granite handle on a knife

[Jaegers Forge and Foundry]

I went hiking in Colorado and went hiking on a trail with a lot of black granite.

I've seen knives with granite handles in the past an was wondering what the best way to tackle this is? Hidden tang? full tang? will it crack if i drill into it? How should I cut it to shape?  

[George N. M.]

Dear Jaegers,

You are talking about a different craft, lapidary, which can be as absorbing and complicated as metal work.  Basically, you have to create slabs of rock, granite, jade, agate, petrified wood, dinosaur bone, etc. by using a water cooled saw with a diamond blade.  There are specialist lapidary saws but you might be able to get by with a diamond bladed tile saw.  Then, you have to polish at least one side of the slabs using wet polishing with increasingly finer grits.  That is a whole other process.  Stone can be drilled but again you need a diamond bit and water cooling.  Most stone grips I have seen have been on full tang knives and are cut to the shape of the tang.  AFAIK, they are often mounted with epoxy.  A local lapidary club may be able to help you.  Good luck.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

[Welshj]

Depending on how big the pieces of granite were- you could break it up into smaller chunks, and cast it into a clear resin. Shape as best as possible, and epoxy it to the tang?

[Bob Brandl]

I wouldn't fool with it.

[Jaegers Forge and Foundry]

1 hour ago, Welshj said:

Depending on how big the pieces of granite were- you could break it up into smaller chunks, and cast it into a clear resin. Shape as best as possible, and epoxy it to the tang?

that is a good idea I never thought of that

by the way it is around the size of a pineapple or a cantaloupe

Edited June 8, 2020 by Jaegers Forge and Foundry

[Frosty]

There are rock shops and rock clubs,  "Gem and Mineral Societies" as the generally prefer to be called. Contact one and they'll know who to see about having your rock slabbed and rough cut probably drilled for pins too, for the leaves. Once you get them fastened you'll probably want to have them cut and polished to finish. It'll probably cost you a couple few hundred dollars but that'll be much cheaper than a decent rock saw. A diamond masonry saw works okay on some minerals and thicknesses but it takes such a slow even pressure you really want an automatic feed and that lets a masonry saw out.

Granite is very hard, worse it's tough and every speckle is a different hardness and crystal so it cuts with every change differently.

Polished it's beautiful stone and would make a spectacular knife. You might want to keep the idea in mind until you get to at least proficient skill levels as a bladesmith or it'll be like putting thousand dollar wheels on a $100 car.

Frosty The Lucky.

[ThomasPowers]

Don't forget weight!  To get some experience, check with a granite countertop installer, they may have some small pieces you can experiment with.  The tooling they use to round a counter edge might also work to rough out a handle shape.  I remember back in the early 1980's there was a maker that used to do jade handles for his knives. *very* nice. and lots of 000's on the prices.

Also "loose" rocks often have internal fractures; slabbing it will generally let you know if you can continue.

[Kozzy]

Others have covered it pretty well--usually full tang, slab and drill for cross pins, mount, grind on water cooled diamond wheels, work up abut 6 grits to a polish stage.  LOTS of work and not a great first lapidary project due to the high "cost" of simple mistakes.

There are people who do this.  I know of one specifically who uses higher end stone on old knives to make some remarkable stuff that sells for big bucks.  He searches for the older knives that have broken handles and sell for a couple of bucks...and turns them into art which sells for several hundred bucks.

Lapidary tends to not be a cheap entry-level hobby.  As an example, I just bought a new 6" sintered diamond wheel for my machine and that single 120 grit wheel was $200 USD.  A local club as many have mentioned is the best way to get access and help for little money.  Most clubs absolutely love to help teach if you treat them with respect in your contacts.

[Jaegers Forge and Foundry]

ok thanks for the advice I think I'm going to wait

[Frosty]

Good idea. Keeping your projects as simple as possible is a good way to finish them. The more you finish the better you'll get and after a while things like fancy handles and furniture aren't so difficult.

Stone handles also tend to be fragile.

Frosty The Lucky.