Sometimes, a knife you buy has a handle that is too slick, or does not offer enough traction. Or, in some cases, the knife has no sort of usable handle at all.
Well, there are all sort of solutions, some involve tools, like blowtorches and plungers and sockets....
But, there also solutions that don't require arcane skills of alchemy and an advanced degree in physics.
In fact, all you need is but a couple things, a knife you would like to improve, some bat tape, a small bit of cord, and a utility knife.
But, first let me tell you a story, about how these ideas came together....
It starts, in my experience, with Hockey.
You see, as a way of increasing friction, thereby creating a sure grip, hockey players wrap the handles of their hockey sticks with tape. And sometimes, they spin the tape into a sort of cord, and wrap it around the stick, with spaces between the 'strings' of tape, to create 'ridges', which they then cover with tape.
Well, I don't play hockey, and never payed attention to the Mighty Ducks movies, if there was a stick wrapping scene. But, I did own a Becker Knife and Tool knife or two. And I found them severely lacking when it came to grip security.
The general shape of the Becker handles is very smart, but the slick and smooth texture and topography of the handles is simply not suited to any grip security. By the way, when I say topography, I am using the word in the same way you would when speaking of a map, that is to say that topography is the shape of the land. And texture is to describe the small scale, for instance, the way molded handles will often have some sort of recurring shape molded into the surface, like the 'Gator' texture on some Gerber knives.
Or to use another example, let us think of knives wrapped in the popular Japanese silk wrap, like the Spyderco RJ Martin Kumo. The wrap itself is topography, creating valleys into which the flesh of your hand sinks. And the weave of the silk and the surface of the ray skin is the texture.
Back to the Becker, sometime later, I read, with great interest, that someone had experienced the same thing with the Becker handles, and had utilized their experience with hockey to solve the problem. They had wrapped the handle with 'strings' of tape, to create 'ridges', which they then covered Hockey tape.
So, this started me on a road that I will briefly summarize, before I describe the newest handles I have applied.
One of my first projects was removing the cheap cord wrap from the original SOG Vietnam Tomahawk handle, and replacing it with bat tape over mini-cord, which I found did offer a good deal of grip security, though I found the the cord under the wrap could cause hot spots.
Then I applied a wrap to an Americraft kitchen knife (a side line of Buck Knives). I used the shell of paracord, with spaces between the wraps, with bat tape over the paracord, and I was very happy with result. The bat tape offers a good bit of texture, and the valley and peaks of the paracord shell wrap creates lots of topography, like a silk wrapped Japanese handle, and the bat tape offers the texture and holds the whole thing together.
Before I describe my methods, and provide a mini tutorial on how I did my handle wrap, a word to materials.
Any small diameter cord can be used, the only concern being how will it feel or perform, under the wrap of tape. I have chosen to use just a couple of different cords. One is paracord, of which I am sure very few of my readers are unfamiliar. The other is a hard nylon cord which I call mini-cord, which is about 1/4 to 1/5 of the diameter of paracord. And as I have written, I have also used the shell of paracord, the core being removed.
And let us speak of tape. I am sure there are all sort of tapes that could be used, but I am familiar with two, of which I typically only use one. First, is hockey tape, which is less expensive, but it tends to have an adhesive finish when applied, which then gathers all sort of debris and dirt, not so bueno. Mostly, I use bat tape, which has some residual adhesive on the surface when finished, but which is much less than hockey tape. Also, the bat tape has a weave which provides a bit more friction, which I prefer.
So, how did I do it?
Well, having acquired two Spyderco Mule Team knives, one in 52100 and the other in CPM M4, I decided that until I acquire or make a more permanent handle, I wanted to apply a handle to them, so that I could use them, as I had opportunity.
To that end, I wrapped my M4 Mule in the shell of paracord, as I had with the Buck kitchen knife, though without the spaces, over which I applied bat tape. But, I found that the resulting handle was not of a sufficient girth to be really comfortable. I have fairly large hands.
Then, I wrapped my 52100 Mule with paracord, still containing the inner strands, and again placed bat tape over the top of it. And I like the feel of this combination for this knife.
So, for the purpose of this article and as a sort of mini tutorial, I removed the wrap of my M4 Mule, and took pictures as I replaced it with a wrap that I would appreciate more.
First, let me say this, I did not make safe the blade of the M4 Mule in order to wrap it without fear of cutting myself. Instead, I bulled ahead, and wrapped it, dangerously risking the shedding of blood. But, it does make for prettier pictures. So, my advice to you is to not be dumb like me, and to cover the blade, specifically the edge of any knife you intend to work on, to keep your precious blood inside. And while we are considering this idea of safety, let me say this..... You take my advice at your own risk. You hurt yourself, it is your fault, or at least it is not my fault, maybe it might be your hamsters fault.... Anyway...
Step 1 - Verify that you have chosen to do this in a safe fashion, and have made safe the edge of your knife. No image, see above.
Step 2 - Assemble your materials, and this will be a long and taxing step, as it will require the arduous task of assembling the knife to be wrapped, the cord to form the base of the wrap, and the tape to finish the wrap. Oh yeah, and another knife to cut the cord and the tape.
Step 3 - Wrap handle of knife with paracord, or paracord shell. I chose to start at the front of the handle. I started it by threading it through the first hole, and then wrapping over that little bit of cord with the first few times around the handle. I took care to keep the wrap fairly tight, and in this case, with little to no space between each succeeding revolution. Note - I like to have my knife and tape ready prior to finishing this step, so that I can easily cut the cord to length at the end of the wrap. And then, start taping the handle to keep the paracord wrap from unravelling.
Step 4 - Wrap the paracord wrap with bat tape. Bat tape is not particularly willing to stretch to fit the contours, but with a little coaxing and some patience, a satisfactory wrap can be had. I like to keep the tape tight during the wrap, and I also like to overlap the tape as I wrap. And I tend to wrap over the handle more than once, 4 seems to be the magic number for me. Note - Have that sharp knife handy, to cut the tape when you are done wrapping.
Voila! You have now created a handle, or improved a handle for your fixed blade knife.
If you choose to continue with this kind of modifications, the combinations of cord and tape can do more complex alterations. For instance, you can thicken a grip, by adding more wraps of tape, or thicker cord. Or you can even modify the shape of the handle, as I did with my Spyderco Hossom Woodlander.
I found the curves of the Spyderco Hossom Woodlander to be a bit fast, or shall we say, too curvy, great to look at, but not so effective for my hand. So I wrapped the index end of the grip with a couple extra wraps of bat tape, focusing on the smallest diameter section, to give it more girth. And I finished by wrapping the entire handle.
The resulting grip is really quite nice.
As a final note, if you were going to apply a handle in a fashion similar to the one I have applied, to a knife like the Mule Team, and were planning on using it with greater than average force, I would suggest a slightly different method. I would suggest that you intertwine the tape and cord, as you applied it, so that the adhesive of the the tape would anchor the cord to the surface of the knife handle. Or alternately, lace the cord through the holes in the handle, to lock the cord to the knife handle, so that it would not slip off. The former method would tend to be thicker, the latter thinner. The method I have outlined above could slip off, like a sock, if an appropriately large force was applied, or twist on the handle. And if you choose the 'cord through the holes' method, it could add some nice topography.
So, there you have it.
A way to create a handle for a knife that does not possess one, and a way to increase the grip security on a knife without sufficient topography or texture.
