Question for the experts.

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bc2573

Joined
May 18, 2007
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I’m making a small bird and trout knife for my turkey vest and I’ve had a mishap drilling the lanyard hole for the thong tubing. I drew a reference line from tang to tang and then marked the center for the lanyard tubing. I mic’d it three times and it was a perfect center line. I popped a dimple in the steel and mic’d it again. Perfect center. I clamped it in the drill press and drilled it and somehow it got off. It’s more towards the bottom now which isn’t a huge deal but instead of having .12 from the hole to the end of the steel on each side, I’ve got .16 on one side and .08 on the other. A little aggravating but at this point it is what it is.

So my question is on the side that is .08 from the tang..... is that too thin to get strong handle material or will it be sesceptible to breaking? Also what are your opinions on it being more towards the bottom? It’s burning me up that it isn’t perfect.

I guess i could just cover it with wood and forget about a lanyard but I sure did want one.

What say ye?


axGqmmZ.jpg
 
I'm no expert, but unless you are beating on it, it think you have plenty of steel left and plenty of strength there.
 
My main concern is when I attach scales to this thing there will be weak spots and possibly breaking in the area in red.


NmOyMci.jpg
 
bc2573 said:
My main concern is when I attach scales to this thing there will be weak spots and possibly breaking in the area in red.
Click to expand...
You mean the scales may break there right ?
Yup.
What scale material ?
You know . . . you could go with a smaller lanyard hole in the scales and gain some strength in the edge of the scale.
or
you could put a metal (silver) cap on the end of the knife.
Or
. . . you are going to like this . . .
go out and buy yourself a nice TIG welder , you know you want one, (you are going to need one to make it through this world anyway) . . .
and fill in the hole (really it's no prob) and redrill the hole (using said center drill or at the very least use a much smaller bit to start the hole then go larger).

My bill's in the mail. :)
 
You could also just take a piece of brass rod and peen a button into the hole, sand it flush then use a slightly smaller drill bit to make a perfectly centered hole, it may be unnecessary but it’s good practice for peening and gives you solid material vs epoxy around the lanyard tube
 
Snake wood is quite brittle and prone to cracking. Can we see the entire blade, then we can make some suggestions. My first thought is use synthetic handle material and under cut it in that area so the lanyard goes between the scales and tang.
 
I agree that the wood could pose a problem. I would use micarta or g10 and either drill a larger hole to fill with epoxy as suggested earlier or grind some material away until the hole is centered. To be honest i think even if the hole was centered it could be an issue with wood. Whatever you decide best of luck.
 
What if I did a split handle and do Snakewood on the front and maybe something super hard on the back like carbon fiber. Maybe a handle orientation like this.


Maybe something along the lines as an example. Of course a little further back but just to give you an example.

MuMy33L.jpg
 
Wowbagger said:
You mean the scales may break there right ?
Yup.
What scale material ?
You know . . . you could go with a smaller lanyard hole in the scales and gain some strength in the edge of the scale.
or
you could put a metal (silver) cap on the end of the knife.
Or
. . . you are going to like this . . .
go out and buy yourself a nice TIG welder , you know you want one, (you are going to need one to make it through this world anyway) . . .
and fill in the hole (really it's no prob) and redrill the hole (using said center drill or at the very least use a much smaller bit to start the hole then go larger).

My bill's in the mail. :)
Click to expand...
.
This guy again .

If this knife isn’t going to see much in the way of shock to the handle (doesn’t appear that is the case now that we have seen the knife in question), I would use whatever handle material you had in mind, fill in the void with epoxy and move forward. Looks like the dimensions of a B/T knife, not the size or shape of a chopper....so my 2 cents is no one would ever know the difference.

There will be a tube here, correct? Not just a hole through the wood?
 
Joshua Fisher said:
You could also just take a piece of brass rod and peen a button into the hole, sand it flush then use a slightly smaller drill bit to make a perfectly centered hole, it may be unnecessary but it’s good practice for peening and gives you solid material vs epoxy around the lanyard tube
Click to expand...
Might spin when he drills it.
Might not.
 
It's been my experience that goofs happen, probably on most of the projects you will do. Half of getting better is learning ways to recover from them and figuring out some trick to correct them.
 
samuraistuart said:
I would use whatever handle material you had in mind, fill in the void with epoxy and move forward. Looks like the dimensions of a B/T knife, not the size or shape of a chopper....so my 2 cents is no one would ever know the difference.

There will be a tube here, correct? Not just a hole through the wood?
Click to expand...
.
This guy again.

Problem is it still needs to be drilled . . . into the steel on one side . . . to get the size lanyard tube / hole that he wants. Epoxy's not going to support the bit well enough to just drill it. Maybe grind or file it to one side then fill with epoxy then drill.
:)
 
No it does not!!! You’re not a maker! You have no clue what you’re talking about.

He never even specified what size the hole was nor the tube size. Doesn’t even matter!!!!

But regardless, your answer is to make the hole BIGGER and fill in with epoxy?? Sheez.

If this was a competition chopper.....then I would say start over! Looks to be the dimensions of a BT knife.....and no one...not the MAKER even would ever know the difference.

I admit I could be wrong. This could be the size of a comp chopper or what have you. The pic doesn’t appear to show this. Nor does the blade shape.

So what is it, OP? What is the length of the knife in question and it’s intended purpose? Is this a knife that is going to chop through hard materials, or is this a knife that, for all intents and purposes, is going to be used much like a paring knife or even a neck knife, dangling from your hole (off centered as it may be)????

As a maker, if that blade looks like it does in the pic (short thin bladed .... used NOT as a chopper)....use a tube (brass, aluminum, whatever), fill the gaps with epoxy...move on.

No need to recreate the thing. Or god forbid do ANYTHING the above poster recommends.
 
My apologies to the OP and the mods here. I have no way, that I know of, to directly contact this “person” in question. They don’t have PM priveledge, that I can tell.
 
Never mind. It is a bird and trout knife....no need to clarify that.

Just use a tube that works, fill in with epoxy, and move on. Do NOT remove any more metal, regardless of what you’re hearing here.

If it WERE a chopper, my recommendation would be a lot different. Because this is a neck knife, bird and trout, paring size knife to be used as such.... just get on with it.

Looks to be a good one. Show us pics when you’re done!
 
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