Slightly more difficult way to make a Wa handle…

[KenjiF]

I’ve been following along with @cotedupy ‘s work and it inspired me to try an upgrade on a Mikami handle I have… unfortunately I didn’t have any horn handles lying around to dissect and I wanted to keep the original handle that has the maker mark on it (the only place on the knife he has a mark) but lose the hideous plastic ferrule.

I’ve been looking for horn for a while but it’s a pain to get and then I saw @cotedupy repurpose an existing wa handle horn, a few of my remaining brain cells lit up…

Cut to 5 mins later and I realize I haven’t got any lovely horn handles that will fit the top of my existing handle… I’m staring at my cast off handle collection and though the thin horn at the top isn’t going to work maybe the butt of the handle will… hmm.

Calipers out… sure enough it’s going to be big enough by about 1mm… plenty to spare (ah that poor ignorant fool).

Here is what I have to work with…



So the plan is to make a ferule out of the handle wood off an old cast off handle.

The easiest way would be to cut them both flush and glue together and cut out a tang hole… I like pain so that’s not what I did.

I decided that I’d make a proper ferule and cut out the hole to match.

Drilled a hole in the center tried a bunch of saws (key hole, coping), small chisels and was just making a mess. Ended up with a small rasp and 45 mins later I have a good fit…



Obviously I didn’t center it perfectly and I’m a little shy of the width I needed on one side. Original handle was too thick anyway (it wasn’t) so I’ll sand the handle back to match after tape and glue. I mixed in the saw dust with some wood glue incase there arey visible voids and clamped it up.



Woke up this morning and sanded the ferrule flush up to 1000 grit then took the handle wood back to 400 (thanks @cotedupy for the tip).


I’ll oil it and see how it looks…

 

[KenjiF]

@Choppin

 

[Choppin]

Nice! Well done.

For my pair of Mikami nakiri and santoku I was about to buy some horn, bore it, glue it to the handles and then shape the horn. But @cotedupy 's transplant idea sounds smarter. I'll see if I have any cast off handles to try it... I'll post here.

Which Mikami do you have BTW? Please do post the final result once you get to it

 

[More_Gyutos]

I have a Mikami and I was going to ask about this as my knife’s plastic ferrule almost immediately separated from the wood handle. Thank you for sharing this.

 

[KenjiF]

I have a Mikami and I was going to ask about this as my knife’s plastic ferrule almost immediately separated from the wood handle. Thank you for sharing this.

Mine did the same thing. The plastic ferrule on mine was actually pressure-fitted only. I didn't realize this until I tried to bang the tang into the existing hole with my newly shaped and glued ferrule and it got a slight split before I got the tang fully seated. I backed it out and luckily the damage wasn't too bad but now with the new ferrule, the tang won't fit so the center wood actually expands as you insert the tang and forms a pressure fit with the plastic ferrule. Mine won't work for that so I had to expand the tang slot.

 

[KenjiF]

Here is an update of the finished project. Bevels on both sides have been flattened and taken up to an Uchi. I actually went to a 12k mirror originally which looked cool but didn't fit the knifes vibe. My finest Jnat finishers didn't reveal any detail and just really washed out the contrast so I ended up taking it back to coarser Jnats and finishing on Ohira uchi for maximum contrast. I also flattened some excessive-high spots of the Hira to make the shinogi a little more even. I didn't want to lose the rustic finish so I didn't go overboard and didn't take it past 400 grit.

I'm super impressed by the steel and heat treat. It cuts tissue clean off a BBW without a strop. I took it up to a hard naka tomae and a few strokes of stropping on leather and it was HHT hair popping sharp. Geometry is great. Spine is thick out of the handle with a good distal taper and thin BTE. It wasn't nail flexing thin when it arrived but after I was done flattening it it is now.

I also ground in a small finger notch. I like them but it wasn't for comfort on this knife. As with many knives that are thick out of the handle and taper, that area (heel at the shinogi) was quite a bit thicker meaning that if I wanted my knife to lie flat on the bevels then the shinogi at that part of the knife would curve up significantly. I'm not a big fan of that look. I could have ground the Hira above that area but I would have ground way past the rustic cladding and didn't think it would look good. My solution was to grind in a finger notch... problem solved. I find this a bigger problem on smaller knives as with bigger knives you can facet the angles gradually over the length of the blade and get a clean polish. This means you can easily keep the less aggressive angle bevel at the heel and gradually blend it to a steeper angle at the tip. I'm not good enough yet to do this successfully on a small knife with a big distal taper.

The handle was finished with a little mineral oil then I buffed in some board wax.

 

[KenjiF]

The before for reference....

 

[Choppin]

Here is an update of the finished project. Bevels on both sides have been flattened and taken up to an Uchi. I actually went to a 12k mirror originally which looked cool but didn't fit the knifes vibe. My finest Jnat finishers didn't reveal any detail and just really washed out the contrast so I ended up taking it back to coarser Jnats and finishing on Ohira uchi for maximum contrast. I also flattened some excessive-high spots of the Hira to make the shinogi a little more even. I didn't want to lose the rustic finish so I didn't go overboard and didn't take it past 400 grit.

I'm super impressed by the steel and heat treat. It cuts tissue clean off a BBW without a strop. I took it up to a hard naka tomae and a few strokes of stropping on leather and it was HHT hair popping sharp. Geometry is great. Spine is thick out of the handle with a good distal taper and thin BTE. It wasn't nail flexing thin when it arrived but after I was done flattening it it is now.

I also ground in a small finger notch. I like them but it wasn't for comfort on this knife. As with many knives that are thick out of the handle and taper, that area (heel at the shinogi) was quite a bit thicker meaning that if I wanted my knife to lie flat on the bevels then the shinogi at that part of the knife would curve up significantly. I'm not a big fan of that look. I could have ground the Hira above that area but I would have ground way past the rustic cladding and didn't think it would look good. My solution was to grind in a finger notch... problem solved. I find this a bigger problem on smaller knives as with bigger knives you can facet the angles gradually over the length of the blade and get a clean polish. This means you can easily keep the less aggressive angle bevel at the heel and gradually blend it to a steeper angle at the tip. I'm not good enough yet to do this successfully on a small knife with a big distal taper.

The handle was finished with a little mineral oil then I buffed in some board wax.


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Looks great!

How hard was it to get the bevels flat and even? Any major high/low spots?

 

[KenjiF]

Looks great!

How hard was it to get the bevels flat and even? Any major high/low spots?

Mine wasn’t too bad. It was dead straight and only cosmetic lows. There was one spot that was really high because the whole knife especially the hira had a thick spot on one side. I ended up grinding that part down on the hira part to make my job easier.

Not stone ready bevels for sure but nothing egregious.

How about your two?

 

[Choppin]

Mine wasn’t too bad. It was dead straight and only cosmetic lows. There was one spot that was really high because the whole knife especially the hira had a thick spot on one side. I ended up grinding that part down on the hira part to make my job easier.

Not stone ready bevels for sure but nothing egregious.

How about your two?

I haven’t touched the bevels yet, I’ll post here when I do. Spine and edge are straight at least.

Both knives cut really well OOTB. I’m really liking the steel + grind combo.