Fitting handle scales

[ErikD]

I am trying to get into knifemaking, and am having some problems firring the scales to the blade properly. I am trying to make a basic no frills fixed blade. I bought a damascus blank and samber stag scales while at the ECCKS. When I got into the shop and tried fitting them together I kept getting small spaces between the steel and stag. For this project I decided to cut my losses, before I ended up with a pile uf steel and stage dust.

In the future I want to get some plain steel to grind my own blades. I am more interested in a tactical type knife, with micarta, G-10, or carbon fiber scales. I was kinda thinking that getting these materials to fit up nicely would be easier than the stag and damascus. Am I way off base here?

I was using the Delta 1" belt/5" disc sander to try and get everything flat. I did some scale replacement projects with micarta and I had no problems getting a nice fit between the scales and the knife.

Also, any tips on how to get the scales sit tightly against the steel in the future would be appreciated. I am guessing at the moment that working with flatter materials, and practice will be the answer.

 

[Nathan House]

I am not one for stage but an easy way to drill it is drill it from the bottom of the scale,handsand it flat on a surface.
then get a piece of channel stock and drill some hole in it the top
clamp your balde and scale on the bottom of the block and drill
through the holes on the channell and repeat for the other side.
I hope you can understand what I am saying.
For G10(My favorite)or Micarta I put both of the scale together
and square them up and then drill through your knife hole right into both
sets of scales that are clamped together to the knife tang.the holes will be perfect and there is not chance of one not getting lined up
Hope this helps
PS A little tip to see if the stag is sanding flat is to rub some magic marker on the back and sand it you will see the high and low spots

 

[L6steel]

Erik, the hard part with stag is the tang side is seldom if ever flat and it's near impossible to get it that way on a grinder. I tried that for ages until someone on the knife list told me the best way was to hand sand it on a flat surface. I thought it would take eons to get it flat but it didn't. 60 grit sand paper eats stag real fast! Get the stag flat and there shouldn't be any gaps between it and the tang.