Fillet knives questions

panch0

panch0

Joined
Jun 16, 2008
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When making a fillet knife my greatest fear is the scales coming loose when the user flexes the blade. I put corby bolts around 3/4" from the front of the handles. In this instance the steel being used is 1/16" ats 34 at 58-59 RC. Would this be sufficient on keeping the scales on securely. I haven't had a problem yet on this yet. I just want to confirm that I am doing this right. Thanks in advance.
 
The difference between the width of the blade and handle on mine is such that all the flex is in the blade so I dont see an issue. If you have the blade and handle at the same width you will probably see some flex on the front of the handle.
 
I never made a fillet knife, but I would think your approach of using Corby's is a good one. The scale itself would probably fail (crack apart around the bolt) before the Corby's pull apart, IF there's that much flex in the tang itself. Which I doubt very much.

You may be over-thinking or over-engineering the issue a little, but that's good! I think you're giving your customers a little extra peace of mind and I'd be mighty surprised if a fillet made the way you described, had the scales come loose.
 
I think it depends more on the scale material. My current project is a fillet for a Northern Pike a friend has in his freezer. Two sets of Corian scales both snapped. I figured wood would eventually work loose so I am now using Titanium.
 

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Titanium looks cool. I am using cocobolo. I can see where corian might snap. I have a cocobolo one out with a customer for over a year and one with micarta for a little less than a year and haven't heard anything negative. Thanks guys!
 
Here it is about 95% complete. It has some flex and no sing of it stressing the scales. I thinned out the blade a bit. It was about 5/52" wider at the blade before I thinned it out.

1/16" ATS34
Cocobolo
12.5" OAL
7" balde

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It looks good , Frank and the Corbys will work fine. I made several with the 1/16 and the Corbies. My wife has one in a kitchen drawer she uses that I made many years ago. Frank
 
Not to intrude on your thread, but I liked your blade style so much, I re-cut mine. I also did a little grinding on the edges of the Ti scales to give them a slight bevel.
 

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1/20" bandsaw blade, most likely 15n20. I was careful when I ground it so I didn't heat it up too much because I didn't want to have to HT it without knowing the exact metal.
 
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