Inspired by Lin Rhea’s “X-RHEA” knives, this is my take on forging skeletonized handles. The handles are formed by punching a hole, drifting the hole (enlarging the hole by forcing a conical drift(s) through it), further expanding the hole on the horn of the anvil (similar to forging a bottle opener, but quite a bit larger loop/hole) and then collapsing the loop to form the handle. This is a very different process than the X-RHEA handles where the tang is stretched out, folded back on itself and then riveted back to the base to close the loop.
The photos below shows the process progression of forging the handle for a smaller blade (1/4″ x 1″ bar stock), and an intermediate sized handle in progress (for larger handles I’ve been forging the loop to around 3 inch diameter.)
Couple finished examples in CruForgeV, 1095 and 1095/15N20 Damascus, varying the handle thickness/size/weight depending on application:
