How to Make Layer Knife Handles

If you use small pieces of exotic wood in your workshop projects, then you probably have a decent-sized and growing collection of small scraps stowed away somewhere with little idea of how to utilize them. Using some common tools, wood glue and supplies that you already have laying around your workshop, you can easily and quickly turn these various scraps into stock for a really cool-looking layered wood handle for a high-end custom knife or similar project.

Assemble and Organize

• 1

  Gather your pieces of wood and lay them in a line.

• 2

  Move the pieces until the patterns look the way you want them to.

• 3

  Cut irregularly shaped or sized pieces so that they will fit into your column.

Gluing the Pieces Together

• 1

  Lay out a sheet of waxed paper on the work surface.

• 2

  Apply enough glue to one side of each piece so that there will be no voids, then press the pieces together.

• 3

  Continue gluing the pieces together until you have a stack or column long enough for your knife-handle.

• 4

  Clamp the stack so that the pieces are squeezed together from the ends then allow the stack to set overnight.

Roughing Out the Stack

• 1

  Remove the clamp from the stack and check for straightness.

• 2

  Sand each of the sides of the column flat and straight on the belt sander.

• 3

  Fill any voids with glue and allow to dry overnight.

Splitting the Stack for Handle Scales

• 1

  Set the fence on your table saw to cut the stack down the middle.

• 2

  Cut the stack in half on the table saw.

• 3

  Sand the faces of the scales flat on the belt sander.

• 4

  Apply wood glue to one side of the half-stacks and to one side of the fiber spacer material, then use wood scraps, wax paper, and clamps to hold the wood and spacers together while the glue sets.

• 5

  Sand off the excess spacer material on your belt sander.

• 6

  Set your stacked wood handle scales aside for your next project.