I can make a very good blade but my handles still come out meh. Right at the bolsters there is usually a very tiny gap there between them and the wood handle. 

 

My method is to take the wood block, mark it by placing my blade on the edge of the block and marking the spots to drill my block on a drill press. When I put the pins in there is always a small gap, nothing large.

 

Do people leave extra wood in front and sand that down or is there a filler that people use?

i read a method where a guy made fine sawdust from the handle material and mixed it in with 2 part epoxy real good and used that to fill the gap, dont remember where i read that tho.

most blademaking books cover this.  You can use fibre spacer material or just do a proper fit up and joint.

 

Some makers have designed fixtures for their vice to hold the handle material *tight* against the guard when drilling.

 

Yet another method is to leave the tang soft and drill with the handle in place---again the vise fixture can help.

 

You can cast a pewter guard in place.  You can use seppa  You can bed the handle in epoxy.  You can do a wirewrap, You can make a metal endcap and so hide the wood metal joint. Etc and so on.

One method is to over size the holes by ten thousands or so...hold wood tight as you can and drill with pin size bit..then remove wood and enlarg the hole in the tang,.then space around the pin will  leave room for epoxy....must clamp tight towards the guard for this to work..

 

Pics in the knife making lessons.

 

.

Thanks.

 

Rich I looked at some of the lessens and must have overlooked it, I'll go back and look at them again.

 

Just a bit frustrated on my end.

This will not start a trend..I am not going to look up the material I spent so much time putting on this site. HOwever Bounds seems to have hit a wall.

Easy way to get that good fit is to make sure the wood fits the tang,,,perfectly...hold it up to the light and look for gaps. Only thin can you expect that a good fit will remain a good fit. Clamp the wood to the tang..I uswe little c clamps...then drill from the tang side down through one scale....Youi rubber blands to hold it to tang like in the lessons.

'?do=embed' frameborder='0' data-embedContent>>

That shows a hidden tang but use that process. Each hole i drill I put one pin in. and before the second hole i double check for movement. Tap with small hammer to tighten gaps if needed. When holes are in the scale and puns are in remove clamps and check fit..if it is not right now it will not get that way. when I am ready I use thin colored paper and make a spacer that will show on all sides of the scale and at the guard area. I fold the paper..I use black almost all the time...Then I add epoxy to tang,,lay paper in and epoxy that,,I mix some black powder in the epoxy..not much....then I sharpen ends of pins and push two in from the other side of the tang a bit,,through the paper and to locate the scale. I push the scale down tight and clamp it. When I get the first two clamps on I add other pins.....I use four clamps...The epoxy I use has a long set time..afetr an hour I pull the pins out...and let dry over  night. Next day i clean all epoxy off other side of tang..and clamp the other scale tight checking gaps..then drill throuigh first side with second scale clamped. the epoxy add paper etc like first one...dry another day and complete finishing.

That empties my ammo bag for this problem...If it does not work do it again ,,,maybe twenty times until it  does.......Not trying to be nasty about this but knife making is about trouble shooting anything not working well and being  persistant until you gain the skills.

Fitting is where the lighted magnifier on a stand really helps  as does old fashioned carbon paper and excessive amounts of patience

All of wot Thomas said

Thanks again for the help. Looking forward to this weekend and trying it out again.

I try and take a very different attitude to the fit and finish of knives.

 My observations of historical pieces , especially swords lead me to believe that the meticulous fit and finish that is seen on modern American knives was not at all normal in historic pieces. I say not normal because I have seen a very few medieval swords that had nearly perfect fit (only one jumps to mind).

I use cutlers resin and hard wax to fill gaps, a trick that I gleaned off of a swedish knife making champion (whose fit is as meticulous as it gets.).

 

 when Making Seax I leave the resin showing and polish it in with the front of the handle, I like the finish, it has a material honesty.

 

 There are many ways to skin a fish but I think that there is an obsession with fit and finish in modern bladesmithing that seems to overshadow other aspects of the craft.....

 That said it is a very individual thing , If you are aiming for perfect fit I find a permanent marker applied liberally to the tang will give a great indicator where the tang is touching the handle material. I am also an advocator of hot fitting tangs to get an exact fit. 

 or try the wax sticks that you can buy from furnature repair places as they come in lots of colours.......

I think it would be hard to judge the original fit off of something centuries old.  I've seen a lot of high end wood and ivory items in musuems show shrinkage with age even when only a century or so has passed.

 

OTOH I have seen medieval metalwork that was extremely painstakingly done in places and sort of "nailed on" in other places and so would be willing to believe that wood/bone/ivory work might show the same range of care taken.

i read a method where a guy made fine sawdust from the handle material and mixed it in with 2 part epoxy real good and used that to fill the gap, dont remember where i read that tho.

I do that.  Works well as long as the material is a fairly solid color.  If you're doing a multi-colored material like acrylester or colored wood laminate, the paste usually comes out brown and ugly.

I do that.  Works well as long as the material is a fairly solid color.  If you're doing a multi-colored material like acrylester or colored wood laminate, the paste usually comes out brown and ugly.

Add pigment?

Frosty The Lucky.

Yeah.  May be better to just use pigmented epoxy rather than trying to use the dust too.  Skip a step and all.