A couple of videos of how I take the knife handle from the square to the finished shape using bandsaw, belt grinder and rasp. All the knife details can be found on my website http://www.vongruffknives.com/ The JT Ranger knife in the last video is the prototype knife and the sample pic will be uploaded to the website in a week when the knife is finished although all the details are there under the knife design/other knives section.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXW1sGE_Jrg&feature=youtu.be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtyuCJYKez8&feature=youtu.be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGJeRJwSM1A&feature=youtu.be

Thanks Mitch. cutting the initial shape on the bandsaw has reduced the grinding belt usage and can now do over 4 to 5 times the number of handles on the one  belt than I could by doing it all on the belt grinder. I use the cheaper AO belts for the handles so I can keep a sharp belt that cuts quicker and more cleanly.

Helpful videos ther vongruff. Just been re-shaping my old mans knife blade that snapped at the handle, just wondering what wood would you recommend for a handle? not too sure on where to look and what to look for. thanks anything helps

thanks ive actually got some fiberglass resin so might look into that. does the wood have to be dry? If I was to harvest my own how long would a good time to wait before I use it. cheers

Try Kerry at Gaeco 06 370 1683

Hi there. I like the idea of shaping the handle with the bandsaw.
What about your stainless/brass pins, bolts, tubes etc that holds the scales to the tang? Doesn't that blunt your blade too much when cutting through them??

Any more interesting knives for us to ogle VG ? Enjoyed looking at your work as things where made.

General purpose kitchen knife with paper micarta and a paring knife with benchtop acrylic

A thumbrest skinner and a mini skinner, both with buffao horn bosters and accacia

A pair of Lion knives. One with Accacia and the other with eucalyptus

Mini skinner (buffao horn and wanut) and Hunter skinner with accacia

Filleter and Fisherman with natura canvas micarta

Safari knife  with buffalomhorn and zebrawood

set of table knives/steak knives with paper micarta over red liners

7 1/2 inch Chef with eucalyptus

Safari knife with buffalo horn

8 1/2 inch carving knife with paper micarta

AH EDC with Giraffe bone

Pair of 7 1/2 inch Chef knives with exhibition eucalyptus

Pair of Safari knives brass and buffalo horn and brass and giraffe bone

Thumbrest skinner with swamp kauri

J T Ranger wth swamp kauri

A variety ready to go

Bowies, a skinner and a hunter skinner

Bowie, 2 pig stickers, J T Ranger,hunter skinner, skinner, bushcraft hunter and an A H EDC

GP, wapiti knife, hunter skinner, boner and fiel scapel


Hunter skinner with Myrtle

Bushcraft hunter with myrtle

hunter skinner with buffalo horn and accacia

thumbrest skinner with buffalo horn and accacia

Field scalpel with beech burl

This was for a road trip where I was seeing a few outlets

Table knives/side plate knives

Chef set with cleaver

Sgian Dubh

Wapiti knife with oak and walnut

Hunter Butcher and Big Game knife with buffalo horn and accacia

JT Ranger, lion kife and a pig sticker

pair of skinners. buffalo horn with swamp kauri and accacia

wapiti knife walnut) GP knife (buffalo horn and eucalyptus) and a safari knife with brass and zebrawood

A H EDC with spalted beech

Safari knife (brass and zebrawood) and bushcraft hunter with swamp kauri

Pair of J T Rangers one with swamp kauri the other with buffalo horn

WOW, simply fantastic. Thanks for putting those up for us all to see.

bloody nice knives there 

Got any on a shelf in the north island to look over/ hold ?

Hey cheers for that. Both a good drive from Whangarei !

These five ready to ship. Raindrop stainless damascus. #1 is stabilised spalted eucalyptus with carbon fiber pins over copper curve backed bolster. #2 is Buffalo horn with blue liners over brass curve backed bolster. #3 is stabilsed spalted eucalyptus over ebony with carbon fiber pins. #4 is pig sticker with accacia over 1095 HC blade and #5 is Hunter kinner with accacia over 1084 HC blade 

Todays handIe finishing

#1 is the hybrid hunter with Desert Ironwood over stainIess on the random pattern stainIess damascus bIade.





#2 is a Hunter Skinner with cherry burI over buffaIo horn boIster on the random pattern damascus bIade.



#3 is the Hybrid hunter with eucaIyptus over buff horn on the 1084 bIade.



#4 is the Iight hunter with Ieopardwood over buff horn on the 1084 bIade.





#5 is the hunter skinner with macrocarpa over buff horn on the 1084 bIade.



# 6 & 7 are the fishing set with bIack paper micarta over bIaze Iiners on the 12C27 bIades.

After a great deal of time and expense the box finally arrived from South Africa with the giraffe bone and impala horn. Much of this is preordered for 7 giraffe bone and three impala horn handled knives but expect to have sufficient left for other orders in the near future.

I decided to cut the giraffe bone (or most of it) today to get enough for the knives that are ordered. All of the bones had one end cut off (to facillitate the process for export) so I marked the bone off in 5 inch lengths and cut them with the metal cutting bandsaw.





The knob end still had some of the porpous honeycomb type bone and was not usable but I got 4 good engths from each of the arger bones. One side of all the bones was too thin for the knife handles but may work for pocketknives which I do not do.





I have a guage for the other bandsaw that I use for cutting the scale thicknesses so set to (having the apropriate breathing gear on as there is a lot of dust made and floating in the air.



I managed to get three pieces plus core waste from the larger bones but just two from the smaller ones.



With enough cut for these ones. From the right is a Lion knife, 6 Safari knives and a Light Hunter. The last Safari knife (marked on the taped blade is to be this years knife giveaway and will have curve backed buffalo horn bolsters where the rest will be full giraffe bone handles.

First stage completed sucessfully with only a short crack at the end that will not effect the length needed for a knife handle. There was some springback from the 9mm thick they were clamped (down from about 16mm) to but as this is old and very dry horn I am going to boil it next in black dyed water and re-clamp to fix the thickness needed. It was sugested that I use oil to boil/heat in but my concern is that there may be oil penetration into the horn and conflict with the epoxy

Todays heat treat and grinding session gives me a few to handsand and start the bolster and handle process.

That's a nice looking knife! Well done!

And the new design knives for myself. The slaughterman with stainless 3 pin copper bolster and ebony handles with cpper pins on the 1084 blade.

The slicer is for when I have broken down an animal and want to dice the boned out meat. It has 3 brass pins in the copper bolster with copper pins in the ebony handles on the 12C27 stainless blade.



And this  with giraffe bone handles and titanium pins with 3 SS pins in the curve backed buff horn bolster on the 1095 blade.

Finally finished the impala horn handled knives and quite pleased with the result. I used rimu as the bolster with a piece of black G10 facing and ebony for the pommel.


The ebony pommel was treated like the bolster end and socketed into the horn end with the threaded rod drilled into the ebony to create another gripping surface for the epoxy.



I added black dye to the epoxy and waited for everything to set up overnight.



This gave me the basis for the handle so a shaping session was next.

And with a fine sand and buffed it was time to add the finish to the resulting handle.



Looking from underneath or the blade edge side



and from the top or spine side.