Handles With All Hand Tools?

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Is making Wa handles (of whatever shape) with nothing but hand tools fool's folly? Just for personal use, not for selling so time investment is fine.

Let's say no more power than a drill and Dremmel.

If you do think it isn't a semi-viable idea, what tools, jigs, etc. would you recommend?
 
I would think you need a table saw to cut the wood straight. You can also use a table saw to cut a hexagon handle. You can sand a handle round. I use power tools when I can. A power joiner will give you a flat side for the table saw. This is the fastest way I know. I am not very good at cutting boards straight with a hand saw but you could. Then use a hand plane. I own a shop full of wood working power tools. If you buy bulk lumber then you may need a power planer but that would be if you wanted to make a lot of them. You don't power plane small boards.
 
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There's a video floating around somewhere online of a Japanese craftsman making handles with hand tools. It was a very simple process and mostly involved just a small plane. He had a small jig which was two boards making a 90-degree. This was held on the workbench, and he simply put the handle blank in there and used the plane to knock the corners off the blank. Knock the corner off, flip the blank, knock the corner off, flip the blank... until he had an octogon.

I think the hardest part is figuring out how to make a hold-down to keep the handle blank still. After that, a small plane--or even rasps--would serve you well.
 
There's a video floating around somewhere online of a Japanese craftsman making handles with hand tools. It was a very simple process and mostly involved just a small plane. He had a small jig which was two boards making a 90-degree. This was held on the workbench, and he simply put the handle blank in there and used the plane to knock the corners off the blank. Knock the corner off, flip the blank, knock the corner off, flip the blank... until he had an octogon.

I think the hardest part is figuring out how to make a hold-down to keep the handle blank still. After that, a small plane--or even rasps--would serve you well.

A small plane is what I was thinking too. I reckon if I did give it a try it'd be another thing to learn to sharpen. :)
 
I was thinking of starting with lumber of whatever kind of wood you wanted.
 
A small plane is what I was thinking too. :)

Look you for a low angle block plane. Works on harder handle woods with twisty/non parallel grain, less tearout. I've got a couple of antiques I got cheap. Sharpened, tuned, enjoyed.

Also look up the woodworking term "shooting board".
 
Yes, as others have said - perfectly possible, but will take a while. ^CK^ makes some very lovely handles only using power for the drilling. He uses chisels and sandpaper for the shaping, but no reason you couldn't use a plane as well/instead.

I have made a few handles in this way - entirely by hand - but now do have some power tools. The thing that I'd always use is a belt sander, which replaces the chisels/planes in the initial shaping. Sometimes also a chainsaw/circular saw/electric planer if I'm working from logs of wood. But when working from smaller bits I've mostly gone back to using a Japanese pull saw, because they're accurate and pretty quick.

But you don't necessarily need any of that. A saw, chisel/plane, a lot of sandpaper, and some free time, will do the job nicely. (Plus a drill to fit, and maybe some needle files).
 
plane - hand saws - rasps - files exacto knives - sandpaper - hand drill - mallet - chisels - screwdrivers -

depends on construction + how it is being attached
 
Honestly I wouldn't even try that. Should be doable if you stick with one-piece design, but quicly become nearly impossible onnce you try to make something more fancy (metal spacers, bones, non 90 degrees angles etc).

But it doesn't requires a whole shop full of power toys. I've made lots of handles using drill stand and disk sander. Good drill stand helps a lot with tang slot. Good small rasps saves time. Disk sander allow you to use any materials you want. Again, that's just my way that isn't necessary better than others. Lots of makers prefer using grinder instead of disk sander.
 
I think people missed that he's planning to do the tang hole with a handheld power drill... It's possible, but you should drill the hole in a larger blank first, then cut it down relative to the hole to maintain alignment.

^This is good advice. I use a handheld power drill for my handles, and it can be done very well once you’ve got your eye in. But easier to drill the blank before shaping.

Also if you’re making a multi-part handle - drill the main part before glueing together, then drill the ferrule after. Much easier to make neat that way.
 
I think people missed that he's planning to do the tang hole with a handheld power drill... It's possible, but you should drill the hole in a larger blank first, then cut it down relative to the hole to maintain alignment.

Thank you everyone for sharing your thoughts. I would indeed use a handheld power drill. I'm not sure if I'll embark on this or not but I just liked the idea of doing it by hand. A little more peaceful and, I don't know, personal maybe.
 
One other thing I'd say is - I personally don't use jigs and stuff - it's very easy to eyeball things quite accurately.

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before but, I spend a relative amount of time on hand sanding. When I finish the initial shaping (on a belt sander, but chisel or plane would be the same), the handle doesn't need to be particularly accurate. Most of the final shape comes from the coarser grit sanding sheets, laid on a hard flat surface (180 and 240 grit do most of the work). You can be really nice and accurate with removing material, evening up angles, building in taper, etc. at this point. And it doesn't take very long, cos you can apply quite a lot of pressure.

You could actually happily make a handle just using sandpaper if you sawed a rectangular block of a similar size to begin with. Below are some wooden stakes my wife got from the hardware shop for instance. You could knock up a nice one or two piece handle from these in about an hour with a saw and some sandpaper. Or maybe even an atoma plate. I've not tried using one before on wood, but no reason it wouldn't work I don't think.

IMG-2529.JPG
 
One other thing I'd say is - I personally don't use jigs and stuff - it's very easy to eyeball things quite accurately.

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before but, I spend a relative amount of time on hand sanding. When I finish the initial shaping (on a belt sander, but chisel or plane would be the same), the handle doesn't need to be particularly accurate. Most of the final shape comes from the coarser grit sanding sheets, laid on a hard flat surface (180 and 240 grit do most of the work). You can be really nice and accurate with removing material, evening up angles, building in taper, etc. at this point. And it doesn't take very long, cos you can apply quite a lot of pressure.

You could actually happily make a handle just using sandpaper if you sawed a rectangular block of a similar size to begin with. Below are some wooden stakes my wife got from the hardware shop for instance. You could knock up a nice one or two piece handle from these in about an hour with a saw and some sandpaper. Or maybe even an atoma plate. I've not tried using one before on wood, but no reason it wouldn't work I don't think.

View attachment 139917

Do you insert a dowel for the tang fitment?
 
If anyone is interested in the more exotic woods? I have no financial interest in this business, but I've been very happy with what I've got from him.

Selling wooden blanks on ebay as "Turner's Circle" is a guy in Iowa. I've bought various exotic species from him several times, his wood has been shipped quickly and properly protected (end grain of pieces are all either waxed or heavily shellaced, if there is any question of dryness, whole piece is waxed, whole order was always thoroughly wrapped in plastic inside shipping box too).

The wood pictured in his ebay listing is the wood you actually get. He takes good photos from all sides and includes at least 1 end grain shot, also will have at least 1 where he has wetted the wood with alcohol or mineral spirits to give an idea of how it may look finished.

If you are buying more than 1 piece of similar length (typically about 12"), it all ships for the first piece's shipping cost.

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?isRefine=true&_pgn=1&sid=turnerscircle
 
One other thing I'd say is - I personally don't use jigs and stuff - it's very easy to eyeball things quite accurately.

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before but, I spend a relative amount of time on hand sanding. When I finish the initial shaping (on a belt sander, but chisel or plane would be the same), the handle doesn't need to be particularly accurate. Most of the final shape comes from the coarser grit sanding sheets, laid on a hard flat surface (180 and 240 grit do most of the work). You can be really nice and accurate with removing material, evening up angles, building in taper, etc. at this point. And it doesn't take very long, cos you can apply quite a lot of pressure.

You could actually happily make a handle just using sandpaper if you sawed a rectangular block of a similar size to begin with. Below are some wooden stakes my wife got from the hardware shop for instance. You could knock up a nice one or two piece handle from these in about an hour with a saw and some sandpaper. Or maybe even an atoma plate. I've not tried using one before on wood, but no reason it wouldn't work I don't think.

View attachment 139917

I guess you guys are paying someone to cut that wood in the picture using a table saw. If you buy lumber and cut it yourself you should save a lot of money.
 
I guess you guys are paying someone to cut that wood in the picture using a table saw. If you buy lumber and cut it yourself you should save a lot of money.

It's a tiny block. Also, it is often stabilized or exotic wood so you don't get lumber. This isn't grabbing an oak 2x4 at Lowes.

EDIT: Those are still small pieces in the picture and often that's all you can find of some of these species. You know how many handles I'd have to make out of lumber to pay for a table saw?
 
You are looking for what they call fancy wood not Home Depot wood. Mills and large lumber yards. I guess if you are only going to make a couple of handles then buy handle blanks.

I guess they don't teach shop class in school any more. When I was a kid in the 60s you could take shop wood working classes.
 
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You are looking for what they call fancy wood not Home Depot wood. Mills and large lumber yards. I guess if you are only going to make a couple of handles then buy handle blanks.

I guess they don't teach shop class in school any more. When I was a kid in the 60s you could take shop wood working classes.

You and I have played your games elsewhere and I see now we're going to play them here too.

I'm quite capable with my hands and have access to an extremely well equipped shop. When I was in school I took wood shop, metal crafting, welding, small engine repair, leathercraft, pottery, mechanical drafting, and architectural drafting. I've spent many years in manufacturing and done a whole lot of stuff with my hands outside of work. I'm also not much younger than you.

You have a penchant for assuming a lot about folks and not sticking to the subject.

Do you have anything relevant to talk about with regard to making a few knife handles with just hand tools?
 
You and I have played your games elsewhere and I see now we're going to play them here too.

I'm quite capable with my hands and have access to an extremely well equipped shop. When I was in school I took wood shop, metal crafting, welding, small engine repair, leathercraft, pottery, mechanical drafting, and architectural drafting. I've spent many years in manufacturing and done a whole lot of stuff with my hands outside of work. I'm also not much younger than you.

You have a penchant for assuming a lot about folks and not sticking to the subject.

Do you have anything relevant to talk about with regard to making a few knife handles with just hand tools?

Have you thought of using a Ken Onion Worksharp for the initial shaping?
 
Thank you everyone for sharing your thoughts. I would indeed use a handheld power drill. I'm not sure if I'll embark on this or not but I just liked the idea of doing it by hand. A little more peaceful and, I don't know, personal maybe.
Another trick is to use a drill block. Get some scrap wood and once you've got a perfectly vertical hole in one (test with a dowel and a level), that's your drill block. If you want to get really fancy, you can insert a piece of copper pipe. Use it to start the drill bit. It'll assure you're at vertical and you won't have to worry about going by eye.
 
You and I have played your games elsewhere and I see now we're going to play them here too.

I'm quite capable with my hands and have access to an extremely well equipped shop. When I was in school I took wood shop, metal crafting, welding, small engine repair, leathercraft, pottery, mechanical drafting, and architectural drafting. I've spent many years in manufacturing and done a whole lot of stuff with my hands outside of work. I'm also not much younger than you.

You have a penchant for assuming a lot about folks and not sticking to the subject.

Do you have anything relevant to talk about with regard to making a few knife handles with just hand tools?

A few knife handles is not the way I saw it when I first responded. I may have been drinking. I was just thinking how I would do it in my shop. If I was looking for a few handles then I would resaw some of my firewall looking in joints for fun grain. My firewood is all free. I have lots oaks and pecans. Once in a while hickory and mesquite. No exotics. I would have to go shopping. I would still cut them down to the size I needed on my old Unisaw which I restored.

I need to go work on my gas grill. I need to grind the screw heads off to replace the gas tubes.
 
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Do you insert a dowel for the tang fitment?

I don't actually, as I find epoxy is quite strong enough structurally to hold the parts together, just with roughing the surfaces up before sticking together. I imagine dowels are probably easier to get the fit accurate though - it's taken me quite a bit of drilling practice to get good at it.

I'd possibly recommend going with a dowel, I imagine it might turn out a bit easier/neater.
 
I'm actually planning on doing a very similar project in the coming weeks. Just waiting for some epoxy and drill bits to arrive. The tools I plan to use are

Shaping:
hand saw
machinist combo square
straight edge
sandpaper
relatively flat stone tile and some clips to hold sandpaper
I also have a belt sander, but its really crappy and I'd only use it to remove material really fast and stop once I get within the rough size I'm planning.

Tang Hole:
hand drill
drill guide for making perpendicular hole (I'm still unsure of how precise this is going to be in practice)
needle rasps
jigsaw blades, maybe sanded down on one side to use as a broach

If doing a 2-piece handle, I'm considering slightly oversizing the hole and doweling with a generous size cut in the dowel.

I did some testing on scrap wood to see how well sandpaper on flat surface + machinist square would work. Even with 120grit paper, I was able to get decently crisp edges, so I'm confident that the concept can work. Similar to you, I don't plan on doing this for profit or anything, so efficiency is not really a big concern.

We're only talking about max dimension of something like 1x1x6", so even by hand, it's really a very tiny amount of material to remove. Good luck! Maybe we can compare notes once the projects start :)
 
You can also use axe and knife and just grab a piece of firewood, saw away drying cracks in the ends. Split out and carve handle, drill and burnfit.
 
The tools I used when I made my latest knife handle: drill, saw, pencil, knife, plane, gas torch, brass wire brush and some sand paper. No need for any power tools.
 
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