So, I finally just sat down to take a look at the santoku knife I’ve constructed after letting the finish completely cure, and I have to say, I’m proud of how it turned out for a first attempt at making a knife:
The knife itself is a Damascus blade with a black and white ebony handle. The process itself was simple enough.
I started out by wrapping the blade in blue painters tape in order to avoid cutting myself. Then, I traced the outline of the handle onto the wood blanks with a bit extra in order to make sure there was overhang afterward. The rough shapes were then cut out via a bandsaw. From there, used CA glue and tape in order to secure the grips to the blade, and used the belt sander and spindle sander to get them to their final shape.
The handles were then removed, placed in a vise, and chisels were used in order to give the handles a slight bevel. With how small the handles were, I didn’t want to risk using the routing table. One this was done, holes were drilled to match up with the knife, and the knife holes were drilled larger as the knife wasn’t sized properly for the rivets I had in order to secure the blade to the handles. The rivets were then measured, cut with an angle grinder, and epoxied into place along with the handles. After that, everything was sanded smooth once again on the sanders. Once that was finished, everything was sanded by hand, a coat of Rubio’s was used on the handle, and the blade was wiped down with acetone. Attached are some progress pics.
