Heat Treat before or after drilling?

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blade_walker

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Oct 3, 2017
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Hello everybody. I'm in the process of making my first batch of knives. The shape is done and I'm waiting on a belt grinder so I can bevel. My question is, once the bevel is done, should I heat treat before or after I drill holes in the handle to attach grips? I assume I should drill before heat treat because of how hot the drill gets due to friction. I'm a newbie here, this may seem like a dumb question.. you can make fun of me if you want. Cheers!
 
It's not necessarily how hot the drill gets from friction, it's how hard the tang gets after heat treatment. It's much easier to drill holes in annealed steel than it is hardened steel. Don't forget to put a small chamfer on the holes. Others will also probably tell you to drill the holes slightly bigger than the pin dimensions to allow epoxy to get in/through the tang but also to allow easier fitment of the pins when you are gluing everything together.
 
On a side note: if you've never made a knife before, I wouldn't attack the project as a "batch". I recommend doing one at a time, at least the beveling process, as you will most likely have a steep learning curve here and trash your first attempts. Make each one to completion to the best of your ability at this stage. This will pay dividends with each one you complete being large leaps in success compared to the previous. At least hopefully that's what happens. Post some pictures when you get to that point, and seek all the constructive criticism you can find.
 
blade_walker said:
Hello everybody. I'm in the process of making my first batch of knives. The shape is done and I'm waiting on a belt grinder so I can bevel. My question is, once the bevel is done, should I heat treat before or after I drill holes in the handle to attach grips? I assume I should drill before heat treat because of how hot the drill gets due to friction. I'm a newbie here, this may seem like a dumb question.. you can make fun of me if you want. Cheers!
Click to expand...
 
Thanks everyone for the helpful info! I have the holes drilled and beveled in 1 knife, definitely was harder than I expected. But also a ton of fun. I'll probably do one more tomorrow and another Friday as I have to travel over an hour away to a place to heat treat. I'll post some pictures when I'm finished! Thanks again everybody.
 
Kevin McGovern said:
On a side note: if you've never made a knife before, I wouldn't attack the project as a "batch". I recommend doing one at a time, at least the beveling process, as you will most likely have a steep learning curve here and trash your first attempts. Make each one to completion to the best of your ability at this stage. This will pay dividends with each one you complete being large leaps in success compared to the previous. At least hopefully that's what happens. Post some pictures when you get to that point, and seek all the constructive criticism you can find.
Click to expand...

quoted for truth.

If you don't have all the little tiny incremental size bits, you can also sand down your pin stock (with a little practice). I find the handle material is what's hard to get the pins through, not the tang. Drill tang holes, countersink tang holes, ream tang holes (just drill again if you lack reamers too). The countersink process will likely raise a burr on the inside and surface of the holes.
 
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