how to? Taper handle and scales??

W

WDB

Joined
Oct 21, 2006
Messages
4
I bought some hunter type knife blanks ,and I tapered the handle, (and not very accurately ) and I am trying to taper and match the scales.
the fitment is very close, but I don't want any gaps.
If anyone can help with the description of the proper procedure......
My machiney includes: vertical mill,6x48 and 1x42 belt sanders,and lots more to get me in trouble !
The blanks i got from Sheffield in o.c. fla. do they need to be head treated? Cobalt drill bits barely drill em.
thanks, Bill
 
Hi Bill, Welcome to Shop Talk. Thanks for filling out your profile. It does make a differance as to the real help you will recieve here at least.
To make a good "fit and finish" you will need to make the tang and the back side of the scales very flat so they mate together. I use a magic marker and color the blade tang and rub it on a surface plate with fine sand paper on the plate. You will see the high spots. Sand off only the high spots and repeat as many times as neccesary to make it flat. You could use an angle grinder to hit those high spots. The scales can be easily sanded on the flat plate with fresh coarse sandpaper.
 
I use an edge marker to make a center reference on the butt. I then drill a number of holes in the tang to reduce the amount of steel to work with. To reduce this even more, I hollow grind the tang as much as is possible and practical. At this point only the outer edges need to be flattened, which I do by roughing in on the grinder to the edge marks, then finish on a table sander down to 100 grit. I find no need to do any marking. If the sander has a true surface, it will do the job nicely. I do final sand the grips over a sheet of sand paper on a piece of heavy plate glass to make them as true as I can. When I glue them down, I use as many as eight C clamps To get them down with no gaps. The many holes in the tang also act as epoxy "bridges" to strengthen the attachment.
 
Thank you very much guys!
Upon reading the replies. I realized I can use the end mill to remove stock in the center of the tang to save some sanding time,while still leaving enough material for strength and "heft"

Bill
 
The blanks will in all probability have been heat treated. There wouldn't be a lot of point in selling, or buying ground blanks that had not been treated. If drilling is a problem, use tungsten drills.

If you have the tang tapered, why taper the scales to fit, why not just sand them flat and glue them on. It is much easier to make slabs parallel and flat rather than get them to be flat and have taper.

I haven't tried it on fully hardened steel (I assume your blanks are stainless?) but I have used 120 grit wet and dry stuck flat to sheet glass as a means to flatten tangs. It does get them truely flat, provided that you glued the paper down and did not just lay it on the glass, but it takes a little while.

Use high grade sand paper glued to glass to flatten the handle slabs also.

Good luck :)

Chris
 
Bill if you are making the blade yourself you can use LRB method because the tang will still be soft but if you buy blanks already heat treated the tang will be too hard to drill. You will ruin any mill end on a hardened tang. Hardened steel can be ground away easy enough.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top