pin holes in stick tang handle?

P

pizzapaiute

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Jan 25, 2010
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When you want to drill pin holes in your handle material, how do you match up the holes in the tang with the exact spot on the handle if you're using a solid antler crown?:confused:
Thanks.
 
That's what I did. Drill the hole(s) in the handle, then insert the tang at full depth and use the drill to mark the spot on the tang. Remove the blade and drill the marked spot.

- Greg
 
tryppyr said:
That's what I did. Drill the hole(s) in the handle, then insert the tang at full depth and use the drill to mark the spot on the tang. Remove the blade and drill the marked spot.

- Greg
Click to expand...
I drill the hole in the tang slightly larger than the on in the handle material and let the epoxy do the rest.
 
I drill the handle material first. Then I scribe through the handle material to mark the hole on the tang. After that, I center punch my mark to drill just SLIGHTLY (and I mean slightly, like .002-.003") forward of the center of my scribed circle. When Inserting the pin, I taper the point it by spinning it against the grinder with a battery powered drill. Then, spin the pin into the hole with the drill. If it won't go, don't force it. Pull it back out and relieve the rear of the tang hole a little with a chainsaw file and try again. When the pin spins in, it snugs all the handle material forward a bit and makes a nice, tight, mechanical joint.

Not my method. I stole it from J. Neilson. :)

-d
 
Whenever possible, it is best to drill the grip and tang as a unit, but when using steels that tend to air harden, I would do as Joe said. I see no reason to harden a tang on purpose. Once a grip is epoxed on, the tang cannot give in any direction, so it just doesn't matter how hard or soft it is. As far as the extra strength of a HTed tang, if it cannot move, the question of strength is moot. You are never going to pull the tang apart. Pins are only worth the trouble when making a historically correct looking knife that would have used that system of attachment. Even then, though I don't, one could simply fake it, by a short pin from both sides, leaving the epoxy as the soul provider of attachment, and only an X ray would ever be able to tell. Randall Knives and a multitude of others rely on the strength of the epoxy to keep the grip on, and do it every day with perfect success.
 
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