Traditional Siberian Yakut knives are straightforward to make. All you need is a few simple tools, simple materials and a little patience.
This is a brief overview of the process and materials I use. Feel free to use what you have access to.
To start you’ll need a few materials. A blade ( the one I’m using is made by Anton Salnikov), some leather, wood for the handle and sheath and material for the bolster. Although you can simply make a one-piece wooden handle if you’d like.
For this knife, I chose to use a block of local maple burl broken down into one piece for the handle and two thin slices for the sheath. As well I chose to use a piece of Reindeer antler for the bolster.
The first step is to finish the face of the antler by sanding it to 600 grit. You won’t be able to do so after it is glued in place. Then it’s drilled and filed to fit. This needs to be a tight fit. Even slightly undersized. The softer marrow then lets you tap it down tight.
In case you have any gaps you can apply some Vaseline on the blade side to keep the epoxy from dripping down the blade. Then glue the bolster in place.
While the bolster cures prep the handle material. Draw reference lines to help as guides when drilling. Then drill just slightly deeper than the tang in order to allow room for air.
To glue everything together I use Great Planes Pro Adhesive 6 Minute Epoxy. It’s cheaper than those little hardware store tubes, thinner and better quality.
Handles take quite a bit of epoxy so it helps to have some cheap disposable mixing cups handy too. They make accurate mixing easier and let you just pour the epoxy straight into the handle cavity.
Once the glue dries the handle is squared up. Or more accurately sawn into a rectangular cross-section. Traditional barrel-shaped handles look simple but have to be perfectly symmetrical or your eye will notice the slight variation.
From there the corners are rasped off and the oval shape roughed out.
With the handle roughed out the barrel shape is then finished with sandpaper. The sandpaper works to create a perfectly symmetrical shape by removing both the high and low spots by forming a natural curve around the handle.
Sanding starts with 60 grit paper and works all the way up 600 grit in steps. After moving up in grits you’ll need to check for remaining scratches from previous grits. If there are any make sure to go back a step and remove them. Otherwise, they will show in the final finish.
To make the wooden sheath trace out the blade shape on both sides of the wood blocks. Making sure the tops line up with each other. This will be your guide for chiseling.
It helps to have a selection of chisels however the work can be done with only a 1/2″ chisel.
Make control cuts along your pencil lines. They will set the depth you have to chisel down to and prevent tear out. For this step I just use the knife I’m making the sheath for.
As you chisel go slowly and evenly. Fancier, curly grained wood will tend to tear out and you may need to switch directions or sharpen your chisel.
Once the interior is chiseled out the entire sheath is glued together with Tightbond III. Normal wood glue is not water proof and will not hold up to moisture.
Then rasp the lower portion to shape. Making sure to leave ridges near the top to hold the leather upper in place.
For the upper leather part all you need are basic leatherworking tools and a small piece of leather. I use a small basic toolset from Tandy Leather that comes with everything needed.
To hold it all together a simple stitching pony can be made with a 2X4, a carriage bolt and wing nut. As seen above.
From there the leather is moistened, wrapped around the knife and sheath, clamped in the stitching pony and stitched together.
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