If you need a marking knife to create better joinery, one of the best ways is to buy a marking knife kit and make your own.
There are several premade choices our there, and there are also ways to forge your own blade. However, for most people getting a kit and making your own handle is the easiest option to owning a unique woodworking marking knife.
DIY Woodworking Marking Knife
One popular kit is by Narex, which retails for about $18 and comes with a thin or thick blade. Another alternative, the one I got, is by Mikov.
The Mikov marking knife kits were nicely packaged in these small containers. Inside, you’ll also get two small brass rods. for attaching your won handles.
These are available as straight knives or with finger indents. I got them both just to get a feel of which one I prefer. The marking knives were very sharp right out of the box.
You can literally see how sharp they are in the pictures. Overall, very good quality for the price.
Assembling The Mikov Marking Knife Kit
The process is the same as any other knife. You’ll need two pieces of wood for the handles.
If you can create a book-matched handle by splitting a piece of lumber with the bandsaw or table saw, you get a better-looking handle.
I decided to use cutoffs from pieces of stabilized box elder wood. I almost threw these away a few months ago as they’ve been stuck in the scraps box for more than a year.
Use a LOT of blue painters tape to secure the cutting edges. They are extremely sharp, and will most definitely cause some kind of injury as you’ll need to be handling these marking knives for assembly and shaping.
I drilled a hole and did a test fit for the brass rods. Everything fit snug but not too tight. If you find that the brass rods are too large, sand them down a bit instead of trying to force them in.
I used 15-minute epoxy to secure everything in place. After about 2 hours, the epoxy had fully cured and I sawed off the excess brass.
Then, it’s a lot of shaping and sanding. I mean, a lot.
I went with very basic, straight shapes. If you’re doing this kit, my advice is to take some time to plan how the handle will be shaped and contoured. Once you epoxy everything into place, there are fewer design options.
Overall, these Mikov marking knife kits turned out great. With a little bit of work, you can have unique woodworking marking knifes that are high quality and razor sharp.
If you’re not into DIY (really??) and just want something you can use right away, the handled Mikov marking knife cost just $14. That’s just $3 more than the unhandled kit, but you lose the fun of making your own marking knife.
