Contouring handles question

ACLakey

ACLakey

Joined
Jan 24, 2016
Messages
123
Currently I'm using the 4" wheel on the bottom of my grinder to contour my handles. It's okay but I think a larger wheel would be better.

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I'm working on getting a 2x72 grinder with a flat platten, small wheel fixture and a contact wheel. I'm thinking about an 8" for stock removal and contouring. I may get a larger wheel down the road to try hollow grinds. What is your preference? Do you have any video on how you contour handles?
 
For handle contouring I like using a spindle sander. I picked one up at menards for around $100. It come with sanding drums in sizes from 1/2" to 3". Just my personal preference. I have a 10 inch contact wheel on my grinder which is a little big for contouring.


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I have a 10" contact wheel and I find it adequate for shaping the swells. I also use either a 2" or 1" wheel to hit the scales at a 45 degree angle followed by scalloped jflex belts to round everything out. There's plenty of videos on youtube I'd imagine.
 
Spend a little more than what an 8 inch wheel costs and get the ten inch wheel. You will be able to grind nice hollows and do some shaping on your scales. The 8 inch wheel is wonderful except you have to careful with your hollow grinds not to get your blade too thin when moving up your hollow grind..the 10 inch is easier to do a full hollow grind and will be useful for shaping your scales. Larry

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I like to rough in handle contours either on an eight inch wheel or the flat platen. I then use a half round rasp to finish the shaping. It is a little slower but it helps with accuracy.
 
LARRYZ10 said:
Spend a little more than what an 8 inch wheel costs and get the ten inch wheel. You will be able to grind nice hollows and do some shaping on your scales. The 8 inch wheel is wonderful except you have to careful with your hollow grinds not to get your blade too thin when moving up your hollow grind..the 10 inch is easier to do a full hollow grind and will be useful for shaping your scales. Larry

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Larry,

Where did you get those handles on your tool rest? Those look like something I could use


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nick wheeler has the "wheeler's steel" thread showing him shaping scales with a large wheel... not only is this the best WIP I have seen for this, but it's got sooooooo many other tips and tricks that most people take years to figure out. AWESOME reference!
 
10" is a good all around wheel. 8" is better for the coke bottle, hour glass shape though imo. The 10 makes it a bit more difficult.


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IIRC, Jason Knight and Adam Desrosiers did some design work and figured out a wheel size for each part of the handle.
 
When I visited Jason he used a 5" wheel and the 2" grinder wheel mostly.

I use a 3" and 5" the most. Plus all sizes of small wheels. But it takes me 5 times as long as him to make good comfortable handle swells.
 
And that is why he makes the big bucks!! :D I typically use a cabinet makers file at some point if it is a wood handle. As for wheels and such, I use a 2, 4 and 8 and the radiused and rotary platens. I don't like the slack belt all that much.
Shaw Blades said:
When I visited Jason he used a 5" wheel and the 2" grinder wheel mostly.

I use a 3" and 5" the most. Plus all sizes of small wheels. But it takes me 5 times as long as him to make good comfortable handle swells.
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I do my swells with a 5in wheel, marry the spine with a 5in wheel and do the tight curves with the small wheel attachment.

After I do the swells I finish my machine shaping with the yellow scalloped 1in belts from klingspor on the slack platten. Sometimes I take off too much material but its a very fast and clean way to finish shaping. Its far superior to using a rasp or file in terms of speed but again, its very easy to make a mistake.

Getting nice palm filling countours while finding the sweet spot between squareness and roundness is an art and it takes alot of trial and error to get right. And a handle that feels great when you are holding it may not always perform well when you are using it.

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I guess I'm in the minority! But that's okay because I'm a newbie here in the knife building world. So take what advise I give you as a grain of salt. There's tons of knife builders on here that has forgot more than I'll ever know about the subject. But I do have a lot of experience in wood working and recurve bow building. I measure and draw outlines on bulk handle (both side and top profiles) and cut away excess with my porta bandsaw that I cut my knife blanks with! I can get things very even on all the sides and top profiles this way. Next I use one or two sanders to finish it. A bench mounted 4x36" sander hooked up to my vacuum to sand down to the metal edges or a dremel or fordum tool with a 1/2" drum sander and rapidly get to shape for the sides! Then I palm sand after that. All foredum or palm sanding is done over top a small home made down draft sanding table that sits on my bench hooked up to my vac!

I can't imagine the wood dust coming off a 8" or 10" wheel using my knife grinder. But heck that's just me.
 
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I guess I should try my 8 inch wheel. I've just been using j flex belt on a slack platen.
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Bartlett blades, I get my adjustable handles from McMaster-Carr. Kuraki put a link to the site above. Larry Ps I also use a 1x30 slack belt to do a lot of shaping but I don't recommend it to others because you have to move the handle very quickly and be careful not to burn your scales. I started shaping handles on the 1 x30 years ago and have a technique to do it. Most others use a 6, 8, or 10 inch wheel and some use the flat platen. Like most knife makers you should do what works for you. LL

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For high end works i use files for contouring
for simpler handles i use any kind of wheels, it doesn't really matter as long as it is smaller than the curve i want to get....i don't like the wheel acting like a die that leave a "stamp" on the handle
 
I'm with Stezann.

I use a 3/4" small wheel horizontally with a 90 degree work rest:).

I usually just angle the front of the scales on the disc grinder (I'm not a fan of the bump right in front of the ricasso I guess) and then angle the piece on the workrest to shape the rest. Maybe some slack belt here and there. Hand sanding above 400. I usually do a light buff every other grit to avoid leaving in some hidden scratches. That by itself is a time saver. In the pic below the handle is sanded to like 2000 but the buff revealed some maybe 300 or so grit scratches hiding out in the liner material. If I would have done a look-see buff before that I could have saved myself some time.

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