Homemade hack job. PIC HEAVY!

[Skinny]

I just got a new grinder as part of a killer Cyber Monday deal and while I use it for sharpening primarily here in the store, I got itching to do some custom work.

We had this atrocity lying around the store, so I decided it would become my victim.


http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7169/6469315347_f4b92b4ab2_b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/51893224@N08/6469315347/)


I decided that I wanted to keep the spear point, but make it no more than a 4" blade.

I whacked off the tip, convexed the blade (should've done this after rehandling, but like I said, I wanted to use my new grinder), then melted the handle off.

I was hoping for a solid full tang, but ended up with this mess.


http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7170/6469349737_b0f223480f_b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/51893224@N08/6469349737/)


I tried drilling some 1/4" holes for pins at this point, but it was pointless and I ruined a nice new cobalt bit trying.

I decided on using a single 1/8" pin instead that would fit in the semi-hole already machined in the tang nearest the choil. I had an old 1/8" drill bit that had broken off that fit just right.

The local University's art department gave me some scrap hardwoods that I cut into a rough size and then epoxied onto the knife. Here it is drying:


http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7005/6469318161_f1ea19c4e7_b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/51893224@N08/6469318161/)


And without the clamps:


http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7173/6469332285_39bd2848a6_b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/51893224@N08/6469332285/)


I'm not sure what type of wood this is, but it sure smelled nice as I ground it. The last picture is part way through hafting the handle out.

I spent a while on the grinder getting the rough shape back to the handle.


http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7003/6469320965_0a76018426_b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/51893224@N08/6469320965/)


Then I polished the blade and edge on some trizact belts, hand sanded the handles a bit and oiled them up.


http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7030/6469326739_f343c8c0c2_b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/51893224@N08/6469326739/)


http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7019/6469323275_45e63ac1d2_b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/51893224@N08/6469323275/)


She's not going to win a beauty contest, but my wife was impressed and said she loves the feel of it for the kitchen! In retrospect I should've saved it for a Christmas present for her maybe, but it was a lot of fun.

Thanks for lookin'!

[Mr. Tettnanger]

Nice job!

[Skab]

Good looking Kephart.

[fire65]

That is some good work right there. Thanks for the pics.

[georgia_axe]

great job!

[Grizzly660]

Outstanding job!! Thank you for sharing it with us and keep up the good work.

[solocanoe]

wow - to get what you did...from what it was.... nice!

[p moore]

Good work. And you impressed your wife!. Not bad at all. My wife still gives me the eye roll when I show her a knife. :25:

Savor this moment. :4:

Paul

[Skinny]

That's what I thought! She's not a knife person at all (yet), but she was genuinely impressed which really made me feel good! I'm still relishing it... :)

[hellhammer]

Good job! How does the blade retention hold up? You know until found this forum I thought I was the only one who liked to use a kitchen knife for his "outdoors" knife!

[556mp]

That'll make a real good kitchen knife now! ;)

[joe305]

nice...good job...

[gwynn1975]

Looks great to me.. good job

[HiWayMan]

Nice Farberware mod. My wife bought as set of these years ago. The tangs were so small on them that I simply couldn't take it. I removed the handles and cut them up to make more useable knives. I've put them away as semi-custom kitchen knives for my daughter.

[doylefrickey]

Do you have any pictures of the epoxied join to see how you did it?

[JohnColoradoPayne]

impressive

[Skinny]

Do you have any pictures of the epoxied join to see how you did it?

Not sure what you mean by "epoxied join". This was the process I did:

1. I made sure the two handle slabs were both perfectly flat to each other
2. placed the blade blank on the slabs and marked the placement of the pin hole
3. drilled the pin hole
4. slid the pin in to check alignment
5. finished the front of the handle nearest the blade (a pain to finish after the slabs have been epoxied to the blade)
6. then put epoxy on the blade, handle and a little bit on the pin on both sides, clamped it and let it sit for about 20 minutes.

Once it was cured, I shaped it on my belt sander, but it would have been much faster if I had a bandsaw.

Thanks for the support everyone! Good bunch of people over here.

[Ratty1]

Congrats on impressing your wife. You definately took something that wasn't worth anything and made it usable. She will probably want all her kitchen knives to be modded after this, just to make them feel better in her hand you know.

[Skinny]

Good looking Kephart.

Thanks Skab. Kephart style was what I was going for, but I didn't dare attach such an illustrious name to my hack job.

[borumas]

Nice job on that, very much improved in my opinion.

[Skinny]

Thanks a lot!