Help with hidden tang hunter and stag

L

Laredian

Joined
May 27, 2013
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I was asked to make two hunting knives for two friends who are avid hunters. I originally planned to make a hidden tang construction with sculpted stabilized wood handles, but I was then asked to use stag as handle material. I have never used stag as handle material before and I would therefore ask for some advice.

This is my original design, with the blades sorta rough from the disc grinder:
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The blades hand sanded to 320 grit:
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I was asked to use stag they gave me. I think it was from a deer they hunted together. So these are the pieces that were somewhat straight and useable as handles:
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I normally mount my hidden tang wood handles with 90 minute epoxy and a pin. Now with the stag I was planning to weld a threaded rod at the end of the tang and make a buttcap.

What I am concerned about is the transition from stag handle to guard. I am not sure how much I can sculpt that transition without taking to much material away from the stag handle. Generally I am really not confident about how much I can shape the stag handle without ruining it.
I like the blades I've made so far and I don't want to ruin the knife with a subpar stag handle, so any suggestions would be really appreciated.

Also I hope everyone has a kickass new years eve party, take care.
 
is there any pith in the center ? if there is i would drill it all out and use epoxy or jb weld to fill to void. doing that will also give you some wiggle room to fit the guard closely to the stag. if the guard is attached (solder/epoxy/press fit) you can sand and file the stag to get a good fit between the stag and guard before bedding the tang.
 
I would curve the end of the tang downward slightly. Drill from the top of the tang hole first ( where it is at the ricasso end), angling it so it passes through the middle of the stag and down toward the butt. Then drill straight back from the bottom of the tang hole. Wallow the hole as needed with the bit until the curved tang slides down into the curved stag. You will essentially have drilled a curved hole.
 
Thank you very much for the advice given, it helped a lot!

Here is the result:
Hidden tang hunter, 80CrV2 blade with etched flats and 800grit hand rubbed satin, stag handle with red fiber and bronze spacers and stainless guard and buttcap.
Was a real challenge, because I've never done this handle construction before. I am quite happy with how it turned out, but I still don't really like stag handles. I think I could have done a prettier handle with some burl, but the person this was gifted to seemed to like it...so I'm satisfied.

When I do one of these again I need to come up with a better buttcap design though...don't like this one very much.

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Let me know what you think. thanks again for all the help
 
jdm61 said:
Nice work. Stag is one of those materials where you "make the knife to fit the handle" as opposed to the other way around with most other materials like wood. I remove all of the pith and replace it with epoxy. I also use leather dye to get that "amber stag" look, but that is a personal preference. View attachment 1063627
Click to expand...

That looks amazing! I agree that fitting the knife to the stag looks better. But in my case the handle was too wide. The shape was really good generally, but if I hadn't taken material off, I think I would not have been able to get a good looking transition from handle to guard. At least I could not think of a way to pull it off right.
 
What was the final construction process, did you weld on a threaded rod to the tang and tap the butt cap ?
 
3fifty7 said:
What was the final construction process, did you weld on a threaded rod to the tang and tap the butt cap ?
Click to expand...

Correct, that is what I did. Or at least tried, because I failed a couple of times till I got it right. I suck at welding. I then epoxied everything together after getting the pith out of the handle.

Also I did not dry set the handle (I believe is the right term), because I did not have the time. I think it would have been a good step to include though.

Fitting the buttcap to the handle was also quite fiddly. Proper length of the rod, position of the cap in relation to the handle etc... I messed around with the fit until I could screw the buttcap on and it held everything in place and there were no gaps visible between buttcap, guard and handle. Only after I got that right, I epoxied everything together.

The guard is a pressfit btw and not soldered on there. You can't properly see it in the pictures, but I am proud of how it turned out.
 
A lot of us press fit the guard and then secure and seal up with JB Weld.
 
If you want to connect the buttcap to the tang, yes getting it flush and even is a PITA. I typically just grind down and thread the tang, but on some bigger blades, I have actually made a clevis using all thread ad 1/16 O1 rod as the "hinge pin."
Laredian said:
Correct, that is what I did. Or at least tried, because I failed a couple of times till I got it right. I suck at welding. I then epoxied everything together after getting the pith out of the handle.

Also I did not dry set the handle (I believe is the right term), because I did not have the time. I think it would have been a good step to include though.

Fitting the buttcap to the handle was also quite fiddly. Proper length of the rod, position of the cap in relation to the handle etc... I messed around with the fit until I could screw the buttcap on and it held everything in place and there were no gaps visible between buttcap, guard and handle. Only after I got that right, I epoxied everything together.

The guard is a pressfit btw and not soldered on there. You can't properly see it in the pictures, but I am proud of how it turned out.
Click to expand...
 
I wanted to give an update to the second blade. I finished that knife up aswell, but with a wood handle. I wanted to give this as comparison, since this is how I originally had envisioned the knife to look like:
Blade is 80CrV2, etched flats, 800grit hand rubbed satin finish. The guard is stainless with bronze and black vulcanized fibre spacers. The handle is stabilized karelian birch burl with a bronze pin. Knife is 24cm long overall (9,4 inches) and the blade is about 12cm long (about 4,5 inches).

Also, crappy pictures..sorry:
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Let me know what you think an which version you like better. I personally think that the wood handle looks way better and not only because I am not that good with stag handles, but because you can sculpt it better.
 
I realy like that knife.
The materials go well together and the grind lines flow beautifully
 
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