Split Handle Hafting

This is a trick I learned from the perfectly preserved Saqqaq Palaeoeskimo tools in Greenland. If you make knife handles in two halves then its relatively simple to carve out the socket.

I get the blade to fit in the socket and make sure that the join between the two halves is flush before carving down the outside of the handle.

You can see in the illustration next to the reproduction that the final step is wrapping a lashing material around and around the handle to hold the two halves together.  The Saqqaq people used baleen on their knife handles, but you could use any type of string, leather or cord.

Photo Credits: Tim Rast