watching a WIP.

out of the marinade and left to dry for 3 days.


time for the glue-up. vacuum out all the bubbles in the epoxy


then clamped in a secured pipe-clamp and allowed to cure all night. I used some paper to shim out the stack as the clamp force tends to distort the clamping faces out of parallel.


tomorrow I'll cut the basic shape on the mitre saw.

jessf said:

got the handle off without cutting. A few good whacks with a 2x4 and mallet and it broke loose. Looks like it was a combination of burnt in, epoxied and then wood filler applied around where the tang enters the handle. does that make sense?

Click to expand...

But this is a nice looking handle!

maybe, but mine will be more better. Double plus good, as they say.

time for the chop



I can get all the sides square this way. plus, just the slightest taper from tip to toe.

i'll create the slot for the tang next. then do the sanding last.

since all the sides were cut with highspeed carbide, the finish was already pretty good. Started with 320 sanding then 400, all on a slab of granite. I then clear the grain with 00 steel wool and check for surface imperfects which I sand out with 600 wet/dry. The finished product gets one final buffing with the 00 steel wool. Once I oil this up I'll buff again with 0000 steel wool. I love how the steel wool puts a natural sheen to the wood while clearing the grain of fine dust. The result is a finish that feels glass smooth without any oil or surface coating.


tang slot

and a concave bottom


I mixed some pencil lead into the epoxy to match the blackwood. I also heated the epoxy with a hair dryer so it would flow a little easier. I'll let it cure all night and tomorrow I will finish with Danish oil and a food safe orange wax.

there are few things I anticipate more than oiling my wood first thing in the morning.

Steel wool, pencil lead, heated epoxy: great tips. Could you tell us how you get the epoxy into the handle?

The same paper dixie-cup I used to mix and heat the epoxy also serves as funnel to dump its contents into the tang slot. Heating the epoxy also helps bring bubbles to the surface in lieu of using some form of vacuum chamber. It also causes the epoxy to expand so as it cools ot will shrink a bit. it's best not to wipe excess away until after the shrinkage has occurred.

If you've never tried fine steel wool on wood finishing give it a try. Burnishing the grain this way darkens it as well as stripping microscopic fibers sanding can't remove. Sanding is in essence the act of making smaller and smaller fibers to the point where the surface "feels" soft. It also fills natural pores in the wood with small wood dust which adds to the soft feeling.

jessf said:

The same paper dixie-cup I used to mix and heat the epoxy also serves as funnel to dump its contents into the tang slot. Heating the epoxy also helps bring bubbles to the surface in lieu of using some form of vacuum chamber. It also causes the epoxy to expand so as it cools ot will shrink a bit. it's best not to wipe excess away until after the shrinkage has occurred.

If you've never tried fine steel wool on wood finishing give it a try. Burnishing the grain this way darkens it as well as stripping microscopic fibers sanding can't remove. Sanding is in essence the act of making smaller and smaller fibers to the point where the surface "feels" soft. It also fills natural pores in the wood with small wood dust which adds to the soft feeling.

Click to expand...

I like the steel wool tips thanks for that; I'm going to try it. You've got great colour on the wood and handle you've made, even if for me I like simpler handles without spacers. By the way, would you say the spacers have any purpose other than aesthetic? I've never asked this, just always assumed.

Thanks. It's definitely an aesthetic preference on my part. I generally don't like to transition from one colour to the next without a definite line. I feel as though the spacers add that extra layer of detail I was going for and was lacking in the original handle.

jessf said:

Thanks. It's definitely an aesthetic preference on my part. I generally don't like to transition from one colour to the next without a definite line. I feel as though the spacers add that extra layer of detail I was going for and was lacking in the original handle.

Click to expand...

Two kinds of people in the world, I guess: those who like their spacers and those who don't :dontknow:

Sweet. Great spacers. :cool2:

lmao. Some men just want to watch the world burn.

Rick English for the win.

jessf said:

The same paper dixie-cup I used to mix and heat the epoxy also serves as funnel to dump its contents into the tang slot. Heating the epoxy also helps bring bubbles to the surface in lieu of using some form of vacuum chamber. It also causes the epoxy to expand so as it cools ot will shrink a bit. it's best not to wipe excess away until after the shrinkage has occurred.

If you've never tried fine steel wool on wood finishing give it a try. Burnishing the grain this way darkens it as well as stripping microscopic fibers sanding can't remove. Sanding is in essence the act of making smaller and smaller fibers to the point where the surface "feels" soft. It also fills natural pores in the wood with small wood dust which adds to the soft feeling.

Click to expand...

Are you removing the rust protectant (oil) from the steel wool? When I made gun stocks bronze wool was used as it was oil free.

Edit: Nice work! I have hoarded some bocote and blackwood to have my own handles made someday.

Nomo4me said:

Are you removing the rust protectant (oil) from the steel wool? When I made gun stocks bronze wool was used as it was oil free.

Click to expand...

Good ques, thanks. Jessf?...

Naw I'm just leaving it as it comes. Certainly doesn't feel oily. I imagine my hands impart more oil to the wood before I oil with tung or danish than the wool might. I buy the 00 and 0000 stuff you find in the paint section at home depot and it's not advertised as oil free but it's cheap. If there is a coating on there I can't say I notice. The non oiled stuff is a better product though and leaves behind fewer fibers.

Nomo4me said:

Are you removing the rust protectant (oil) from the steel wool? When I made gun stocks bronze wool was used as it was oil free.

Edit: Nice work! I have hoarded some bocote and blackwood to have my own handles made someday.

Click to expand...

really nice work, especially like the saya.

cheers, mr broth.

jessf said:

time for the chop



I can get all the sides square this way. plus, just the slightest taper from tip to toe.

Click to expand...

have you tried to use the chop saw for squaring up after glue up that has metal spacers? I've always wanted to try but never had the nerve

With the right blade I'm sure it's possible. Depends on what type metal spacer material you use as well. This is my first handle so I can't speak from experience.

I hear ya I kill my belts squaring it up. On my first handle my brother helped me out with and I used nickel that was about.02" sandwiched between 2pcs of g10 and he used his $6,000 table saw at work but I'm very hesitant to try with my shakey 150 dollar HD saw with the thicker spacers I'm using now

Kickback is the biggest concern. Using a bandsaw would be much safer. A $150 9" bandsaw from home depot is all you need. 16tpi blade will cut through brass and aluminum and wood with no problems. If you can't find a blade designed for your size of saw you can always buy a longer blade and have it cut and welded to size by any reputable machine or blade sharpening shop. I buy 64" 16tpi blades from princess auto and have them resized.

Thanks my next buy is a 10" craftsman bandsaw just waiting for it to go on sale