Christmas Daggers (finished pics added)

Richard338

Richard338

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Christmas is near and thoughts turn to family and daggers.
My son and I are making a pair of push daggers (two for the second day of Christmas).

They are A2, 1/8" thick. We got them profiled nearly identically by drilling the pin holes first and then temporarily pinning them stacked together with three brass pins while we did the profile.
They will go to Peter's tomorrow for heat treat at 60 RHC.
I have some nice stabilized wood in purple and green and will attempt domed pins (stainless on the purple and brass on the green).
MvZlq4M.jpg
 
They look beautiful so far. I would skip the stainless pins personally if you are domeing. In my experience stainless work hardens. I would use nickel silver. Way easier to work with without having to whoop the dog out of the pins.
 
v8r said:
They look beautiful so far. I would skip the stainless pins personally if you are domeing. In my experience stainless work hardens. I would use nickel silver. Way easier to work with without having to whoop the dog out of the pins.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I read some old threads about peening and doming pins and some of the possible issues with stresses etc. I'm planning to follow a suggestion by Salem Straub which is to simply cut them a little long and shape the domes on a belt. I will roughen them and epoxy it all together. The only thing missing is some of the mechanical stability of the peening, but I'll skip worrying about a few issues (good since I haven't peened any pins yet).
 
They always told me to make them yourself.

I have peened stainless steel with succes but you have to anneal them well before you start.
 
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Thanks for the input guys, I have a bit of time to decide (I just mailed them off for HT).
I guess if I try peening I can set up a practice run...
 
Amazing wood. Looking good. Make this a wip and continue with pics when ya got work going on.
 
KnuckleDownKnives said:
Where do you find a set of punches like that?
Click to expand...

Looks like Midway sells a set of Wheeler punches with hemi tips for 19.99. It has 9 sizes from 1/16" to 5/16"

Edit to add: never mind, I think those punches are the opposite of what I want

Bill's video makes it look easy enough for me to try...

Horsewright, I'll certainly post some more progress once I get them back.
 
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Richard338 said:
Thanks for the input guys, I have a bit of time to decide (I just mailed them off for HT).
I guess if I try peening I can set up a practice run...
Click to expand...
Nick Wheeler has good vids on doming pinns on youtube, they helped me a lot
 
Hengelo_77 said:
Nick Wheeler has good vids on doming pinns on youtube, they helped me a lot
Click to expand...
Thanks, yeah I've been reading a few old threads trying to sort out a strategy. I'll check out the Wheeler vids. Stacy recommended some cup burs for rotary tools. Looks like Rio Grande has some nice ones.
 
Hengelo_77 said:
They always told me to make them yourself.

I have peened stainless steel with succes but you have to anneal them well before you start.
Click to expand...
Really? Wish I had known that before I had completed my last knife. Peening the stainless steel pins was a grueling process.
 
Hey my work area looks like Bills' can I do it that easy? No, really, that is some pretty quick work.
 
I use peened pins on almost all the knives i make. Mine are true domed pins so there is a mechanical hold when completed.
If it wasn’t such a pain to post pictures here i would attach a picture of the jig i recently made to assist in doming one end of the pin before you install it in the handle. If you are on Facebook i posts a picture of the jig recently on the Texas Knifemakers guild page.
 
Sprayman said:
Really? Wish I had known that before I had completed my last knife. Peening the stainless steel pins was a grueling process.
Click to expand...

I’m going to have to try that next time as well. They started out ok, but soon got to where the metal was just not moving anymore.
 
I use a modified ball peen hammer for domed pins. I'm not an expert on them, but I found stainless to be a nightmare. Part of that could be that I was using tig filler rod, but softer is still better. I haven't used nickel silver myself, but copper, annealed brass, and sterling silver all work very well. Sterling was very nice to work with.
 
While they were out for HT, I thought about the various peening suggestions.

Based on advice I decided to go with nickel silver and brass and stay away from stainless.
I didn't go full Wheeler, but I made a little 416 stainless block with 3 sizes of holes drilled in it, and a couple of divets.
I took some brass and micarta and did a couple practice runs starting one side using the block and then putting it through the material and finishing the other side (using the divet to hold the back)

rAvhXC9.jpg


I got the blades back and did the grinds, and then glued up the handles with 6 temporary stainless pins, with bends in them.
Even coating them with vaseline, I was glad for the bend so I could twist them and break them free.
I just peened in the pins and only need to do a final sharpening.
The wood looks really nice.

hkSvpl5.jpg


ie8OZZY.jpg
 
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