Flared thong tube?

PIndelicato

PIndelicato

Joined
Sep 16, 2002
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I have 2 blades getting close to handle installation that I plan on trying a thong tube in, but I'm not sure how to go about it the right way. Does anyone have a link to a tutorial or a process they'd be willing to share?

I normally epoxy the handle scales and pins in place, then shape everything down for the most part after that's done. Should I wait until after glue-up to drill the thong hole? Do you do your rough shaping/reduction and then countersink the holes?

Thanks in advance for any help!
 
Just rough up the out side of the tube and using liberal amounts of epoxy press it in to place. Clean the inside of the tube with a Q-tip and acetone. When its all hardened up sand the tubes flush and use a counter set to slightly bevel the edges of the tube.
I only flare tubes that are set in soft material, like stall-mat.
 
Thanks for the input, guys. I found tutorials on how to actually flare the tubing, but couldn't sort out in my mind what steps to do in which order.

For example, if I drill the thong hole in advance before glue-up, then it would fill up with epoxy without the tube in place. If I drill the hole and countersink it before glue-up, and epoxy the tube in place, then I (think) I may remove too much material rough shaping the scales, thus removing the countersink in the handle material that I put in in the first step.
 
I like to drill all holes before any major shaping. This way if there's any chip-out from the drill passing through, it will be ground away.

Don't fret about the thong hole filling with epoxy; you can either wipe the excess out with a swab and acetone like bikermike said, or just re-drill it. Epoxy drills pretty easily. Then you can shape your handle close to the finished size, counter-sink as desired, epoxy in your tube, and finish shaping.

I do this with mosaic pins because they're pricy and I hate to grind away/waste any more than I have to.
 
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Thanks guys, I was concerned that re-drilling the hole to clean out the epoxy might introduce some 'error' in the hole that would show around the tube in the finished product (any visible gaps, chips, etc. around pins on finished knives bugs me) but now that I think about it, I would be countersinking as a later step anyway and that should eliminate any issues with the holes being oversize or out-of-round, along with the flared tube accomplishing the same thing.

Is this not a good idea to try with wood handle materials? I'm pretty certain I've seen knives with a flared thong tube in natural handle materials...
 
You need to take some care not to crack your wood,

First place the thong hole away from the edge of the handle as much as possible.

Choose a good wood that is crack resistant deser ironwood is good, ebony is really bad. Burls are good since the grain is not straight.

Make the countersink really shallow, you dont need much depth to hold the handles and tube in place.

Keep a close watch on the tube when flairing, just fill the countersink, any more may put enough pressure on to crack the wood. Flip the knife over to make sure the flairing is even. I also glue the tube in place prior to flairing so the tube will not move side to side when flairing.
 
Patrickknives said:
You need to take some care not to crack your wood,

First place the thong hole away from the edge of the handle as much as possible.

Choose a good wood that is crack resistant deser ironwood is good, ebony is really bad. Burls are good since the grain is not straight.

Make the countersink really shallow, you dont need much depth to hold the handles and tube in place.

Keep a close watch on the tube when flairing, just fill the countersink, any more may put enough pressure on to crack the wood. Flip the knife over to make sure the flairing is even. I also glue the tube in place prior to flairing so the tube will not move side to side when flairing.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your tips. I had planned linen micarta for one, so I don't see any problem there. The other I was thinking about curly black walnut but I'm a wood 'dummie' so I don't know if that would be a good choice or not. I suppose I could just countersink the micarta one for now and put in a straight thong tube in the other one.

Thanks again to all for the advice.
 
Paul you dont need to do that .When i flared the thong tube most of the time youll crack the wood and then its screwed . I use my de burring tool and the glue will hold it in place . A deburring tool can be bought at any gun shop for reloading shells works deadly. kellyw
 
You guys need to learn about little (1 ounce) hammers!
Flaring tubing is so easy that I can teach anyone to properly do it in 15 minutes.
All you need is a tapered punch larger than the diameter of the tubing. You can countersink your material with a pocket knife. Leave the tubing 1/16" longer than the hole on each side. Tap the punch with the little hammer. You are not forging steel-just a few light taps will do all you need.
 
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