Raymond Richard dagger blank WIP

[Div4gold]

last night I fired up the drill press and drilled some nice, straight holes into this cocobolo here;

after hogging the wood out with files and a cordless drill, I mixed some of the sawdust into my JB Weld and this is where I'm at currently;

I'll let it sit overnight and hopefully everything is straight and true. Then it's back to the drill press for the pin hole and some shaping with files.

I'm a beginner but a dagger fan and really liked your finished knife. I've only made a couple of knives and only one of those had a hidden tang using a solid piece of wood. I was able to get by drilling one hole since the guard was big enough to cover the hole. When you drilled the 3 holes for your tang on your dagger did you use a regular twist drill bit? I tried drilling 3 holes like that last night and had a little trouble, any tips? thx

 

[Lorien]

I drilled three pilot holes, using a smaller drill bit than the one which I finished drilling with. It's really hard- impossible for this hack- to drill overlapping holes without having the bit wander away from where I want it to be.

With the smaller diameter bit, I drilled into the wood about an 1" all three holes, then I did the two outer holes with the larger bit and finished with the middle hole.

I hope that makes sense, if not let me know. Thank you for your question
And have fun! Building knives is a blast!

 

[Div4gold]

I drilled three pilot holes, using a smaller drill bit than the one which I finished drilling with. It's really hard- impossible for this hack- to drill overlapping holes without having the bit wander away from where I want it to be.

With the smaller diameter bit, I drilled into the wood about an 1" all three holes, then I did the two outer holes with the larger bit and finished with the middle hole.

I hope that makes sense, if not let me know. Thank you for your question
And have fun! Building knives is a blast!

Thanks for the tip. I had wondering problems also but I wasn't drilling the pilot holes. I'm going to try that on a ironwood handle I just started. Thanks again.