Youtube woodworker John Heisz made this gorgeous draw knife out of an erstwhile diamond saw blade. As he says in the video, he doesn't do a lot of the type of woodworking that calls for such a blade, only he idea information technology'd be a fun project and that having the tool might inspire more than of its use. That is an often overlooked aspect of tool ownership, when the tools themselves inspire your projection ideas.

John uses an bending grinder to cut the metal bract/handle from the blade. He doesn't even have a template to go from, simply but draws the pocketknife as he remembers seeing them, making sure to leave a 5″ cutting border (a common depict knife standard).

drawKnife_2He does several things in this build that are worth specifically pointing out. One of them, something I've never seen before, is burning the metal tangs of the bract into the ends of the turned wooden handles. He offset heats them up with a blow torch to bend them, and then he heats them upwardly, slots them into the openings he cut into the handles, and so he presses the carmine-hot tangs into the wood. As he points out, this approach is non simply a adequately piece of cake fashion of holding the handles on, but it looks really absurd, too!

drawKnife_5To make information technology easier on himself to feed the tang into the handle, he'd cut slots into his handles. After epoxying the blades to the handles, he epoxied a slice of wood into the slot, trimmed it flush, and sanded it later the epoxy was dry out.

drawKnife_3 drawKnife_4I likewise actually liked how he finished the handles past using a copper wire wrap effectually the ferrule. The wire he used was piddling more than 14-guage house wire from which he'd stripped the insulating jacket. After the wrap, he sealed it all with epoxy.

You lot tin can see the full build commodity on John'south website.

Tagged bootleg tools upcycle woodworking

By Gareth Branwyn

Gareth Branwyn is a freelance author and the onetime Editorial Manager of Maker Media. He is the author or editor of over a dozen books on technology, DIY, and geek culture. He is currently a contributor to Boing Boing, Wink Books, and Wink Fun. And he has a new best-of writing collection and "lazy man'due south memoir," called Borg Like Me.

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