Leather as a scale spacer

W

wberry85

Joined
Jun 7, 2014
Messages
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Dont worry...I am new but not here just for questions. I will post the finished product I am working on but I need to know if this will work!

When forging my knives, I am having a problem getting the handle completely flat so that the wood scales mate up to the knife PERFECTLY with no gaps. One idea I had was to use leather as a spacer material. Not only did I find it looks great, but leather also does a great job at compressing to fill in the gaps left by any forging imperfections. Anyone have exprerience with this? I plan on using epoxy or contact cement to just glue the leather to the knife, and then the scales to the leather.

Note...I mean this to be used on a full tang knife...not leather spacers on a hidden tang knife. I am using the leather as parallel spacer material, not like stacked leather as people normally use it for.

Thanks for any feedback.
 
Seems like the concern would be keeping it compressed in the handle. I would probably use some corby or other shouldered bolts to hold the scales on to keep it all in compression and locked up tight. Otherwise, you would just be relying on the pin epoxy to keep it all from wobbling, if that makes sense. If the leather dried out, it could all loosen up. I also wonder about it wicking in moisture to the tang and holding it there but maybe that wouldn't be a concern. Either way, I like the idea and would sure do it if the need arose just to see what it was like. Nothing tried, nothing gained!
 
I have never done a forged knife, but I had a couple of ideas based on lurking here for so long. If you've already tried them, please disregard.

I've seen a few tapered tang tutorials where a hollow grind is used on the sides of the tang. This way, only the edges need to be ground flat and parallel rather than the whole side of the handle. Maybe a similar approach would reduce the effort required to get a flat surface at the edges.

If it's really close, would a thin black spacer with black tinted epoxy help to minimize visible glue lines?

Just some ideas.
 
bikedave, I am not needing the leather to necessarily stay compressed. I plan on applying the epoxy, and clamping the leather down to the tang. Then, doing the same for the scales after the first stage has dried. Doing a two stage gluing technique will hopefully press fit the leather. I am concerned about moisture as well but hopefully if the leather is saturated with epoxy it will not allow moisture in.

jason, those ae good ideas. I may try the edge flattening technique.
 
I think I'd want to saturate the leather with epoxy to eliminate shrinkage.This is done sometimes with stacked leather handles.
 
I use lighter hammers in succession with planishing blows to finish, a wide flat hammer face works great, sort of like a shoemakers hammer. Flat grinds are easier on flat sanding surface, disc sander.
 
I've done it before. It works just fine. Mete had a point with soaking it with epoxy though, since leather will absorb water and shrink
 
I think I will use copper corbys just in case. Ill post pics. It sure looks sharp. Primitive.
 
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