new member / first attempt

A

aalbinger

Joined
Jan 9, 2005
Messages
12
Hello all. After seeing several of Dave Larsen's knives, almost ordering a custom knife, and having Dave refinish a beat up solingen hunting knife of my fathers, I decided to take a swing at working with knives.

My first attempt at anything is to try and put a functional handle on my Buck Nighthawk. Originally it had a Zytel molded handle with rubber inserts. Nice shape, easy to hold. The problem is that the moment you get blood (deer in this case) on it the handle becomes super slick and impossible to use. I don't really have the tools to do much yet but I have done quite a bit of firearm stock fitting/refinishing so maybe a new wooden handle isn't too lofty a goal.


To date I've cut off the Zytel and polished the blade. I didn't like the matte finish that it came with. Last night I used my dremel tool with cutoff wheels to create notches back towards the tang for my new finger guard to butt up against. I'm using brass for the guard material. Drilled a few tiny holes near the corners of the slot I wanted, used the dremel to make an undersized slot and now I'm using a mill file to get it squared up.

Now for the question(s) I've been mulling over that brought me out of lurking mode. :D

I'm wondering if it would be best to make the guard a snug fit and hold it tight against the blade with the handle material and epoxy. Or if I should make it slightly undersized and "drive it on" so that it stays in place on it's own prior to fitting the handle.

The second thing I've been pondering is what equipment is "must have" right off the bat for working with steel, and are there cases where really economical tools can be used for testing the waters before jumping in financially with both feet. I've seen posts for and against things like Harbor Freight drill presses and bandsaws.

The "cheap" tool that most strikes me a good impulse buy is: http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=2485

Obviously it isn't much for less than $50 delivered, but would it be enough to mess around with those first few pieces of steel and determine if this is really a hobby I'll want to stick with before dropping 10 times that much in a fancier rig?

I must say I've really been enjoying the pictures, tutorials, and stories that everyone had been posting here. It all has given me the bug to make something!

-Andrew
 
i looked at that same grinder when i first looked around... i got my first grinder of of ebay and it was $80 for a 3/4 horse 4 inch thick disk/belt grinder its a cheapo but its done me good for the year and a half of knives :) the next thing on my list is a kmg all ive heard is good stuff about them. so in short i would try to find a grinder with a bigger horse power.
 
First thing is that you aren't gonna want something that will eat your blade up, so go for something around 1750 is you do decide to buy a big investment. That thing should work fine for a test run into knife making. You've already got a dremel, and a hand drill can be a drill press for testing the waters. I'm learning forging, so I can't help you much there.

As far as the gaurd goes- keep it snugg. Give it enough clearance so that it doesn't have to be hammered on, and the set the handle on tight with appoxy or pins. That makes for a less complicated design. Eventually, you'll be doing whatever you want.
 
well, I'm not sure I'm able to stick with keeping it simple. :)

Anyway, I have a piece of brass that will fit on the knife as a guard now.

My plan is to build a spacer to fit around the tang and pin scales to the sides of the tang. I ripped a piece of an old broken mahogany door frame down and then belt sanded it to the same thickness of the knife. I'm planning on using that for the spacer. I have cocobolo on the way from ebay for the scales.

71_1_b.JPG


Tossed some pictures of my progress so far up on http://www.werdna.net/pictures/nighthawk

If you all can see something I'm doing obviously incorrectly please send me some feedback!

Thanks!

-Andrew
 
I'd recomend shaping the gaurd. An oval will work. Other than that, you could burn the tang into the handle, drill hole's and knock a few pins in, but that is just getting complicated.
 
Hey Andrew! I have to admit it was a little nostalgic reading this post. :D

You may have read it already but Terry Primos' guard tutorial is worthwhile. It may not apply directly to what you're doing and you've already done the hard part but I think you'll get something out of it. I'm still trying to emulate what Terry's doing.

I think you're on the right track. Considering no one I know has done this much work and planned their second knife and then quit, I think you're hooked and you may as well accept it. ;) (I know, crappy sentence structure but it's the best I can do tonight and you know exactly what I mean!)

By the way, welcome to Shop Talk. I hope you post a lot and let us see the result of your current labor.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top