How To Make Bone Knife Handles
Split the bone in halves.
How to make bone knife handles. Try to find some wood outside in your yard or if not a piece if dowel rod will work. Preparing fresh bone for handles step one. If done right it is a beautiful material and even takes a stain well. Now you need to sand down and shape the bone and the handle.
I study a piece of bone real carefully to make sure i can get the most out of the piece of bone with as little waste as possible. However it can be a pita to get it to that stage. I m using my dremel fortiflex with a miling head for that. Sand and buff the sawed cuts.
The inside of the antler is much softer and easier to carve than the outside. He said he d like the antler or bone for the handle. Waste not want not. Turn the bone in the vise so the knife end of the bone faces up lengthwise.
A 4 5 to 5 5 inch piece of antler preferably with burr attached. Place the bones in a automatic dishwasher for a few cycles. The handle is 4 inches long on this knife. Wipe away excess glue immediately.
Bone is a great handle material that seems inexpensive on surface. Band saw or hack saw. A buddy of mine found out that i was getting into knife making and saw the knife i m doing for another friend and asked me to rehandle a hidden tang knife. I use my coping saw with raw saw blades for that.
Squirt a generous amount of the liquid super adhesive into both sides of the slit. Id like to start using it more as i can get my hands on a bunch more of it fairly easy and cheap if not free. Let the knife blade glue dry. Use a jigsaw to cut the knife blade slit in the bone.
To make the handle you can use an old dry piece of wood. By that i mean bone that has been laying out in someones pasture for years. Add some vegetables spices salt and water and make a good soup. I prefer ageed bone.
Dremel or rasp set. Make your handle a length that fits nicely in your hand. The process of making bone handles i use a lot of cow and horse bone when i can find it.