Custom-Made Garden Tools
(Page 3 of 5)
January/February 1985
By John Vivian
I always make my knife handles of wood, because that material is truly pleasant to form and to touch. Using honest red oak grips gleaned from the sawmill slabs we cut up for firewood each fall, I cut out clear billets of nicely grained slabs, allow them to dry under cover for a year or more, then keep them in the house for months before use. Always use well-dried wood for handles, or they'll shrink and pull away from the tang in no time, no matter how well fastened they are.
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Trace the tang outline on a pair of billets as thick as you like to hold when the steel is sandwiched between them. Rough-cut these blanks with a keyhole saw or jigsaw. Then, using the steel tang as a template, carefully drill the matching holes in each piece of wood. If you want a more attractive tool, relieve the inner surface of each handle piece with shallow wood-chisel cuts to surround the tang so the edges of the wood will meet in a margin around the metal, making the grip appear to be one piece.
Bevel and sand the exposed front end of each handle half to a final finish, then clean the tang well with a wire brush or solvent to remove all grease. Next, mix up your epoxy cement. Smooth a thin layer of cement on the inside of the handle halves, then align them so that the holes line up perfectly, put in bolts or rivets if you want, and clamp the whole affair until the cement is set. Finally, grind any bolt heads or nut ends down flat.
At this point, you might want to take an extra step by filing finger notches or any custom design you fancy into the grip. Try kneading a chunk of clay till it fits your hand well to discover what your personal grip should look like (it may surprise you). A comfortable grip combines grooves on each side of the handle top for the first joints of thumb and forefinger, but any grip should have a knob hilt up front to keep your working hand from slipping forward onto the blade. I also carve in a simple butt cap to provide an effective palm stop, and add a wrist thong foi extra insurance. After fine-sanding, a good furniture oil or boiled linseed oil is the best final finish for a BrushWhacker handle.
In clearing underbrush, the machete blade is traditionally slashed back and forth, low to the ground and with a good upward wrist twist to pop off larger stems. Always keep the BrushWhacker blade well in front of you, with your arm extended. Like any machete, the tool carries enough weight to exert a will of its own: If you're tired or your aim is bad, it can bounce off stout saplings in unanticipated directions. Use the wrist thong, and watch your instep and shins!
Machete work is an art that requires practice—and the built-in sawback is a bit of science to help when art doesn't do the trick. (Don't forget, the saw cuts with the pull stroke, not the familiar push.)
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