Loose hidden tang help

[O'Neil]

I've been working on a bowie with a white tail antler handle. The guy that asked for it just asked for a brass guard. In order to slide the guard up to the blade I had to shave down some of the tang on the sides which made it pretty loose fitting. I'm really skeptical about putting this together. The adhesive I use is pretty damn tough but I'm still not sure. I resin cast my own handles so I even debated using 2 part resin to fill some of the void. I just don't know whether to scrap it and make a new knife that goes with the antler and make a resin cast that fits the existing blade..... thoughts?

 

[Nick-D]

I've been working on a bowie with a white tail antler handle. The guy that asked for it just asked for a brass guard. In order to slide the guard up to the blade I had to shave down some of the tang on the sides which made it pretty loose fitting. I'm really skeptical about putting this together. The adhesive I use is pretty damn tough but I'm still not sure. I resin cast my own handles so I even debated using 2 part resin to fill some of the void. I just don't know whether to scrap it and make a new knife that goes with the antler and make a resin cast that fits the existing blade..... thoughts?

Throw this in the knifemakers questions and answers section.

Just use a good slow cure epoxy to fill the space, add some colloidal silica or chop strand to the mix if you are worried about structural integrity. A good quality epoxy will be harder/tougher then the antler surrounding it so I wouldn't worry too much about the fit, just make sure you get enough epoxy in the hole to fill the voids

 

[Joakim Lööv]

Agree, slow curing epoxy will fill up the void without issues.

 

[O'Neil]

Thanks guys. Will do. I debated drilling the handle and putting 1/8" pins. Like rebar in a porch lol

 

[john april]

in the future, make the slot in the guard wider rather than making the tang thinner.