laying out and fitting a hidden tang handle

Once again, pure awesome.... A few really good things picked up-I really appreciate you taking the time to do this. Really wishing for a mill to help get the slot cleared out after seeing that :).


Jeremy
 
Thanks Nick!

I like that idea with the pencil to check for flatness. I have to ask where did you get that nifty device to clamp the paper down? I've seen it in some of your other videos I'm assuming you made it but can you shed some light onto how you made it? I'm assuming it's a modified vice grip of sorts.
 
There's always one tip (usually many) in Nick's videos that's worth the price of admission- for me, it was drilling the tang AFTER the wood is drilled for the pin. Duh.....I'm so used to doing full tang knives and doing all the drilling pre-hardening :)
 
Great video Nick. I really enjoyed it and learned from it as well.
I look forward to seeing how the finished knife looks.
I'll bet Joe is excited about the knife.
 
Glad to hear some of you liked it, thanks. :)

Please keep in mind that the process I used to drill the pin hole will only work if you have a handle block with parallel sides, and it's fit up to your blade properly.

If you have a wonky shaped block, or are using something oddball like stag or ivory, then you can't just lay it on the drill press table and drill the hole.

I USED to drill the hole after glue-up (with a simple fixture) but when I started using 1/16" pins I had to change that. A 1/16" drill bit will cut through the handle material, but when it hits the tang (even a dead soft tang) it will deflect and warble out the hole in the wood. The process in the video avoids that.


I have a 1/16" hole in the wood, and a 1/8" hole in the tang... that just makes everything simple. :)

If you have a nice square block, but do a crappy fit-up job, then your pin will be misaligned in the final knife.



This is the rig I fixture a knife in to drill the pin hole if the handle material is round/wonky, and also for tapered, full tang knives.

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Thanks so much for the video, yours are always so educational.
Do you have any pics of the file you use after broaching? I looked a bit custom.
 
Hey guys- :)



I want to apologize for missing a couple of the questions you posted here. I've been so busy lately I rarely know which end is up, so please forgive me for missing those.

The broaches I use were made by Mastersmith John Perry. John is a machinist by trade, and it definitely shows in his broaches. They are not very difficult to make, in fact I made a few before buying two from John. However, to make them with the quality that John does, would be a very difficult task and impossible for the average Joe without access to precision machining tools.

Without giving out too much info and getting myself in trouble here, I believe John gets about a buck fifty for his broaches. Some people have choked and sputtered when I told them that, but as someone that is intimately familiar with the quality of Mr. Perry's work, I feel it is a BARGAIN. They are beautifully made with an attention to detail that you would expect from a Mastersmith/machinist. Once you hog out a tang hole with one of his broaches, you will seriously wonder how the hell you ever did it without one.

And no, I do not get any kickbacks from John for this. Although I would accept them... heh-hem John... ;) LMFAO :D (just kidding).

The granite block paper holder downer is 100% Wheeler RedNeck Engineering. ;) All it is... is a piece of plywood that lays under the granite block, a "box" made from some square tubing that's bolted to the plywood, and an el cheap-O Harbor Freight drill press clamp to provide the holding pressure. The square bar simply helps spread the clamping force out across the width of the paper sheet. Easy peasy. :)

I have a picture of that file somewhere, but not sure where at the moment. It's simply a big-ass bastard file that I ground down to size so it will fit into broached handle holes. :)



Okay, hopefully I got it covered this time. :)
 
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