First 5 WA Handles

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First day after the surgery. Got to making an Instagram page purely for handle/kitchen knives away from my personal account.

Www.instagtam.com/fellsidecustoms

I grew up in a small village surrounded by fells (hills) so I am really happy with the name.

Go give it a follow, I will update it with all new handles/kitchen knives. I will try and keep wips away from it and just keep it to finished products
 
Hi all, I am 4 weeks in to my post surgery recovery, cast is off and I have a moon-boot on. Hasn't stopped me getting stocked up on supplies for some handles.

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I have found a UK contact to stabilize some blanks for me as i've purchased some nice looking burls. I am weighing up doing it myself vs getting it done. It is £8/blank approximately and a initial setup is £330 all in. So am I going to use more than 40 stabilized handles or shall I just use the service and focus on the making of the handles themselves?

Anyways, very happy with the wood i've purchased, really like the look of fiddleback/flamed maple. Does anyone know some good colours it takes?

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Stabilizing is fun and can easily produce enough for your own needs and excess that you can sell if you choose too. However, the expense is significant (don't cheap out on vacuum chamber, pump, or resin) and there is a learning curve (inadequate research can lead to ruined blocks, as I sadly experienced).
 
Stabilizing is fun and can easily produce enough for your own needs and excess that you can sell if you choose too. However, the expense is significant (don't cheap out on vacuum chamber, pump, or resin) and there is a learning curve (inadequate research can lead to ruined blocks, as I sadly experienced).

So I looked on turn-tex help page about vacuum pumps and the key points I took from it were the following:

  • Single stage is no problem (two stage pumps can achieve a greater vacuum but it is such a fine vacuum it is near impossible to actually achieve)
  • Budget level CFM is no problem but it will take longer
  • Go for Cactus Juice (re-use then die the juice when it starts to take a colour of a wood)

All in all I looked at Bacoeng kits on Amazon (UK), I could do it DIY for a saving of 10% but to start so I think I would just go for a kit as such a small saving isn't necessarily worth the time and the fit and finish will just be superior from a supplier.

All in I estimate £330
 
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I initially got a vacuum chamber with polymer lid. While it was very thick, it developed spider cracks almost immediately, so I returned it and bought a unit with a glass lid that's held up great.
 
ahhh, just recognised who you are on Instagram! ( im @non_jic )

The first handles you posted, as you have realised look pretty crap (too blocky) the batch you made later looks nice though :) Its a lot easier to make a handle when you know what blade it is going on. A couple of mm off here and there and the early ones will be a lot better.

I love my 12" disc sander so much I just bought a second one to sit next to it! I can then have fine / coarse paper set up, or table @ 90 degs, or 45 degs set up next to each other. I got a promo code for machine mart so it was £140 delivered. Disc sander is definitely the best 'bang for the buck' in knifemaking.

Did you pull the trigger on the stabalising kit yet ?!
 
I love my 12" disc sander so much I just bought a second one to sit next to it! I can then have fine / coarse paper set up

I am going to go for a hook and loop disc, hopefully it is a cheap alternative to a second disk sander.

I run a Axminster craft series sander, wish I'd had that machine mart voucher.

Did you pull the trigger on the stabalising kit yet ?!

The trigger was pulled today! Cactus juice from house of resin and the bacoeng 12l from Amazon.

Facebook marketplace is being raided for a oven following your tips
 
I know there is some European distribution, you might want to look into Eastwood for a disc sander. They specialize in auto body tools. This 12 inch is a beast. Compact, but weighs about 60 pounds, runs smooth and quietly. Price point was 208 USD shipped, so for substantially less cost than a Delta unit it has over twice the power, at 1.25hp.
 
@ForeverLearning - I have hook and loop on sander no.1, it was a cheap from ebay, and im not sure I like it, its a bit 'spongey' so it does not sand flat unless you alter pressure.

I have since seen that you can get 'short' hook velcro, which might be better. I will try that next. It is still a fiddle to change the sanding disc, even with velcro backing, due to the minimal gap between platen and disk.

I did read a great tip the other night though, which is to cut a piece of cerial packet card a bit more than 1/2 a circle. Peel the top half of the paper off, slide the card under, then rotate the disk 180 deg, and peel the other half off. Slide out. genius!! :D

edit, if you sign up to machine mart, they send you a 'vat free shopping' voucher every now and again (effectively 20% off)
 
@ForeverLearning I have a question for you, what size blanks do you start with? Thanks.

Up to now I begin with ~35mm sq. That gives me about 1/2 diameter of my drill bit off centre to make a mistake.

Having stabilized wood for the first time (I'll post an update shortly) I dried the wood in the oven and thanks to @John N who explained "blanks warp to buggery" so I have gone for ~40mm square and it seems ok.

If you are bang on centering your drilling I'd imagine you could go narrower but I don't want to take the risk.
 
Stabilized a few batches now:
  • Maple Burr
  • Spalted Beech (90g stabilized to 180g)
  • Elm Burr (90g stabilized to 180g)
  • Thuya Burr
  • Red Mallee Burr
Really enjoying it, unfortunately I did log all weight changes but based on others I'm relatively happy with it all.

Blanks only finished to 60g as if I pass any on they're going to get chopped to pieces anyways.

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