Svord Peasant Knife Rehandle

Folding knives have been somewhat off my radar for a few years. It’s been pretty much fixed blades or nothin’, but after dealing with the carry difficulties presented by a fixed blade in an office setting, the folding knife has resurfaced as the easiest option to always have a blade at hand. In the bushcraft community, Opinels and Svords seem to be the ruling folders, and they are both priced at a point that I didn’t mind paying to experiment on. The Svord came with the blue plastic handle, and although the steel is of reportedly good quality, the finish on the knife was on par with what would be expected for $15 – not great, but good enough. It is a knife that calls itself the “Peasant,” after all!

Knowing that the handle was going to be tossed aside, the original remodel was based around a pair of 1/4″ thick Leopardwood scales. It’s a beautiful red-brown wood with a super interesting grain, and sadly, the scales were wasted by some poor initial planning on my part. I’ve matured (or whatever you want to call it) to the point where I am self-aware of my tendency to rush a first attempt at anything. The blade on the Svord swivels around a pivot screw, as do most folders, but hits a brass stop, both in it’s open and closed position. It’s an ingenious design, and ancient apparently, but it also makes laying out the handle an exercise in accuracy.

After screwing up the Leopardwood, I fell back to some thin brown Micarta that was already on hand, and a simple, straight, and thin handle profile. I reground the blade a tad, blued it, added an aluminum liner, and swapped out the screws for black hardware. It doesn’t match the vision I had in my head when I started the project, but it’s going to be a good little pocket blade, I think.

As it was:

As it is: