Handles?

[a_poratos]

Hi everyone I'm pretty new to knifemakeing well acctually really new and I am trying to find out different handle mounting techniques and how to do them, I am looking to make a bowie type knife and the handle is going to have a nickel silver butt cap and no rivets how do you moung it without the rivets? thanks

 

[ddavelarsen]

Based on what you're saying, I'm guessing you will do a through tang handle with the end threaded for your butt cap. In this case you would drill through the handle material to fit the tang. I didn't see a tutorial specific to this but you should check out Dan Gray's tutorial page. He has links to most of the knifemaking tutorials other makers have written.

Good luck and welcome to the forum!

 

[a_poratos]

Thanks Dave but how about a tang that doesnt have threads on the end with a really thin or mabye even not haveing a butt cap? thanks for the welcome

 

[ddavelarsen]

In that case you can use a stub tang, fixed in the handle either with a pin going through the handle and tang or simply by relying on epoxy. If epoxy only, file or grind some notches in the tang and leave the inside of the tang hole rough and uneven. This will give the epoxy something to "hold onto." You can afix the thin butt cap by soldering a short length of allthread to it and epoxying that into a matching hole in the handle.

Shape guard, handle and butt cap all in one operation after everything is put together. I always recommend letting your epoxy cure for 24 hours. That's the hardest part.

Good luck!