Leather scales on a full tang?

O

Orpheous

Joined
Dec 20, 2004
Messages
110
Hi guys, I've played a round a little in the past with making some handles for old knives, mostly out of ebony from Papua New Guinea with reasonable results.
I've recently bought some full tang blade blanks, and I'm trying to figure out a way to fix crocodile skin to them as scales... I'm not really sure how to do this, but was thinking of maybe using a slightly smaller wood scale, and gluing and/or pinning the leather to it. I was also wondering if it would be better to leave the finished leather as is, or to coat it with a clear epoxy or other resin.
Have any of you guys tried something like this in the past, or can you think of another better way to accomplish this?
 
I thought about doing the same thing with a rattlesnake skin myself. I was going to and may still try to make the handles out of G10 and make them a bit smaller then they should really be. I was then going to epoxy the skin on the G10 handles and then finish the whole thing with a clear epoxy about 1/16" over the skin. I definitely would not leave it as just finished leather because I would guess it will wear out quickly and not look good. Ever seen a pair of old snakeskin or alligator boots? :-) I was going to try it on a hidden tang because I thought it would be easier, but I'm sure you could try it on a full tang. I just thought it would really hard to get all of the edges of the skin right up against the tang. If you do it please post some pics!
 
I would apply it just like you would apply the same' (rayskin) on a japanese handle.
Stacy
 
I spoke to a local bloke in town who makes crocodile leather products. He seemed to believe that tanned croc skin would be hard wearing enough to put on the knife without any other coating.
I looked into different ways of applying same (rayskin) but I'm not sure how well this would work on a full (exposed) tang...
 
you know how a chair works they stretch it over the frame and staple it and trim the extra you could do the same put the skin over the scales over lap to the back then put the scales on the knife that way they won't peel around the sides and you can see the tang
 
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