Tip of the Day - full tang handle slabs

[Matt Harildstad]

This is a tip to improve the fit of handle slabs to full tang blades.

They are easier to fit with no gap if you either hollow grind the tang or the backside of the handle material. That way only a band around the periphery of the handle material will be in direct contact with the tang. Even though I hollow grind the tang before tapering, most of that is gone by the time the taper is ground. In that case, the backside of the handle slab can be hollow ground.

I've countersunk holes, I've scraped high spots, I've gone back to the grinder to take humps off the tang, and before Brian Lyttle turned me on to this trick, I never thought to just eliminate the high spots in the first place.

On some designs I do the hollowing on the belt grinder, and in others I just use a burr in my flex-shaft machine. This improves the glue bond by providing a little more room for the epoxy, and roughs up the inside of the handle material nicely.

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Matt Harildstad
Knifemaker
www.planet.eon.net/~matth
matth@planet.eon.net

 

[Dr.Lathe]

Matt,
That's something I never heard off. I'm going to experiment with that one tomorow!!
I'm a "clamper"!! I will have about 20 of the Cant Twist style clamps on my knives when I glue each side up. It seems to pull in any small gaps that may be present. Between that and the Loctite primer and adhesives I recently started using, I've had very few problems. I taper my tangs on a grinder using a sine plate so they are usually very flat. Any problem usually occurs with the handle material. I think your idea will realy help!
Thanks,
Neil

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[Matt Harildstad]

I try not to clamp too tight. I use 2 or three clamps when gluing and don't do them up too much.

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Matt Harildstad
Knifemaker
www.planet.eon.net/~matth
matth@planet.eon.net

 

[Ricky D. Finch]

Never thought about doing the handle that way, going to give it a try. I only use clamps to hold the knife off the bench while is drying. I use rivets on my handles. I found that i was tighten the clamps real tight and squeezing most of the expoy out. And some of the material would pull loose and create gaps at the low spots when going from cold to hot temperatures.

 

[Darrel Ralph]

This is a great tip Matt. I do the same with interframe inlays. Just mill deeper on the inside of the pocket and leave a rim arounf the fit up area. this alows area for glue and also the inlay wil go in and out the same height every time..




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[Rene E. Roy]

This is a great tip! I will try this on my next knife. Thanks Rene.
www.geocities.com/roy_knives/blades.html

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