Keepin it tight?

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No not that
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I am trying to finish up a one of my first hidden tang bowies. Todays challenge is getting the pin holes drilled. I am in the fitting stage before heat treat. I oops'ed the hole for the tang and it's a little sloppy (Well OK it's ALOT sloppy
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) I wrapped it with a layer of tape and that helped. Problem is there is about a half a hairs gap between the back of the gaurd and the front of the handle. I Can see it so it bugs me.
How do I sinch this up so the pin holes will come out right. When I hold it tight with the blade in a vice, the gap dissapears.
How do I do this so I can use my drill press, to do the pin holes?
Is there a device that clamps the blade and pulls the handle in tight at the same time?

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RHankins Available knives
http://albums.photopoint.com/j/AlbumList?u=205453
 
Okay, first I wanna make sure I'm on the same page as you:

You have your handle material drilled, and now you want to slide it onto the hidden tang and drill a pin hole perpendicularly through the whole shebang? And you want it tight (as you should) but you have to put the blade in a vice and push the handle material up against the guard to keep it all tight? Right???

Well, if this picture in my head is what you've got going then I'll tell you what I do.

The first thing is to get everything ground flat and smooth so that you can get it pushed together with no gaps at all. Then, if you're going to put any kind of spacers in, glue them together, and then glue them to your handle block, so that there isn't a bunch of pieces that will slide on you when you put the epoxy on.

Another tip, take that tape off the tang and put a coating of epoxy on the tang. Let it dry, and then re-fit the tang to the block. This way you can sand the epoxy coating down so that you have a really snug fit. The more snug you are from the word go, the less cussing you will be doing at glue-up.

Once you have it so that everything fits snugly, then you can drill the hole. This is where a quick grip clamp comes in handy. If you grind a slot in one end, the blade will fit down in the slot and the guard can be held firmly against the clamp end. You can slide the knife in against the guard and the end of your handle on the other end of the clamp and squeeze everything together really tight. You can also tighten the bar of the quick clamp down in your drill press vice.

Then drill away.

I could have misunderstood (something I do quite a bit of the time) in which case you can ignore all of this.
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Nick
 
I wanted to throw in, I do realize this is prior to heat-treat. The epoxy trick may sound like a waste, but it's not. Get everything to fit now, and sand the epoxy off before it's heat-treated. Afterward, you will still be able to line it up to your holes.

 
I made a clamp to hold blades onto handles, mostly stag crowns. I took an 18" quick grip clamp and knocked the fixed end off. Then I welded two pieces of 1" by 1" angle iron where the fixed end used to be. Arrange the angle so one of the flats is in the direction of the adjustable end and weld them on each side. Then I put some stick on weather stripping on the angle so it wouldn't scratch up the guard. To use it, slip the handle on the tang and put the blade between the pieces of angle.Then slide the adjustable end of the clamp down till you can tighten it up on the handle, squeezing it into place on the knife. You'll have to jimmy it around a little till it hits the back of the guard the way you want, then tighten the clamp down .
One way to help you get the holes drilled thru the handle to make sure you hit the tang is to put some maskin tape on one side of the handle. Put the handle on the tang and then hold the handle still and slowly slide the blade forward till it just clears the handle. Then slide the tang over the handle being careful to keep it as close to the position it was while in the handle. Then just trace the tang on the tape. That gives you a good shot at hitting the tang with the drill bit. If anyone wants me to post a picture of the clamp, let me know and I'll draw one up and post it here.

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Take care!! Michael

Always think of your fellow knife makers as partners in the search for the perfect blade, not as people trying to compete with you and your work!
http://www.nebsnow.com/L6steel
Buzzards gotta eat, same as worms!!!
 
Alum........just kidding!
On a serious note............
I took out the "teeth" in my vise and used them as a template for holes in two pieces of wood. I made a jig of sorts where I cut a slot in one of the pieces of wood. Bolted these pieces to my vise and instant holding jig. Don't over pressure and squeeze all the epoxy out. You can drill after epoxying and heat treat, just use a carbide bit.

(Just another way to skin a cat)

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C Wilkins
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"We sharpened the points of our bayonets, and gave a razor-edge to our bowies, that the extermination we intended should be sudden and complete."
--1861, Henry Morton Stanley, in Arkansas as the Civil War began.
 
Thanks for the all the help guys. I think the Quick grip may be the way to go. This may help someone else. My local friend Todd Kopp suggested filling the hole with Epoxy and re-fitting the tang tight. OR Epoxying it together, drill the hole's then heat to 300' and dis-assemble, then heat treat. Chance of ruining the wood there. I am using Cocobolo. I will be making a clamping jig though. If it turns out like the picture in my head I will post it.
Sorry po pic on this one untill my Digital Camera gets airborne.

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RHankins Available knives
http://albums.photopoint.com/j/AlbumList?u=205453
 
Bob if I'm visualizing your knife right, one thing that may work to remedy the situation you have at hand is to elongate the hole in your tang toward the front side. This should allow you to push the handle tight to the guard. Epoxy will probably hold the whole thing together including filling in the gap on the back side of the tang hole. You could also fill the gap on the backside of the elongated hole with a peice of metal hammered to fit, leaving a hole large enough for the handle pin to pass through.
 
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