Knurling a titanium handle

[Atlas Knife Company]

I'm working on a titanium handle for a knife. I was planning to do a crossed knurling texture with a file. After trying several times on a practice piece, I have decided I can't do that much filing without slipping. The knife is a fillet knife w/ 6" blade so I will need some texture on the handle. Fish-gut covered titanium is very slippery.

Any suggestions on either how to do the filework without destroying it or something else I can do would be great.

 

[Chuck Gedraitis Knives]

You could do a textured finish with a dremel tool and a round carbide burr. Or to do the cross hatching with a triangular file then go in with a round one.

 

[Hengelo_77]

There are special titanium files

 

[artmichalek]

Or to do the cross hatching with a triangular file then go in with a round one.

This will require a guide of some kind. Any sharp file will cut titanium cleanly, but on a flat surface it's going to want to skate around until it digs in. Hardened steel is best, but if you tape the side of the file anything will work. All it needs to be is a straight edge that you can clamp, together with the handle, down onto your work bench.

 

[Atlas Knife Company]

For a guide, should it be as thick as the file or just thin enough to cover it? I was thinking of making a tool. Start with a piece of 1/16" 2"x3" steel. Cut the two slits about 3/32" wide at opposite 45° angles so the slits come in 1 1/2". The slits should start about 1/4" in from the ends. Then bend it 90° just a little into the slit. With the slit on the top, I can clamp it onto the scale and file.

A local has some O2 steel. Can I just HT and not temper to leave it really hard? Or should I HT it differently than normal?

 

[Bill DeShivs]

Use a checkering file.
Or, you can buzz in a textured finish with an electric engraving pencil.

 

[Nathan the Machinist]

If you have a mill, you can clamp it to a 45 deg plate and use the corner of an endmill to cut a V shape. Just step up and over the same amount to maintain a constant depth and spacing. Then turn the part on the plate to create the cross cuts. We knurl jaws this way.

 

[smflorkey]

It's a bit pricey, but you could get a checking file from a gunsmithing supply house. Brownell's has one. The advantage is that it cuts several lines at once so one pass of the file makes perfectly parallel lines for the width of the file. Then you get to try to make the next pass with the file parallel to the first pass. I think the usual practice is to put one edge of the file in the last groove cut, but I have not actually used one of these yet.

Hope that helps,
Steve

 

[Atlas Knife Company]

Can I do this with my band saw? If I clamp a 45° block into the table, it will keep the scales even. Aside from not moving the scale enough on each cut, what disadvantages might there be?