marking

knife

2009 August Home Publishing Co.

Weekend
Project

Shop-Made Marking Knife

Accurate layout is the key to a successful project. And using a quality

marking knife is a much more
accurate way to mark a line than
with a pencil. This is especially so
when laying out joints that require

NOTE: THE %/16"-WIDE

RIGHT (01.041.08) AND

LEFT (01.042.08) BEVEL
BLADES I USED ARE
AVAILABLE FROM
JAPANWOODWORKER.COM

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near-perfect precision, such as

dovetails and tenons. The knife
scores an extremely fine line, so
unlike a thick pencil line, you know
exactly where you need to cut.
I like Japanese-style marking
knives similar to the ones you see
pictured above. The blades have
right or left beveled edges and
steep angles, giving them a really
sharp point perfect for accuracy.

However, one drawback is that they

dont come with handles, so theyre
awkward to hold onto. To solve this
problem, I made handles to give me
better control when I use them.
If you take a look at the drawing
below, you can see how the handle
goes together. The blade is sandwiched between two wood blanks.
The copper rings, or ferrules, on the
ends not only help hold it together,
but give the project the look of a traditional Japanese woodworking tool.
Set Screw. One nice feature is the
set screw that holds the blade in the
handle. It grips the blade firmly, yet
allows you to easily change blades
or remove the blade for sharpening. In addition, you can flip the
blade around and
slide the beveled end
of the blade into the
handle when youre
not using the knife.

2009 August Home Publishing Co. All Rights Reserved.

Getting Started. It may seem

strange to start off with square
blanks when the handle is going to
end up round but thats exactly
how this project begins. Youll start
with two rectangular blanks one
for each half of the handle, as you
can see illustrated in Figure 1.
After cutting the blanks to size,
youre ready to rout a groove into
each half to create a pocket for the
blade (Figure 1a). When the grooves
are done, hold the pieces together
and slide the blade into the slot for
a test fit. You want it to fit snugly, but
not so tightly that you have to force
the blade into the slot.
Once youre satisfied with the fit,
its a good time to drill and tap a hole
for the set screw in one of the rectangular blanks, as shown in Figure 1b.
After the screw hole is drilled, you
can glue the halves of the handle
together, taking care not to get any
glue in the groove.
Round the Edges. When the glue
dried, I took the handle over to my
router table and rounded the edges
to create a circular body. The box at
the bottom of the page shows how I
did this. After that, I cut the square
ends off the blank, as you can see
in Figure 2, and plugged the hole in
one end of the blank (End View).
Thats all there is to shaping the
handle. On the next two pages, a few
finishing touches are added to dress
it up and make it easier to hold.

b.

a.
THIRD: ADD
!/2"-LONG PLUG AT
END (SEE EXPLODED
VIEW ON PAGE 1)

make it round
Sharp corners and square edges dont make a comfortable knife handle. But turning the square blank
into a smooth, round handle isnt difficult at all.
As you can see in the drawing on the right, the
rounded handle is formed in the middle of the long
rectangular blank. By doing it this way, the square
ends make the blank easier and safer to work with.
First, mark the starting and ending points on the
blank. Then, set up a 38"-radius roundover bit and the
router fence according to the inset drawing on the
right. To rout the blank, slowly pivot the blank into
the bit at the first mark and slide it to the second mark.
Repeat this three more times, rotating the blank each
time. Once the sharp corners are gone, you simply
cut off the square ends to complete the handle.

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2009 August Home Publishing Co. All Rights Reserved.

Crafting the Ferrules

{ Dark Finish.
Burning tung oil
onto the copper
ferrules results in
this black finish.

Ferrules are used on many woodworking tools such as marking

knives and chisels to prevent the
handles from splitting near the
blade. But theres no denying that
they can add a nice look as well
just take a look at the
photo at left.
The ferrules I
used were simply
1 " x 3 " copper
2
8
bushings that you
can pick up at any
hardware store, as
shown in the inset
photo at right. But rather
than have just plain copper fittings
on the ends of my marking knife,
I decided to dimple and then
burn the ferrules with a finishing
oil to match the look of traditional
Japanese woodworking tools.
To start off, I cut the rear ferrule
(Step 1). To do this, put the ferrule

over a wood dowel and cut

it to size with a hacksaw.
Dimples. Next comes the
dimpling process. For
the right look, I wanted a
relatively large dimple that
wasnt perfectly round. A
5 " x 2" carriage bolt with its
16
tip rounded over provided
the effect I was looking for.
As you can see in Step
2, I slid the ferrules over a
Copper Ferrules. To
steel rod to prevent them
cut the end ferrule to
from becoming out-of- its final size, slide it onto
round while I was ham- a wood dowel and trim it
mering the dimples in. You with a hacksaw.
have to hit the bolt pretty
hard to leave a dimple, so dont be produce quite different looks, as you
shy. For a handcrafted look, punch can see in the box at lower left.
the dimples randomly.
While the ferrules cool down,
Fiery Finish. To complete the fer- you can start making the tenons
rules, I brushed on an oil finish for the ferrules on the handle. This
(Step 3) and then applied heat is shown in the box at the bottom
with a torch (Step 4). Different oils of the next page.

recipes for color options

If the black finish pictured above is not to your liking,
you can experiment with other finishing oils to find
something you do like. In addition to the tung oil
finish, I used two other finishing oils (listed below),
as well as no oil at all I just scorched the plain
copper bushing. And the longer you apply the
heat, the darker and richer the final
result becomes.

Apply Oil. Brushing an oil onto the

ferrules is one step to get the look of
traditional Japanese woodworking tools.

No Oil. Heating the ferrules

with no oil on them simply gives
the copper an antique look.

Boiled Linseed Oil. Firing this

oil produces a medium-brown
hue on the copper ferrule.

Peanut Oil. Heating peanut

oil gives the ferrules a golden-red
appearance.

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Dimples. Randomly tap

the bolt to add dimples
to the ferrules. I had to file the
end of the steel rod a little to
get the bushing on.

Fire it Up. Scorching the ferrules

with a torch will discolor the finish
and provide a hand-crafted finish.

2009 August Home Publishing Co. All Rights Reserved.

Planing the Facets

A perfectly round knife handle didnt
feel quite right, so I added facets and a
barrel shape to the handle. This gives
you a better grip, plus the knife isnt
as likely to roll off your workbench.
And, best of all, because these facets
are randomly planed into the handle,
you cant really mess them up.
The photo on the right shows how
the facets are made. First, draw a
line around the center of the handle this will be your reference
point for both directions. Then,
using a block plane, work from the
centerline and shave the handle.

Start with light pressure and increase

it as you near the end. What youre
looking for is a tapered effect. After a
couple of strokes, roll the handle and
shave some more off. When youve
finished one end, flip the handle
over and taper the opposite end of
the handle. Be sure, however, not
to cut into the tenons on the ends of
the handle.
Once thats done, take a chisel and
create a chamfered shoulder around
the tenons. And finally, install the ferrules on the tenons and spray the
handle with several coats of lacquer.

{ The Final Touch. Starting from the center, taper the

handle toward both ends using a block plane to create a
faceted, barrel shape.

shop tip: routing round tenons

Cutting round tenons is easy on
a router table, especially with the
simple jig illustrated here.
To make the jig, all you need
is a scrap of 2x4 and a piece of 18"
hardboard. Start by ripping a 6"long piece of 2x4 down to 134" wide.
Turn it on edge, and then drill
a 34" hole near one end of the
block, centered on its width.
After the hole is drilled, glue
the hardboard onto the block
as a base for the jig.
Next, install a 38" straight bit
in the router table. Place the
block against the router table
fence and adjust the fence so
the bit is centered on the end
of the block.
Raise the bit to 18" above the
table and push the block from
right to left until the bit cuts
halfway into the side of the
3 " hole. Repeat this process,
4
raising your router bit 18" each

time, until the height of the groove

equals the length of the tenon you
want, plus the 18" hardboard.
When the jig is ready, clamp it
onto the fence. Leave enough of the
bit showing in the hole to make a
tenon sized to fit the ferrules.

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Turn the router on and slowly

insert the knife handle into the
hole until it comes to rest on the
hardboard. Rotate the handle to
complete the tenon. The bit will not
only cut the tenon, but it will leave a
clean shoulder as well.

a.

2009 August Home Publishing Co. All Rights Reserved.