headspinner

LARRYZ10

LARRYZ10

Joined
Feb 6, 2010
Messages
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I have just epoxied my first set of deer antler scales and have drilled (2) 3/32
hole for pins. One side has holes in the grooves of the antler and the other side has peaks.

I have seen and ordered a headspinner which my catalog says is a must for jigged bone and antler.

How do I use this tool? Are the pins supposed to hold the scales on or just the epoxy.

I have been making knives for less than a year and would appreciate some kind soul giving me some advice. Thanks, Larry Lehman
 
My spinner has a base that it sits in on the drill press platform.Another goes in the drill press chuck and you put the knife(pin) between the two spinners while holding pressure with the drill press as it turns.Im not sure what you ordered.
 
If the holes are lined up with the peaks on one side of stag I'll take a little burr in a dremel tool and clean a spot out for the pin.
Never used a spinner. I have a piece of steel with a hole the size of my pin stock. Stick the pin in and just out of one side a little...clamp the pin in a vise and dome the end to make a rivit head. Buff it good. then you can put it in your knife and messure and cut glue it in and dome the other side with a punch. Spinner might work good on that side.. Good luck and let us know how you make out.
Welcome to the forums.
Mace
 
The spinner I ordered is a one piece six or eight sided rod with a hole in each end . It says to fit 1/8 , 3/32, and 1/16 pins. The two piece spinner tool you describe sounds like it would work for me. Where did you find this set? Thank you for offering your advice. I have built my first 75 knives with manufactured or hand made blades that I only had to redrill and sometimes regrind the profile but have never built a hidden tang or worked with antler before. I had to teach myself by trial and error. Thank you for taking time to help me out! Larry Lehman, Bakersfield,CA
 
I have a head spinner, but have only done a couple of knives with it. The results, though, were gratifying. Following are the steps I use. Other experts out there might have different ways of doing this.

* Use brass pins to go through your antler scales. Stainless is more difficult to spin.
* Do your glue up and make sure to wipe off excess epoxy from around the brass pins before it sets up.
* When your glue cures, finish the shaping and finishing of the handle.
* Grind the pins almost to the level of the surface of the antler material.
* Chuck up the spinner in the drill press, put something flat and metal directly under the pin you are going to spin for support.
* Make sure the pin is perpendicular to the table so your force in spinning is not angled.
* Spin the pin. The spinner will shape the top of the pin round and cut away some antler around the pin. Stop when you are satisfied with the look. It might be necessary to clean out your spinner from time to time.
* Turn the knife over and do the other side to match.

You don't really need fancy contraptions to do this operation, just the spinner will do. Good luck.
 
I forgot to answer the other question you had regarding the purpose of the pins. Epoxy or glue of any kind will not permanently or securely hold on knife handle scales. There must be some kind of additional mechanical way of attaching them. This can be done using pins, Corby bolts, Loveless style bolts, rivets, mosaic pins, thong hole tubes, or whatever. If you look at knives made in the early part of the 20th century, those with scales used only pins or rivets (no glue). I have a 14" butcher knife used by my wife's grandfather (a professional butcher) that is hand forged, has a tapered tang, and has pinned hard rock maple scales. After about 80 to 90 years it is all still intact and I use it to cut pizza. Glue obviously has some binding usefulness, but mostly seals the joints from moisture.
 
I think that the reason you won't often see glue under the handle scales of an early 20th century knife is that high strength epoxies had not yet been developed.

For pinning stag, I have in the past drilled the hole for the fastener, cut a piece of nickel silver, etc. down a little oversized in length, chucked the pin(s) into a hand drill, and domed them first on the belt grinder and the buffer. After that, they are slid through with epoxy.
 
It looked likle a six or eight sided tool in the picture in Jantz Knife suppy but it arrived as a 1/4 inch rod. I am not really happy with it so far. I am going to try a 3/32 nail set tip that is concaved and pointed set in a hard wood block on my drill press table with another nail set chucked in above and spin both sides at once gently a little at a time so as not to even touch the antler. Im sorry to be so late in replying. Larry
 
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