Finishing pins in stag

[C L Wilkins]

I am in the process of finishing two blades with sambar stag scales. I was wondering what some of you folks do to finish the pins in the stag. I am using 1/4 inch pins and some of the pin is in the ridge and some of it is in the "valley". This of course makes for an uneven pin height. What I have done in the past is grind the pin to match the contour of the stag using a dremel tool. I have also filled in the "valley" with coloured or dyed epoxy.
What are some of the "tricks" that you guys do?

C Wilkins

 

[BARRY JONES]

Most of the time i use a dremel tool to grind the pins even with the stag and buff them.

Sometimes the pins end up in a spot where you would have to sand the stag down too much and it makes it less attractive (I hate that). IMO, the texture of the stag should be sanded down as little as possible.

 

[Dr.Lathe]

This is something I just started doing when I switched to the Locktite Primer and glue.
I glue one scale at a time using only two temporary pins for alignment. Once one side is glued on, I drill the remaining pins or lanyard holes in the attached scale. Then I glue the other side in the same manor. At that point I drill the through all the remaining holes.
All the pins that end up in the "stag vallies" I round and polish the end with my Bear Tex wheel before gluing them in. This give them a finished look without touching the surounding stag. Sometimes the pins end up in vallies on both ends so holding the pin length while polishing both ends is important. It's doesn't take much more time that trying to finish the pin heads with out ruining the stag material.
Neil

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[thknives]

I drill all the required holes in the stag, give the holes a very slight countersink by hand (what I am actually doing is breaking the sharp corners in case the stag shrinks) and align all with dummy pins. Once I am finished shaping the handle totaly I remove one of the pins and measure the pin lenght required to fit properly.
I make a pin slightly longer (.5mm)and polish the surface on a felt wheel, so they are slightly rounded. This helps on any natural material, with shrinkage being so common, you get no sharp edges when this happens.
Now I do the other pin, don't forget to mark the pins, as it happens one is always longer then the other, especially in stag.
I found this way the pins fit nicely into the valleys without grinding or fussing around.
I stain the top inside of the pinhole with stag dye on either side and glue up the handle with the finished pins, making sure they go in the proper hole. Clean all epoxy off before it hardens.

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