I just bought one of Marko Tsourkan's "practice" knives, a 240 gyuto in 52100. It came without a handle, so I installed a pre-made handle from Epicurean Edge. The knife came with a fairly long tang, so I started working on the hole in the handle with needle files to expand it. This was going painfully slowly, so I put the tang on the belt grinder to shorten and taper it some. No dice---that steel is HARD, and my belt grinder is only a 1x42. So I put the knife in a vise and took an inch off the tang with a hacksaw. After some more needle filing, the blade ended up being a perfect super-tight friction fit, no glue required.
Here's a pic of blade and handle (after cutting the tang):
And here is the finished product:
Knife and handle together weigh only 157 grams, so it's a laser. Time to go cut something...
Here's a pic of blade and handle (after cutting the tang):
And here is the finished product:
Knife and handle together weigh only 157 grams, so it's a laser. Time to go cut something...