THE Hollow Handle Knife Thread

TAH said:
Certainly a wise decision, Mark. Thanks for the report back. Very interesting! As stated above, how about postponing your trip two or three weeks and starting over?
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With the delay, my summer will be running short and I have other obligations so I wouldn't be able to do the whole thing but I am planning on taking a portion of the trip. I will keep you posted.
 
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Hi, guys!

Excellent thread. I read it through a couple of times. I've loved hollow handle knives since I was a kid and saw First Blood (you know, the usual story).

I got this one (Sly II/ First Blood, 440C with brass guard and aluminium buttcap) from Greg Wall a few weeks ago but havent got a chance to use it yet. Greg was a pleasure to deal with and the knife and sheath feels really well made and strong.

Anyway, here's the pics:
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Hi guys,

Not sure if I am in the right place, this is my first post and I joined to ask these questions here at this seems to be one of the best places on the internet for this topic.

Can any of you folks help me out with understanding Hollow Handle construction? I am very curious as to how these blades are attached to the handles and I would like to know this achieved. Which are the best ways and which are the worst ways?

I watched Sam Wilson's chin up video with his M1 and was astonished at the strength of the design, that blade didn't even bend?!!! In the comments he stated the following:

“mine are press-fitted into the hollow handle, pinned with a 1/4" pin, and then epoxied”

I am having a little bit of a stretch imagining that in my head. I know very little about these sorts of things.

Would Sam, or anyone else give a better description of how this is done? This is very fascinating.

Also, I am sure there are other ways to fix blades to hollow handles, so if you could please point me in the direction of those that would be most helpful too?

Thanks, guys!
 
Sam's is one of the strongest, industrial fits. Most are threaded into the handle with half cylinder filler blocks on both sides. Mine are TIG welded in on the inside of the handle. Some only have a 1/4 inch threaded rod bolted on the inside. A couple designs are milled from a single piece of steel.

There are lots of ways to do it and certainly some are better than others.
 
I know we have talked about the different compasses in hollow handles, most of mine have developed bubbles over the years and I need to replace them with dry compasses sometime when i find decent ones the right size i will. In the mean time Cammenga came out with a pretty tough small compass for a strap or watch band so i got one. Its a bit on the hefty size but is a very well made compass.

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Mark Knapp said:
Sam's is one of the strongest, industrial fits. Most are threaded into the handle with half cylinder filler blocks on both sides. Mine are TIG welded in on the inside of the handle. Some only have a 1/4 inch threaded rod bolted on the inside. A couple designs are milled from a single piece of steel.

There are lots of ways to do it and certainly some are better than others.
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Thanks for the info, Mark. Yeah, there is a milled single piece that was very impressive looking on here somewhere.
 
cricketdave said:
I know we have talked about the different compasses in hollow handles, most of mine have developed bubbles over the years and I need to replace them with dry compasses sometime when i find decent ones the right size i will.
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There is only one, decent, mini (around 1/2" diameter) dry compass that is currently being produced in the world. The NATO Survival Compass. Hopefully, someone will correct me and show me another.

http://www.bestglide.com/FB1605_Info.html
 
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There are a few more brands of dry button compasses, of really excellent quality and that work very well for long time. Brands such as Recta, Silva, Brunton and Suunto (specialized brands in manufacture of professional and high-quality compasses) already made great oil content and dry button compasses too.

A brand I've knew recently about the qualitty (I think that brand is new but I'm not sure) is Tru-nord. https://trunord.com/
 
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Silvano Marlon said:
There are a few more brands of dry button compasses...Recta, Silva, Brunton and Suunto (specialized brands in manufacture of professional and high-quality compasses) already made great oil content and dry button compasses too.
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But do any of these brands make a dry, mini (approximately 1/2" diameter) compass that would fit in a hollow handle knife?
 
TAH said:
But do any of these brands make a dry, mini (approximately 1/2" diameter) compass that would fit in a hollow handle knife?
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Yes. All this brands make or made liquid and dry button compasses of 1,5 and 2 centimeters. I have one of Suunto and one of Recta. I saw some button (small) compasses of all these brands in stores. All this brands are well respected by professionals around the world and make high quality compasses for various purposes (airplanes, boats, rallies, professional sportsmen) a long time.
 
Silvano Marlon said:
Yes. All this brands make or made liquid and dry button compasses of 1,5 and 2 centimeters.
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Any chance you could supply a link or photo? I am only interested in compasses that are 1.5 cm or less, dry construction, and currently being made by these brands. Thanks! :)
 
TAH said:
Any chance you could supply a link or photo? I am only interested in compasses that are 1.5 cm or less, dry construction, and currently being made by these brands. Thanks! :)
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Yes. This pics of Recta, Suunto, Silva and Bruntom button compasses I found on Google searching right now. As I mentioned, I saw dry and liquid construction button compasses of all this brands and I believe all or the most of this button compasses keep in production and if some button dry or liquid button model of some of this brands are not currently being produced right now, this model was produced until not many time ago and you can find this model on websites to buy out of production products like Ebay or other websites like that.

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Yes, I am familiar with all of those compasses. They are all liquid filled. With the exception of the tiny one, they are all larger than 1.5 cm. My point was, the Pyser-SGI NATO Survival compass is the only, high quality, dry, 1.5 cm (or less) compass being produced today that I am aware of. There are cheap, mini, dry, compasses made in China, but their quality is questionable.

I collect mini, dry, compasses, so I am always on the lookout. :)

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1) Karl Mfg., .25" brass, dry, non-luminous, USA (1990s)
2) Waltham, .50" brass, dry, non-luminous, USA, used by Randall (early 60s - early 70s) and by Lile in the original 13 First Blood knives (early 80s)
3) Marbles, .50" brass, dry ,non-luminous, USA, used by Timberline (late 80s)
4) Pyser-SGI, .60" brass, dry, luminous, England (? - present)
5) Marbles, .75" brass, dry, luminous, USA, used by Timberline (early 90s)
6) Poly-Choke, .60" brass/aluminum bezel, dry, non-luminous, USA (early 80s)
7) Marbles, .50" brass, dry, non-luminous, USA, used by Randall and other custom knifemakers (mid 80s - late 90s)
8) Marbles, .50" brass, dry, luminous, USA, used by Randall, Lile, Timberline, and other custom knifemakers (70s - mid 80s)
9) Marbles, 1" brass, dry, luminous, USA (mid 90s)
 
I know that many liquid filled button compasses usually create bubbles, but speaking about button compasses I remembered that some rare compasses, even with liquid, are excellent and don't give problems even with sudden shakes over some decades. The buttom compass of Explora survival knife is an example, it is liquid filled, has glow in the dark markings and, believe or not, can handle shakes for more than 40 years after fabricated without creating any minimal bubbles.

My Explora survival knives (the black chrome version is called Explora Commando). The model was created by the legendary doctor Charles Brewer Carias and manufactured since the mid-1970s until 1991 by Marto of Spain (the original Marto company and not the second generation company after Marto was sold). Undoubtedly one of the hollow handle survival knives made industrially with the highest quality in every detail that I have seen or heard until today.

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The black version has black chromium-plated blade and pommel (it is not related to ordinary chromium, since this chromodur material used has more than 59 Hrc of hardness) of more than 3 microns of thickness. Handle made of Peralumal (a stronger alloy than duralumin and injected liquid under high pressure before cooling) painted with epoxy paint in electrostatic method. Buttcap made of no magnectic hardened stailess stell to use it as a hammer to broke coconuts, nut shells, oysters, crustaceans, etc. Survival items inside the handle survival capsule made of polycarbonate with morse code etched in sturdy paint that glows in the dark and one cap of the capsule is made of methacrylate to magnifying glass and survival itens (such as fire road, water purification tablets and others) that already had been thought by Marto and Dr. Brewer decades before other companys or knifemakers began to think about this type of survival itens. Polycarbonate sheath with various realy functional accessories.

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TAH said:
Yes, I am familiar with all of those compasses. They are all liquid filled. With the exception of the tiny one, they are all larger than 1.5 cm. My point was, the Pyser-SGI NATO Survival compass is the only, high quality, dry, 1.5 cm (or less) compass being produced today that I am aware of. There are cheap, mini, dry, compasses made in China, but their quality is questionable.

I collect mini, dry, compasses, so I am always on the lookout. :)
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TAH, I collect button compasses as well, dry and liquid filled. I know this photo you posted, I have that photo saved on my computer since times ago. As I mentioned, the companys I told you made dry and liquid filled compasses, the photos I posted are just photos I found on Google searching today. If you want dry button compasses of this companys, this companys do and did it too. To the out of production dry ones search on websites of sales of out of procuction products like Ebay or similar websites because this companys really did dry compasses and I'm sure because I had dry compasses of this companys on my hands on physical stores on the past.

Anyway, Is easy and simple to take of the liquid of liquid filled compasses. You just need a hot needle to pierce the backs of the compasses, and a syringe to suck up all the liquid. Leave the compass resting with the hole to up direction to evaporate the small rest of the liquid and you will have a dry compass running perfectly. I have done this several times with my compass that created bubbles.
 
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