Erin’s grandfather, though I never met the man, was apparently fond of some amount of woodworking. When the estate was liquidated, rather than let some or all of the tools go to strangers, I held onto a few small things so that they might stay in the family. Among them was this small carving knife that was in need of repairs.

It wasn’t a particularly amazing carving knife, but it was also a good candidate for making a new handle. The tang was short – maybe just an inch or two. I chose some thin strips of walnut of the same thickness, and glued them to a piece of maple in such a way as to make a clearance for the tang. This made it easy to make the mortise to receive the blade, as wood was simply built up around it.

Once the other maple side was added, the glue dried, I turned it round, sanded, finished it.

Before gluing the blade in, I took it to a whetstone and cleaned it up. I figured it would be easier to flatten the whole thing and polish it before it had a handle attached. Once polished, however, some 5-minute epoxy set the blade in handsomely: