Handles?

Need more info to help you out. What kind of knife is it? Does it have a full tang? Stick tang etc. ? What kind of handle do you want to put on it?

Give us some details and we can probably get you headed in the right direction.
 
Hello and welcome to knife making.I'm not picking on you,but this thread reads like -
"I'm driving pretty good on the interstate,how do you stop a car?"
The handle needs to be planned along with the rest of the knife.Study, preparation,and planning are how to successfully make anything.Give us some info on the knife and we will be glad to offer any suggestions on where to go from here.
Get several books on knife making.Go on line and read the many great tutorials on knife making. Check out those,"how to make a knife articles in the suppliers catalogs.And,ask lots of questions (before you start making the knife next time).Again,welcome to our nasty addiction. - Stacy Apelt
 
I hope you have a good respirator, as both of those materails are toxic, to not only you, but any pets that may wander by, your family etc. Gases as well as dust.:eek:
 
Sounds good.

Do you have pin holes drilled in the tang already?

If so, get your handle material and lay the tang on top of it, drill a hole put in a pine, drill another hole put in a pin (just loose fit). When you've got em all in, cut out that scale around the tang. Repeat that step for the other side.
Now put the two scales together without the blade, put all the pins in to line them up real well and shape the front end of the scales how you want them. Put them on the blade from time to time to check it out.
Once you have them shaped, finish the fronts so that you won't have to do any sanding on them and risk scratching the blade up.
Rough shape the scales to get the contour you want.

Now take either a countersink, or a drill bit bigger than the pin holes and lightly chamfer the top of the holes so they don't split when you peen the pins. Do this by hand, you don't need to remove much material at all.

After that, rough up the inside of the scales, and clean the tang with acetone or something to de-grease it. Use some type of 2 part epoxy and glue it all together with the pins in place. Be sure to leave the pin protruding some on both sides. Clamp it up (not too tight, you'll squeeze out all the epoxy) and let it set up.

Now file or grind the pins down so that they only stick up 1/16" an inch or so and lightly peen them.
Now go on and finish sanding the handle, don't remove too much material or you'll take the heads off the pins.

Thats the basic run down for how I do it. If you have any trouble or more specific questions let us know.
 
Stay away from G-10 until you have lots more experience and equipment.Micarta gives of a really bad gas as well as dust.You must wear the PROPER kind of respirator,not just a dust mask.For a beginner,get a set of scales (handle slabs) from a supplier or go to woodcraft if one is in your area.Some good started woods are cocobola,most any stabilized wood (from a supplier), African blackwood,desert ironwood,(and many more). The handle slabs will have to be drilled and fitted to your tang.Depending on how you are attaching it (rivets,Corby fasteners,etc.)you will need to prepare the holes accordingly.The epoxy you use should only make the handle well sealed to the tang.It is not the primary thing holding the scales on.That is the job of the rivets.
 
Matt, i have a related question: could some regular stainless steel tubing function as the handle pin ? I can't buy the real thing (real pins,the ones that leave a flat circle rather than a hollow one like a tube would) anywhere nearby so i'm going to have to resort to some kind of a substitute. I suppose small tube cut to length will develop a "head" (and hold handle slabs in place) if i peen it with a punch ?

Anybody else happens to have any suggestions regarding improvised pins ?
 
Yes you can use tubes, using a punch or something similer it's not hard to roll the edges out. Also pins don't need to be stainless, you can just use pieces of a coat hanger, nails, or very thick wire. Actually most hardware stores carry brass rods also.
 
how I do my holes.

After the blade's profile is done and I made sure its a keeper, I trace the knife on a piece of paper.. Draw my handle shape and place the pins wher I want them to be. Then I drill 1/8" holes for the pin placement. Deburr, and clamp my handle material (with enough extra on all 4 sides) and using the knife as a guide I drill through the tang into the handle material. Then with my paper pattern I draw the front of the handle. Repeat with otherside. Then I use 1/8" rod to pin the 2 handle materials together (without knife) and shape the front. After that is done, I cut the excess from the last 3 sides and drill all my holes to fit the pin that will be used. Then its ready for gluing up and glueing in th pins all at one time. The I sand back to flat (sides) and grind the profile to match the tang. Time to shape after that. Thats really all there is to it for full tang knives. IF you have a bolster just add about 6 hrs and a few (repeated) steps just like you did with the bolsterless handles.

You dont always need to peen the pin heads. If you rough up the handle parts and leave enough "gaps" for the epoxy to collect in just epoxy the pins in and glue it all up. I use small spring clamps. When its all dry and cured (the next day) just grind everything away. You will need to get epoxy thinner to clean the front of the handle off but dont worry with the rest. You will gring that clean ;) Dont get the pins too hot when you gring them it will loosen the epoxy bond. It will make it soft as butter! It wont reharden after this happens.
 
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