How do you finish the inside of holes?

fumbler

fumbler

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May 19, 2009
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I made a couple of neck knives that have 0.5" lightening holes. My drill press is an old hand-me-down so runout isn't the best. The machining marks were pretty bad so to finish the inside surfaces I sanded them by hand with sandpaper wrapped rods.
I'm starting to make these knives in batches now. The handle holes are water jet cut so they also aren't smooth.

My question to yall is how do you finish the insides of your holes? There's got to be a faster method than hand sanding.
 
I really don't know, but i believe that a reamer is meant to make a nice clean hole, which may not make it perfect, but ought to clean up the rough machine marks.
Jack
 
If you want the insides of your holes to be smooth and have a hand rubbed satin finish, you can always find some type of rod stock or wooden dowel slightly smaller than the hole, wrap a bit of sandpaper around it and do it by hand. Results come pretty quick and don't take that much work.
 
^That's what I'm doing now and it's taking too long. I made the mistake of telling my waterjet guy that the cut doesn't have to be the "best" finish. Even at q5 I think a satin finish with rods and sandpaper will probably take a while.

^^Ive thought about reamers but the only practical thing I've seen are tapered reamers and I'd like to have straight walls. I'll probably get a tapered hand reamer and try it out anyway. If you know of any tapered reamers that are less tapered than typical then please point me to it.

I've just had the idea of taking a thick rod and turning it down to a very small amount of taper and wrapping that with sandpaper. I'll try that too.

I'm still curious how people do this in large quantity.
 
If you don't want something fancy,like Stacky linked to.:DYou can take a 1/4" rod,cut a slot in it,wrap with sandpaper and run in a power drill.
Stan
 
Can you find a round file, or maybe some gunsmithing files that fit into small spaces? I'm sure they make a rounded one you could use.

Sort of like the one on the left.......
11p77top.jpg
 
I use 1/8" x 1.5" cotter pins to hold a strip of sandpaper, put it in my Foredom. Roll up the paper around the cotter pin and start sanding. When the paper wears down, I cut off a little bit to expose the unused part. Not very eloquent, but it didn't cost me much.

Ric
 
Thanks for the replies.

Stacy, I'd thought of the dremel but then thought there was sure to be a better method. I'm goin to try it though. I think I have an attachment that keeps the bit perpendicular to the work too.

Sbuzek, I've made a slotted rod for enlarging holes in handle materials but when I tried it in the big tang holes I couldn't get enough pressure on the sandpaper to make it work well.

I was really hoping for something like a spring loaded cylinder hone but the smallest ones have stones that pivot and wouldn't work with thin stock.
 
I have a good trick for this that I learned at a GA Knifemakers Guild meeting at Warren Glover's shop. Get yourself a copper bore brush that fits pretty snug in the hole. Chuck it in a drill. Then take a little bit of steel wool and let it tangle itself into the brush with the drill running slow. A few passes through your hole and you're done.

When I say a little bit of steel wool, I mean unfold it from the bunch, cut off one layer. It really gets into the brush fast, so be ready.
 
I use some fine grit 220 or 320 sand paper wrapped around a nail or drill bit and push it through the hole to get the crud out of the hole and smooth any irregularities.
 
Am I missing something here, like "skeleton tang" knives? If the holes are going to be covered by scales, I chamfer them and "finish" with epoxy. :p

When lanyard tubes get extra epoxy in them, I push most of it out with a sharpened brass rod before the epoxy sets and go back later and clean them the same way.
 
Fiddleback said:
I have a good trick for this that I learned at a GA Knifemakers Guild meeting at Warren Glover's shop. Get yourself a copper bore brush that fits pretty snug in the hole. Chuck it in a drill. Then take a little bit of steel wool and let it tangle itself into the brush with the drill running slow. A few passes through your hole and you're done.

When I say a little bit of steel wool, I mean unfold it from the bunch, cut off one layer. It really gets into the brush fast, so be ready.
Click to expand...

I will have to try that one. Seems like it would do the trick.
 
Warren Glover, the guy who showed me this, had an old drill press dedicated to this. A .22 bore brush will perfectly finish a 1/4" tube in seconds. Keep epoxy out of it while doing glueup by putting snipped off heads of q-tips in each side.
 
james terrio said:
Am I missing something here, like "skeleton tang" knives?
Click to expand...
Yes, knives with no scales.

The cleaning brush and steel wool is a neat idea. Sounds like it'd work really well for final finishing but might be a little slow at initially smoothing out the rough surface. I'll have to try it.
 
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