Soft Grip Handle - DIY?

J

julianl_simon

Joined
Jul 28, 2001
Messages
6
I love Mora knives and must have at least twenty of them. For several years, I have had a Frost blank that I have been wanting to finish. The blank is the same as item #KB-LL-115, that is sold at Ragweed Forge (picture here - http://ragweedforge.com/BladeCatalog.html#blades).

I could make a wooden or micarta handle, but I kind of like the synthetic, plastic, rubber, or whatever it is handles that come on the Mora 700 series or Mora 2000 knives. I even like the hard plastic handles on the BOSS style knives.

Is there any way to do something like this at home? I have your usual assortment of surburban garage tools (grinder, drill press, belt sander, Dremel), but no injection molder or anything like that. I thought of a wooden handle and then tool dip. But I don't really care for that stuff. Is there any way to make some sort of synthetic handle at home?

Thanks for any advice,
JLS
 
i put neoprene on most of the knives i make. i get it from a friend who works at a gravel pit. its called belt skirting. i have special wheels for working the neoprene down after sanding to give it a nice texture and get rid of the sanding marks.
 
richard j said:
i put neoprene on most of the knives i make. i get it from a friend who works at a gravel pit. its called belt skirting. i have special wheels for working the neoprene down after sanding to give it a nice texture and get rid of the sanding marks.
Click to expand...

Where can I get those special wheels? I have a bunch of skirting but it clogs the belts.

In answer to the question, Texas knifemaker supply sells neoprene scales that should suit your needs.
 
the microplane would grab hold of the neoprene and rip it out of your hand. i have had a coarse belt grab before when shaping down the end of a handle. i start out with a coarse belt then switch to a medium and finally the special wheels which remove the sand lines and leave a nice texture.
 
Where I work we use a lot of different kinds of rubber.
I make orthopaedic shoes. The material we use is not expensive, but could be used to make good handles.
From soft grip to very hard and firm grip.
If I'd make a rubber handeled knife I would make it in the fashion you'd make a leather washer handle knife.
You could grind down your full tang blank to a hidden tang blank and do it that way.
A beltsander and dremel would be good to shape the rubber.
Shoe soles are finished only to grit 120. That would give good grip for a knife handle.
 
only thing i would worry about form true neoprene is that the uv resistance (unless you have special uv inhibitors in it) is bad and the oil resistance is bad. EPDM feels and works (as far as i know) like neoprene but it has natural uv resistance and is more resistant to oil. also with the orings many use to make chainmaille stretchy the neoprene ones have seemed to dry out like old rubber bands do just from not being used so that might be something to think about if you will not sue the knife extremely often.

-matt
 
I have a knife with santoprene that I've left outside in az a few times and haven't had a problem with the handle degrading at all. It's also over 16 years old and has been used in temperatures from -20 to 120+.
 
Jared Stenoien said:
I have a knife with santoprene that I've left outside in az a few times and haven't had a problem with the handle degrading at all. It's also over 16 years old and has been used in temperatures from -20 to 120+.
Click to expand...

i was not sure if this was directed to me at all or not but i did want to still point out the differences here (note i am not a chemist of any level but i have discussed some of this stuff with a very brilliant chemist friend and have tried to research some polymers on my own time)
santoprene is a "Thermoplastic Elastomer" and has much different properties (from what i can understand) than neoprene and epdm.

santoprene looks like great stuff, here is a site about it http://www.santoprene.com/site/products/2249.html
if you can get some of this i think it would be great for handles and it cna be formed much easier.

-matt
 
There was a maker at Blade show that had knives handled with the hard rubber used for padded flooring in horse stalls/trailers.
Black with with/gray specles. Looked and felt pretty good.
 
Get a sharp holesaw and a high wall 4x4 tire with nylon side belts, and chop them from the sidewall.

Never get them from the tread area, all modern tyres are steel belted, and as the rubber wreas you'll have wires abrade your palms. try a tractor wreckers... if they have any burst unrepairable tyres, the big lugs chopped off and shaped should make a good one piece through tang handle. And best yet, are solid rubber, no interior wires or nylon in those tread lugs.
 
one problem with using a tire. it would take too much time to get the rubber flat and squared up, that is if you can even cut the rubber with a hole saw. then you would have to sand the pieces flat and evenly on both sides so they stack up without any gaps. you would have to want a rubber handle really bad to go through all that trouble.
 
SR_matt said:
i was not sure if this was directed to me at all or not but i did want to still point out the differences here (note i am not a chemist of any level but i have discussed some of this stuff with a very brilliant chemist friend and have tried to research some polymers on my own time)
santoprene is a "Thermoplastic Elastomer" and has much different properties (from what i can understand) than neoprene and epdm.

santoprene looks like great stuff, here is a site about it http://www.santoprene.com/site/products/2249.html
if you can get some of this i think it would be great for handles and it cna be formed much easier.

-matt
Click to expand...

Not at all. :) I was simply pointing out an alternative that has worked very well for me.
 
ok very cool, either way theres some tech specs up about that material which looks very good.

-matt
 
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