FNG to forum and knife making

[R. William Nelson]

Hey all, thanks for taking time to read.

The name's Randy. I've been browsing/creeping on here. Just looking to get into knife making but for now I'm reading/researching.

The reason I'm writing is this: a good friend of mine found out I wanted to get into knife making. Turns out he already had a couple of blanks he'd purchased awhile back but hasn't done anything with. He gave them to me to finish as I please with only 2 stipulations: 1 has to have a "more natural" handle and one with "something just a little different but not crazy." I'm thinking of using this (or something similar) for the "more natural" and this for the "something different" (he told me his favorite color is blue). I'll get pictures of the blanks up soon as I can. I left them at my parents house since I'll be setting up my shop there (I live in a small cabin in the woods with my wife a 9 month old son, no room here).

The BIG question I have is about adhesives. Since I already have good blanks I really want to make sure I do the scales correctly. I'm looking at using a spacing material of some type, and have read multiple write ups on here about first time knife making and such, but want to make sure I'm 100% confident in how to do this before ruining my buddies blanks. Is this a good place to start? Is there anything else I need to use?

Thanks in advance. Loving the forum and hope to learn more each day and hopefully be making my own blades soon.

 

[12345678910]

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/s...-and-the-houston-area?p=14113008#post14113008


The answers to damn near every question you are going to ask are in that list of links and info including glue




Dymond wood is a reasonable material to start with.


With regard to liners, try the thin G10 from Alpha knife supply
He's got it going on for a large selection of thin material and a ton of small sizes at reasonable prices
http://www.alphaknifesupply.com/micarta.htm


Some makers like
"Making a Sub-hilt Fighter with Steven R. Johnson" use CA glue

My belief is that the epoxy should provide as sealing layer to keep moisture off the steel

For that I like epoxy.

See that link for more info hardware store epoxy is designed to fail

 

[R. William Nelson]

I read that link before, posted this, then found it again. My bad.

Thanks for the info. I'll look into the liner link you provided.

 

[R. William Nelson]

Here's a few progress pics. Haven't had a lot of time to spend on these. If I'm not allowed to post these or they need moved please feel free to lock/move this thread and let me know. Thanks! Sorry for the crappy cell pics.

 

[jobasha11]

It seems you've already pinned it on...so my advice for next time is to trace the handle onto the scales and get them mostly to shape BEFORE you attach them. Also finish the front portion(part that meets the ricasso) as much as you can beforehand also because, as your probably finding out, its very hard to work that are without damaging the blade.

Keep at it

 

[R. William Nelson]

It seems you've already pinned it on...so my advice for next time is to trace the handle onto the scales and get them mostly to shape BEFORE you attach them. Also finish the front portion(part that meets the ricasso) as much as you can beforehand also because, as your probably finding out, its very hard to work that are without damaging the blade.

Keep at it

Thanks for the advice man. Truly.

I pinned them on but haven't adhered them and can still remove them. I don't have a bandsaw or drill press. Used a hand drill and was trying to get a rough shape without having to use JUST the files I have (dad has about 20 files I am using...for free ).

I will be removing them again to get a better, more refined shape by hand.