Handling techniques

[supercopjason]

Hello,

I got into knife assembling about a year ago and so far have just worked with blade blanks. I have tried to handle the blades a few different ways and still have the same problems. Problem 1: The layers always seem to slip when bonding with epoxy so it kinda messes up my lines. Problem 2: It seems like something always goes wrong while drilling and my holes don't quite line up sometimes.

I'm looking for some advice before I try and learn another aspect of knife making. Thank you in advance.

 

[John Katt]

Put your epoxy on thin, That helps with the sliding problem, And if you don't get your holes perfect you can ream the holes on the blade a little

 

[fishface5]

for aligning the drill holes it helps to
1 mark the locations by drawing a vertical line on the blank, then marking horizontal lines where you want to drill the holes
2 drill holes where the lines intersect with a small bit
3 then use larger bits to increase the hole size
that should result in less variance in hole alignment than drilling full-size holes right off the bat
then you tape each handle scale to the tang individually and use the holes in the tang to guide the drilling of the holes in the scales.
then once the scales are glued and pinned you can do the contouring of the scales

 

[S.Alexander]

I'm not sure how you line your pins up, but I drill the tang holes first. Then clamp one scale under the tang in the position I want it. Then while they are clamped together, guide the drill through the tang hole and through the scale. Once the first hole through the scale is done I stick my pin through tang and scale. Then drill the next hole... And so on.

I hope that helps.

 

[supercopjason]

I'm not sure how you line your pins up, but I drill the tang holes first. Then clamp one scale under the tang in the position I want it. Then while they are clamped together, guide the drill through the tang hole and through the scale. Once the first hole through the scale is done I stick my pin through tang and scale. Then drill the next hole... And so on.

I hope that helps.

Well I had been doing as suggested and drilling the holes in the handle material with the scales taped down but it seemed like one would always slip. I tried a couple by gluing the scales down side by side and drilling the holes after each side was done. I am sure it whatever way I find will work but really didnt know if I was missing something. Thank you guys.

 

[Sandeggo]

One of the best advice I ever read on this forum was to use a few drops of super glue to hold the scale on. You can drill and shape the scales and remove them with a soft mallet whack.

 

[S.Alexander]

Well I had been doing as suggested and drilling the holes in the handle material with the scales taped down but it seemed like one would always slip. I tried a couple by gluing the scales down side by side and drilling the holes after each side was done. I am sure it whatever way I find will work but really didnt know if I was missing something. Thank you guys.

If you're taping them down you can still place a pin through the tang and scale after you drill the first hole. It will prevent the holes from becoming misaligned.

 

[Lo/Rez]

I'm not sure how you line your pins up, but I drill the tang holes first. Then clamp one scale under the tang in the position I want it. Then while they are clamped together, guide the drill through the tang hole and through the scale. Once the first hole through the scale is done I stick my pin through tang and scale. Then drill the next hole... And so on.

I hope that helps.

Same way I've been doing mine.