first attempt at rehandling

[Robby]

my first attempt at rehandling a Mora. A before and after sort of thing, I decided to call it "Matt's Tuppence Knife", long story.

before


and after

[Jedadiah]

Excellent! A nice, understated, dare i say, classicly Scandanavian job. What wood did you use? Can i see liners next to the pommel piece?

[John Fenna]

Very nice!
2p coin bolster?
Laminated steel blade?
I rehandle lots of these knives and have a great time doing it - great knives, cheap as fried spuds and supurb steel.
Some of my favourite users!

[Robby]

Dark wood is B&Q hard wood strip, light wood I don't know, could be beech. The sanding disc that chewed through the pennies (old one for the blade and new for the pommel) only managed to give that wood a nice polish!!!

The white at the pommel is the epoxy puty I used. I put it on thick so that it extruded as I clamped it down. then once it was set riveted the tang over. though the majority of it is held inplace by a really tight friction fit.

[Mungo]

Very nice - can you give us step by step details?

Yours very demandingly,

Mungo

[sxmolloy]

That look very nice, great job.

ATB....Stu

[naylor b]

good work there mate
naylor

[SOAR]

I really like that, very nice work fella.

Simon.

[Robby]

A step by step…..umm, eehhhhh, Wouldn’t I have needed to have planned it out that way first??

Step 1. Take one Mora knife purchased from Evil bay
Step 2. Take one wide bolster lay it precisely along the centre line of the handle and tap gently with a hammer, realise just how hard the handle is and just “lamp it wan” (strike sharply)
Step 3 Use small anvil made by My Dad (Matt) and straighten tang.
Step 4 Realise you don’t know how you’re going to smooth the face of the coins you’re going to use as bolsters. Come up with a cunning plan, realise plan not so cunning as coin slips out of the clamp and imbeds itself in the shed wall, Cunning plan 2 works
Step 5 Cut hard wood strip to size using coins as guides
Step 6 Look at nice fine grained pine strapping you were planning on using and spot the leg off that table that needs fixing, (not anymore, don’t tell the Missus )
Step 7 Glue bolster coin to first piece of wood using Contact adhesive. Once that sets up drill out the hole through both by drilling in a V from either side then using a dremmel with a grinding wheel coincidentally exactly the same width as your knife blade, grind the beds for the blade shoulders
Step 8 Take block of Beech?? (that nice table leg) and realise that the drill bit that is the right width is only just over half the length you need. Drill in a V from one end and then drill in from the other end and your exact measuring (blind luck)means they line up beautifully.Hammer this home using an old off cut as a hammering block.
Step 9 take second bolster coin and glue to second piece of hardwood. Realise that the best way to finish the coin is now because you can clamp the wood and buff the coin down easily. Drill through both and slip over tang and make sure the length of tang left exposed is right and you’re laughing. I made sure I squared off the end of the tang on the anvil at the start to make the riveting easier. As this was a bit of an experimental piece I decided to try using the epoxy putty and leave it showing like a liner (seems to have worked)
Step10 Rivetting. Tip, Take your time and don’t rush tap away as long as it takes. And now I left it to set up overnight
Step 7-10 are done with the blade wrapped in kitchen towel and gaffa tape and clamped in the vice of the workbench handed down from My Dad.
Step 11 Shaping the handle, all of the shaping on the handle was done with a sanding disk on a drill. No measuring . all done by eye and checking the feel of the grip. I used a really rough one first and then a 400 grit paper
Step 12 finishing the handle. I did this by dampening the handle let it dry then rubbing it down, did this repeatedly till the wood stayed smooth when it was damp. Coated the whole thing in clear epoxy smoothing it down then sanding this was done repeatedly. Til it felt right.

What you don’t see in the picture is the knot that I left in the handle that has a split right across it. I’ve mostly filled that with epoxy and I’m going to finish it by using a mixture of epoxy and copper dust from the coin bolsters to give a little flash of added colour to the handle. This was inspired by a craftsman and artist called Tim Stead. If you get a chance to check out his work, have a look.

Please don't take this as a way to do this. Just take it as inspiration that if I can do it any-one can. I made it up as I went along, it worked for me. All in all I'm really, really pleased with the knife, but I'll be a bit more organised for the next one. I've got the other Mora already


I hope it helps someone else.

[Mungo]

Brilliant - thanks for the rather funny (as in ha-ha, not as in how-odd) description.

So - will you upload a detail of the knot? I saw Tim Stead's site, but couldn't see any good details.

Think I'll use some Locust Tree wood to rehandle my Mora...

cheers,

Mungo

[Robby]

And here's the sheath that I made for it



I'm really pleased with how it turned out as well, it's got a really nice, positive click when you push the knife home.

[Mungo]

Brilliant! Nice sheath (I won't ask you to provide details on its construction as I already asked you for details on the rehandling and I don't want to push you).

Please provide details on sheath construction.

By the way, I am using your penny technique for my new Mora blade handlification (as I shall call it). Details pending, as final construction is still in progress)...

Cheers,

Mungo

[Robby]

I made the sheath by starting with the wooden piece, 2 pieces of hardwood strip, the same stuff I used on the knife handle. Started by drawing the outline on both sides of the strips (very carefully lined up). I carved out the blade recesses on either side by hand using the knife and some small carving chisels. Once I got the recess carved i glued it up with contact adhesive.Left it to dry overnight. then I took it down to the final shape using the knife for most of the work. (something esoterically pleasing in the knife making it's own sheath, call me sad if you like) then sanded and finished it the same way as the knife.
The leather was measured, sized and sewn (saddle stiched) as a simple tube. I then wet it and slid the wooden piece right through from what is the top end. When I say slid I mean clamped in the vice and waggled, tweeked, twisted and cajouled, for about fifteen minutes. I deliberately left a wide seam on the back. I wrapped the knife in clingfilm and pushed it home. The hanger is made from a strip with the ends folded into the middle one side longer than the other. Again, saddle stitched in place. Both the sheath piece and the hanger were "decorated" using a Biro, wet and left to dry. I shaped the hanger and sheath when it was partly dried. Once completely dry I cut the seam down close to the sheath but left a wider section at the top to link the hanger to. I linked the two with a D ring that I reshaped to suit

[Toddy]

Okay, I'm impressed
The knife is looking excellent and I'd never have thought of doing that for a sheath.

Nice one on the report too Rob; it was good knowing you.....you do realise you're mince when M finds out what you've done with the table? lamp it wan indeed

atb,
Mary

[Robby]

A pic to show some detail of the hanger and back of the sheath



The finish is just lots of a really good coating of polish

[Matt Weir]

Very nice Robby - makes me wish I was the 'Matt' in the title

[Mungo]

Excellent - thanks for these... I was being a bit facetious above, but these instructions are very helpful. Think I'll follow these and make one myself.

Cheers,

Mungo

[Robby]

it was good knowing you.....you do realise you're mince when M finds out what you've done with the table? lamp it wan indeed

atb,
Mary

That'swhy we'll keep it between ourselves, eh

[Robby]

It's no problem Mungo, I'll look forward to the pictures of your handiwork. I must admit to not using measurement overly much and doing a lot of the work by eye or feel. but it seems to have worked out. I'm really chuffed with it.

[copper_head]

Robby thats excellent! I see youve used a wooden handled mora, where did you get it? I have an old plastic one that I would like to have ago at doing this with, anyone got any hints at how to remove the blade? Or is there anywhere that sells mora blade blanks?
Good job!

[Jedadiah]

Try these Copper Head

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/FROSTS-MORA-CA...QQcmdZViewItem

Used them once or twice before, good people.

[Robby]

I don't actually know where they came from, my cousin ordered them from Ebay for me. I got two and he got one. I'll see if I can find out a specific seller for you. I've been looking at Attleborough accessories for blades for future projects though. I want to do some other through tangs and try a hidden tang or two.
What can I say, I like playing with sharp shiny things.

I'm already working on my cousins.

I'd just like to thank everyone for their comments, It was really encouraging and helped push me though to start the new one.

[copper_head]

cheers Jedadiah
Whats the shipping time like?
Cheers

[Eric_Methven]

I'm very impressed Rob, You've made a cheap production blade look very posh and personalised. Well done.

Eric

[British Red]

Pretty much what Eric said - that knife is a beaut - all the more impressive because you used every day items and struggled with a few bits but overcame (I find a bigger hamer the solution to most problems )

Invisible rep point awarded!

Red

[leon-1]

That's really nice, I liked the tutorial. Instructional with more than a hint of humour, very good indeed.