The Woodshop Shed

2020 Knife Swap

Furnished content.
(from Lumberjocks.com)


The Fall 2020 Knife Swap was my first LJ Swap event, and my first time making a knife of any kind. I had a “Plan A” project, which was really too ambitious for my first knife project. I was wise enough to have a Plan B, which quickly became the new Plan A. It started with a Morakniv blade with hidden tang, bookmatched zebrawood scales for a handle and a set of brass pins, all sourced on Amazon.I drew a mock-up of a handle shape, thinking I would keep it simple. But looking at handle shapes I liked, I didn't think the zebrawood had enough width to make the flare I wanted on either end. So I rooted through my exotics bin and settled on a block of bocote. It has a strong contrasting grain, so I knew i had to orient the grain somewhat opposite the zebrawood.The bocote is a good bit harder than the zebra, so I shaped the bolster end first, on a 4” stationary belt and oscillating spindle sander, then marked and shaped the zebra to mate. The pieces matched well, but I added a green leather spacer, both to forgive any small irregularities and to create a contrasting border. The brass pin provided enough compression to keep the front assembly together and let the epoxy set.Next I shaped the butt end piece of bocote and then shaped the zebra to mate. I did have to add an internal pin to help link the tail piece to the body. Epoxying the tail pieces took a little creative taping and clamping.In the final shaping, I had to work the bocote first, then the transitions to the zebra body. The leather roughed up and stayed a little proud of the wood. I considered hardening it with CA and then sanding flush, but… I kinda liked the feel of it.It's finished with mineral oil/orange oil with beeswax buffed in – which is what I use for my tool handles. All in all it was a successful learning project and I hope was worthy of the LJ Swap tradition!

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