HELP! Re-handling/handling blade blanks

timcsaw

timcsaw

Joined
Sep 25, 2007
Messages
21,442
Hey fellers... I need some help with some aspects of putting handles (scales) on blade blanks. I've read through all of the "newb" threads I can find (thanks all) and did get some good pointers, but I'm still not satisfied with how my finished blades are turning out.

The blanks I am using come with mirror polished blades, spines and usually with mirror polished bolsters/guards installed. All I really do is the woodwork (made a couple knives from leaf spring steel but my body isn't up to doing it again:o).

My two problems involve the transition point between the handle material, and the mirror polished bolsters, and the transition point on the polished blade/handle spine and the scales. I'm hoping some pictures will help to show my issues.

Here is a picture of what I'm working with to start;
attachment.php

Polished blade, bolster, and spine with rough shaped scales/handles.
==========================================

So to get a nice, flush transition along the edge of the wood and the spine of the blade handle, I'll fit them, and temporarily pin them to hold them in place while I put them to the belt sander to flush everything up (there goes the nice polished steel handle spine). To get a nice flush transition between the sides of the scales and the side of the bolsters, I carefully hand shape, check fit, shape and check fit until I'm close... Sure would be nice to just create THIS transition on the belt sander also, but then I'd have no mirror finish on the bolster/guard... nice fit, but lousy finish.

I've attached some BIG pictures with examples which I think, show the problems I'm having.

What am I doing wrong? How do I get the flush fit between the wood and spine without ruining the polished edge of the blank (maybe I just have to re-sand/polish the edge before final assembly?)? How do I get the flush fit between the wood and the side of the polished sides of the bolsters (again, re-sand/polish before assembly)? Seems like there must be an easier technique that I am missing or something... any ideas?
 
Many knifemakers finish the scales before attaching them. I've never had good luck with that so I finish the handle material at the ricasso, glue and pin the scales on, let the glue cure, grind the pins down flat, then grind the scales down to the spine. Thats when i finish the spine. After that I shape and finish the rest of the scales.

I think your work will look the best if you concentrate on getting the wood glued and pinned in place first then just recognize that you're just going to have to refinish the spine and bolsters. the finish of a transition looks the best when all the materials are treated as one and finished at the same time.

Also, in one pic it looks like you either rounded the edge of the wood at the spine or the wood is lifting off the handle. Be sure you flatten the scales, then hollow the scales out just a little bit but staying away from the edge of where the scales will contact the handle by about 1/8". This will help with the glue adhesion as well as ensure that the scales are resting on the metal at the edges.
 
Last edited:
fumbler said:
Many knifemakers finish the scales before attaching them. I've never had good luck with that so I finish the handle material at the ricasso, glue and pin the scales on, let the glue cure, grind the pins down flat, then grind the scales down to the spine. Thats when i finish the spine. After that I shape and finish the rest of the scales.

I think your work will look the best if you concentrate on getting the wood glued and pinned in place first then just recognize that you're just going to have to refinish the spine and bolsters. the finish of a transition looks the best when all the materials are treated as one and finished at the same time.

Also, in one pic it looks like you either rounded the edge of the wood at the spine or the wood is lifting off the handle. Be sure you flatten the scales, then hollow the scales out just a little bit but staying away from the edge of where the scales will contact the handle by about 1/8". This will help with the glue adhesion as well as ensure that the scales are resting on the metal at the edges.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the help. I pretty much do it now as you suggest along the spine of the handle, but not that way on the bolsters... there I just try to fit it as well as possible, though I agree that finishing the bolster/handle material "joint" as one piece would improve the fit overall... I just hate the thought of scuffing up that nice shiny bolster and having to finish/polish it back up again.

Thanks for the tip on hollowing out the scales... I"ve been just using a little cutoff wheel in my Dremel to scar up both the scales and blank to allow some voids for the epoxy to hold into. I also used to clamp my scales WAY to tightly when waiting for them to set up and dry... one of the excellent "help for newb" offerings here made me realize that mistake. My pictures actually show two different knives in progress... neither is epoxied but one is closer to finished (fine sanded and more closely fitted) than the other... your hint on hollowing will come in VERY handy when I get ready to epoxy them both up! Believe it or not... my solution to gaps along the spine is a file work pattern of some sort... (a hard way to solve a simple problem but I do like doing file work). I've had some nice results for example putting on a vine/leaf pattern, putting on the scales, and then filling the pattern with black epoxy (so you can't even see the file work under the epoxy). Once the epoxy is hard I hit it on a very fine grit belt and as the epoxy is removed, out comes the appearance of the vine. Ends up being a nice contrast... bright vine surrounded by black, bordered by the handle material. Kind of hard to explain ...
 
There are basically 2 ways to fit a handle to a knife tang. The quick way, and the meticulous way.

The quick way is to glue and pin 2 handle slabs to the tang and grind off anything that is not handle. You will want to cut, bevel, and finish the front of the scales before doing this, but generally that's the process. And, as long as you have a decent shop full of equipment, including a buffer to bring back that fine finish, this is generally the way most makers/assemblers do it.

The meticulous way is to completely fit the handle to the tang before glue-up and pinning (or whatever attachment hardware you are using). This will obviously take a lot longer, but if you are short on equipment and long on patience then this is likely the best way to go. If you want some help on the steps, try googling for websites that describe fitting custom revolver grips. Believe me, those guys aren't going to bolt a couple of rectangles of wood or stag to a Colt Peacemaker and then take the whole thing to a belt grinder.

If you want some inspiration on what can be done for fitting a handle before assembly, check out Karl Anderson's take down knives (KBA knives).
 
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