This past weekend our son asked if we could do a little father-son project and make a wooden karambit. Now I’ve never made any karambit (or any knife) before, but I am fairly familiar with them and their design. So I said sure, let’s see what scrap wood we have laying around.

I found some 3/4″ thick poplar left over from some cabinet doors I had made. I decided to cut that down into about 3/8″ thick. I also had some leftover sapele wood from another project that was about 1/4″ thick. Not only were the sizes right, but the contrast between the blade and scales (handle) would look great.

I free-hand drew a blade design onto the poplar, and then off to the bandsaw we went. We took a few minutes to cut out the design, ensuring to stay on the outside of the line so we had room to sand it down to size later.

Once we had it rough cut, we took it over to the bandsaw and drilled out the finger hole using a 5/8″ bit. Now it was time to sand. We used the oscillating spindle sander with a few different sized sleeves to sand out the different arcs and the finger hole.

Now it was time to cut out the scales so we traced the tang onto the sapele and drew out the rest of the design. Then off to the bandsaw, again cutting outside of our lines so we had room to sand out later. Once we had the scales cut, we glued and pin nailed them in place; then back to the spindle sander we went.

A few minutes back on the spindle sander with 120 grit and this wooden karambit was looking good. We switched out the sleeves to a 180 grit to give it another few passes and to rough in some finger grooves and then finished it up with some 220 grit.

I wanted to use some oil on this wooden karambit to bring out the beauty in the wood, but my son really wants to paint it. What a terrible thing to do to the beautiful sapele! Alas, it is for him so I just conceded to take a few pics before he ruined it with the paint…

Overall this wooden karambit was an easy project, and only took about 2 hours from start to finish. And that’s with us just winging it. If (or when) we make another, I’m certain it will be a much quicker process. More importantly, it was some great quality time with my son and I got to show him a few tips and techniques on three different machines.

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