modifying a head knife

[PeterD]

I saw the thread on a new head knife and thought I could pass this out. I took my head knife and cut off an inch of the handle. Now when I hold it, the back of the handle presses into my palm below my thumb. This allows my thumb to extend down to the blade while my first two fingers set on the blade about 1/4" or less behind the edge. For leverage the knife handle is pushed into my palm rather than using hand muscles to push with. When doing very fine work like cutting a 45 degree edge on some thick leather I can literally walk the knife down the leather. And when doing tight curves I can put my fingers on the leather and ease the knife into the leather to avoid cutting to far or off the line. (As I recall I learned this from a Stohlman book.) If making large straight cuts I just pull my fingers back from the knife edge and put the edge of my hand on the project and push with my palm.

I am not recommending this for anyone just throwing it out for discussion. Perhaps others can come out with any little tricks they might have.

I have noticed over the years a lot of people who shy away from the head knife simply because they don't know how it is used. On a humorous note I once had a guy in a quiver making class I was teaching warn everyone to step back when I picked up my head knife since it was razor sharp. I got the impression he thought it had a malevolent life of it's own and might jump out of my hand and attack someone.

[Art]

Hi Peter,

In the Boy Scouts they teach you to keep folks beyond your reach when using your knife, part of the Totin' Chip instruction.

Art

I saw the thread on a new head knife and thought I could pass this out. I took my head knife and cut off an inch of the handle. Now when I hold it, the back of the handle presses into my palm below my thumb. This allows my thumb to extend down to the blade while my first two fingers set on the blade about 1/4" or less behind the edge. For leverage the knife handle is pushed into my palm rather than using hand muscles to push with. When doing very fine work like cutting a 45 degree edge on some thick leather I can literally walk the knife down the leather. And when doing tight curves I can put my fingers on the leather and ease the knife into the leather to avoid cutting to far or off the line. (As I recall I learned this from a Stohlman book.) If making large straight cuts I just pull my fingers back from the knife edge and put the edge of my hand on the project and push with my palm.

I am not recommending this for anyone just throwing it out for discussion. Perhaps others can come out with any little tricks they might have.

I have noticed over the years a lot of people who shy away from the head knife simply because they don't know how it is used. On a humorous note I once had a guy in a quiver making class I was teaching warn everyone to step back when I picked up my head knife since it was razor sharp. I got the impression he thought it had a malevolent life of it's own and might jump out of my hand and attack someone.

[TwinOaks]

I got the impression he thought it had a malevolent life of it's own and might jump out of my hand and attack someone.

I get that all the time regarding pistols....like it's gonna jump outta the holster and go to town.

[TracyMoss]

I swear one time my knife jumped out and bit me. Couldn't have been my fault.

[David Genadek]

Peter,

I have always trimmed the handle to fit the size of the hand of whoever is cutting. A word of warning though, as I just got home from the Hand clinic at Mayo, this does put a lot of pressure on the carpal tunnel. A bicicle glove with a gel palm will help negate the negative effect.

David Genadek