How to locate a pin in a one piece handle?

E

Elgatodeacero

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Jan 5, 2014
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Hi,

I have made a few puukko’s with one piece wood handles, Lauri blades, and epoxy.
So far they have held up very well.

I would like to use a nicer blade (Puronvarsi probably) and add a brass pin through the one piece wood handle and tang in addition to using GFlex epoxy. But I do not want to have the tang extend out the rear of the knife.

is there a proper or easy way to get a hole through a one piece wood handle to line up with a hole in the tang? Should I just drill through one side of handle, hit the tang, use that mark to locate hole, then pass drill bit through handle and tang hole to other side? This seems a little hit or miss?
 
After several trial and errors I settled on drilling the handle it to line up as closely as possible, it ends up within 30 thousandths then I adjust with extra spacers to get the fit tight. Ive got g10 as thin as .014". You can also drill a little short and then sand your gaurd or ferrule little by little until its nice and tight.
 
I'm a dummy. I glue handle and every thing together. I drill the hole in the handle to line up on tang. I drill through wood until I hit tang. I change out drill bit to a carbide drill bit to go through tang then use original drill bit to go through until it exits other side.
I never could get them to line up right any other way.
 
I have the hole in the tang larger then the pin going trough it. It fills up with epoxy.
Sounded strange to me first but many well known makers do it that way.
If needed I have solid carbide bits in my foredom to make the hole in the hardened tang larger
 
As the others said above. Several different ways to go about it. A thin spacer can make all the difference in getting a good tight fit.
On another item to check. Make sure your tang is annealed enough to drill. Bad news when it’s so hard the bit skates.
 
argel55 said:
I'm a dummy. I glue handle and every thing together. I drill the hole in the handle to line up on tang. I drill through wood until I hit tang. I change out drill bit to a carbide drill bit to go through tang then use original drill bit to go through until it exits other side.
I never could get them to line up right any other way.
Click to expand...

That's how I do it, except I generally don't have to switch out the drill bit since I leave the tang unhardened. My cobalt bits go right through handle and tang without any issue.
 
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