Any tips for drilling MOP?

Sean O'Hare

Sean O'Hare

Joined
Jul 24, 2003
Messages
1,183
Okay I have a knife I need to make with MOP scales. They are fairly thick scales (about 3/16" thick) and are going on a full tang fixed blade. They will be held on with screws so I will be drilling a couple of sizes of holes and will definitely have to drill at least one hole (well a counter sink) starting from the front of the scales.

Other than using sharp drill bits any other tips or tricks I should know about?

Thanks for any help you can give.

Sean
 
Hi Sean
I use a medium/high speed to do my mop, But I find that the most important thing is to have a rigid setup with the mop clamped firmly. I always clamp a pc. of cold rolled flat bar in my milling m/c vise and hanging out 4 or 5 inches. this gives you lots of clamping room. Then drill the size of hole i'm doing into the steel before starting. Then you clamp down your work pc. to the plate and drill away. If i'm going to counter bore the holes I will put a dowel in the plate to locate the hole in my part and I generally use an endmill of the coresponding size of the screw head ,set my depth stop and counterbore all my holes. I find that I can production line this way and not be switching back and forth drill to c/bore. One other thing that can help with chipping is put a layer of masking tape on the face of the pearl. Never had a problem so far.
Paul
www.savageknives.ca
savageknives@golden.net
 
Ha ha ha! Good one.

Thanks for the suggestions Paul I appreciate it. An endmill would definitely help with chipping problems, at least I think it would. Makes sense in my little mind!

I'll let you know how it went.

Sean
 
Put a drop of water where you are going to drill to help lube the drill bit and keep dust to a min.
Use a sharp drill and back the pearl up with a piece of micarta or wood to keep the drill from fracturing the pearl when it breaks through.
 
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