Mocotaugan Knife Handle

 I recently purchased two Mocotaugan knife blades from Ben Orford, one with the traditional internal bevel which is used like a one-handed drawknife and one with an external bevel for hollowing out greenwood bowls. Of course Mocotaugan knife handles don't have to be fancy. There is nothing wrong with making one from a crooked branch or a suitable piece of antler, but there is a tradition of some pretty fancy carving on some of the vintage handles found in museums and I thought I would try to uphold the tradition.

I've always admired the scrolls on violins (like a fern unfolding) and thought it would be fun to have a go at one, albeit on a much smaller scale. I had to draw it out from all angles a few times before I got my head around the shape. It is quite a complex shape when you start to analyse it. I worked out a process for doing it and once I got my confidence, it wasn't too difficult.

As for the low relief pattern on the two sides, I basically doodled it on a piece of paper whilst on the phone one day and thought it would be fun to try to recreate it in wood. I drew the ribbons of wood, set in the edges and lowered the space between them by about 1mm. Then I used three different sized nail sets to punch in the background texture. I'm glad I practiced this first because it is harder than you think to hit a punch with the same amount of force time after time and if you vary the force, it just ends up looking like a dog's dinner.

The handle is made to fit my hand (I'm left-handed) and basically you push with your thumb and pivot your wrist to remove small shavings from the inside of a bowl. This affords considerable leverage and requires less force than the more common fist grip used on hook knives.

The tang of the blade sits in a mortise and is held in place by a wedge which in turn is held in place by the binding. I used micro paracord for the binding which I think came out really well. Since two of the sides that the binding is wrapped around are curved, I had to lower the surfaces under the binding so that the paracord wouldn't slip off as I wound it around the handle. I've still got to make the handle for the more traditional internal bevel knife blade, but I haven't made my mind up what to do yet. One thing's for sure though, it will be a totally different carving to this one.

Thanks for looking!