Homemade knife

After hurting my arthritic fingers using an old folding knife, I decided to try making something that would better fit my hands. Here is what I came up with.

I started with an old rasp

Some work on a bench grinder brought it down to the rough shape I was looking for.

I worked the blade into shape on successively finer grades of sand paper.

Followed by wet/dry sand paper

And finally a leather strop with green polishing compound.

To create a handle I started with two pieces of maple grooved out to allow room for the tang. These were epoxied together.

I shaped the handle with a Dremel, a newer rasp and sandpaper.

The result was a carving knife with a handle that is easy to hold – even for arthritic old fingers. I worked a pretty good, shave-my-arm-hair edge on the blade. Whether it will hold that edge remains to be seen. It was a fun project, anyway.

-- Dave K.