I was wading through my old woodworking bookmarks, and stumbled across this great guide to making a marking knife. It looked like a fairly easy project, and cheap! Looks like I can take that Japanese marking knife off my wish list. So here we go:
The blade is taken from a jigsaw blade, and it didn’t take too long to file off the teeth:
For the handle, I took a 6″ section of kempas scrap that I had lying around. Incidentally, you can see on the bench that I filed the point of the blade into a spear shape.
Okay, so I had no idea what to do at this point, just as a disclaimer. I have no lathe, so I can’t turn a handle. I have no carving tools, so I can’t carve it. I decided to trim it down a little with my saw, and then use my chisels to round the corners off until it was more round than square. Here’s the first take, after I cut the corners off (basically creating a long diamond-shaped handle). Why didn’t I just start with smaller stock to begin with? I dunno.
I knew that I wanted the handle to be thickest at the bottom, to be able to hold and use the knife more securely. I chiseled down from the thicker part to the thinner, for a smoother transition, and then just kept working at it with my 3/4″ chisel until I was generally happy with it:
It’s got a kind of Louisville Slugger look to it. The top part will likely taper quite a bit, but I’m going to wait until I have a ferrule and know what dimensions I need.
Thanks for reading!
6 comments
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August 9, 2008 at 5:54 am
Woodworker's Guide
Great, thanks for the link! Looks like I’ll have to make one of these!
Looking forward to seeing your finished project!
August 9, 2008 at 3:11 pm
Shannon
Eric,
Great start to this project. Your site constantly reminds me how to do more with less tools. A great lesson for many of us. Thanks for the link, I need one of these and I link the Blue Spruce toolworks look of this design.
August 10, 2008 at 8:17 am
Eric
Shannon: I had to look up Blue Spruce Toolworks, never having heard of them before. Wow, those are nice.
Yeah, I’m leaning towards making tools as much as I can, since it will give me woodworking experience while saving me money!
August 19, 2008 at 10:38 pm
bzephyr
Hi Eric,
It’s been over 11 years since I did any real woodworking projects. That was when I spent 6 months making a solid oak bed frame as a wedding gift to my wife. It had bell-shaped raised-panel headboard and footboard, and the side panels fit together without any hardware. Since then I haven’t had a workshop or tools.
But I recently acquired an Inca table saw. It needed some repair last week since the blade (table) was no longer able to raise and lower. So when I fixed it, I felt inspired to use it to make a real joint rather than just using it to cut firewood. I made a tongue and groove joint to help my 6-year-old make his rubberband shooter. My 9-year-old was so impressed that it fit snug without any nails or screws, so he wanted one too. For his, I had to make a handle without a lathe. So I used the table saw to trim the corners off of a 2×2. I skipped the chisels, though, and went straight to sandpaper.
March 27, 2009 at 7:33 am
Gye Greene
What happened to your spokeshave? Wouldn’t you use that…?
–GG
March 27, 2009 at 11:18 am
Eric
I suppose I could’ve, but clamping would have been problematic. This way, I was able to hold the piece with one hand (at the top) while chiseling down towards my scrap wood.