Everyone has seen my forged, wrapped handle, ring hilt knives, and my ATTEMPT at a through tang peened butt cap knife(hehe). But recently, I finally tried my hand at doing some slab handles, my very first try. I also on the same knife tried welding a carbon steel edge to a mild steel body and tang. I was gonna do it san mai, but wanted to try this first before possibly wasting good steel. it was my 4th forge weld, and it stuck perfectly! I dang near fainted when i hammered on the seam and it didn't just flop to either side! So it is a knife, welded on 1075 edge to a mild steel body, with zebra wood pinned slabs, 3 pins and a lanyard hole. the epoxy dried last night, and I am gonna grind the handle clean up tommorrow(hopefully). And after that polish and post somepictures, I know I did things a bit backwards, but I learned firsthand what I did wrong, so will be able to do much better next time. On one side you can clearly see the seam(started with a 1/2 inch wide peice of 1075 on a 1 inch wide peice of mild steel) on the one side, but on the other all you'll see is the seam when it is etched, it is a cool sort of yin yang thing.

The one side is the clean good side which will show the different steels when etched, the other I left to show myself the weld. Enjoy.

Looks real good, Sam. Do you put the rivets in cold or do you hear them?

Interesting shape.

Christopher

They look good . I also like the shape

Thanks guys. Chris, the rivets are added cold, I don;t think riveted on handles are ever done hot. What yah do is, drill the holes in the tang and the handle slabs, leaving the holes in the tang slightly oversized than the pin stock you are using. Then spread epoxy on the tang and slabs, then stick them together. Get some epoxy on the pins, then insert them in each of the pin holes. Clamp the slabs firmly to the tang using c clamps. The pins will sort of settle and self center in the holes, that's what I was told, and how I did it/do it. No peening is needed, the epoxy holds everything firmly and tight, and peening might damage your wood/bone/whatever.

nice sam!! glad to see you're doing wood handles! A whole new set of challenges :)

Sam,
That looks like a strong, but tough bulldog knife!
I like to see your different designs of knives, Shanks, and Hawks.
They are always an interesting suprise!
Be safe!
Old Rusty Ted

AM ,
is that wood i's seein' on those handle's ? Where's that plain & twine wrapped 1's youse love ta make ?
Just kiddin' mate ,, good job


Dale Russell

Thanks, Sam. I like epoxy and use it a lot. Makes sense the way you put it.

Just a thought. Have you ever seen saw handle nuts and bolts like those used in hand saws? They are designed to look like rivets but can be unscrewed. Some are decorative with fancy cast heads. They would be good for a real big knife, like a machete.

Christopher

Iron Puppet, I bought a Machete at Walmart a couple years ago, and after a few months the handle began to break off. I tore it off the tang and made my own out of wood. I was going to rivit it on, but then my dad told me about those bolts. They work really well, and I can just unscrew them if I need to remove the handle for whatever reason. I get home from school on Monday, I'll post a couple of pics of what it looks like. I bought the bolts at my local hardware store, I'm sure they shouldn't be too hard to find.

Chris, I think they are called "chicago screws"?

That's what we call them up here. They're used for lots of horse tack like bridals too.

Thanks Ted, Dale, Julian. Yeah Dale, I really got a kick out of doing this one, hopefully i'll be doing ALOT more in the future. I got some good micarta slab size material I have been dying to try out..........

Nice job Sam, looks like it will be a great chopper.

Thanks Tek, here it is after I got some time on my Teacher's grinder(Bader, best in the world). Thinned the handle, fits much better in the hand now, as well as refined the tip a bit. Enjoy.