Canska Posted December 12, 2008 Share Posted December 12, 2008 Let met start by saying I've never been taught any kind of proper way to make knives. I study every knife I come across and learned from that and experimentation. But I'm interested to know what everyone else does, as I suspect my methods could use improving. With my current project, I've made a full tang blade and heat treated it, machine and hand sanded it up to 400 grit wet/dry and will probly finish it to mirror polish with 1000 grit and a buffing wheel. I made a guard and rear bolster out of mild steel, and a handle from a block of rosewood. It all fits together nicely. I intend to finish the rosewood with tung oil. Would you finish the handle before assembling everything? Or would you assemble it first then finish? I can see arguments either way. With some knives, I've threaded the tang and tapped the rear bolster so it screws on. In that case I can see finishing the handle first. With this knife, I intend to permanently epoxy the unthreaded tang into the guard, handle, and rear bolster. I've never tried this before, and perhaps its not a good idea? But it seems to me in this case, if I finish the rosewood first, some epoxy might squeeze out between fittings and ruin the finish. So it would be better to assemble, let the epoxy set, then sand away any epoxy before finishing. So after all that babbling, I guess there's two main questions. How do you attach your rear bolsters? And what is your process for final assembly and finishing? And, does the process change depending on the type of knife and attachment method? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Canska Posted December 15, 2008 Author Share Posted December 15, 2008 No comment? Well, here's what I've made so far. Any criticism/advice would be great. There are a couple more pictures here. Tonight I'm going to attempt assembling everything with 20 minute epoxy and do the final finishing tomorrow, after its fully cured. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jerry W. Posted December 15, 2008 Share Posted December 15, 2008 Manual frame page. Canska, Check out the above link. Bob passed away some time ago but his information is still maintained on the website. There is great information provided for someone getting started mixed in with his humor. Jerry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dodge Posted December 15, 2008 Share Posted December 15, 2008 Its probably too late as you said you're gluing today. However, if you don't intend to thread the end of the tang, I would put some radial grooves on the tang for "teeth" to grip in the glue better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bg7m Posted December 15, 2008 Share Posted December 15, 2008 When I make a knife with a tang like yours, I thread the end and screw the butt cap on. I like to have a mechanical force holding the handle on, not relying on just the epoxy, although yours may work fine. Nice blade shape. Hope to see a photo when it's finished. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Canska Posted December 15, 2008 Author Share Posted December 15, 2008 Jerry W, thanks for the link, I spent a good while reading the entire site. Lots of good info! Dodge, I had thought of that, because I don't much trust the epoxy either. I plan to cut a couple notches in the tip of the tang. And I drilled some shallow holes inside the butt cap's slot (where the tang goes). They're drilled at about 45 degrees compared to the tang, to serve as anchors. Hopefully, that'll prevent the epoxy from coming loose. bg7m, I've threaded most of my knives before, and had good luck with it. But this is (hopefully) going to be a christmas present. And I'm afraid of not having time to tweak it 2 dozen times, trying to get the handle and butt cap joint just perfect... which, to me, is usually the hardest part of making a knife. So fingers crossed, I'm hoping the epoxy works out, but I wouldn't be surprised if this shortcut doesn't end up costing me. Thanks for the helpful comments guys. I will definitely add more pictures when its done. If I may derail my own thread, how long should it take to make a knife like this? I've been very careful with this one, trying to make my best blade yet. But I've spent something like 45 hours in total. Thats fine for a hobby, but I'd be hard pressed to make a living of it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keykeeper Posted December 15, 2008 Share Posted December 15, 2008 Don't some knives use a pin to hold the butt cap on? I know I have seen that somewhere, although I've never done it myself. Nice design on the components, by the way. The recipient should be happy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted December 15, 2008 Share Posted December 15, 2008 The better the epoxy the less hassle it'll give you in the future. When I'm putting things together that I want to hold permanently I use slow cure, several hours to a day. Nice looking blade. Frosty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max Mulholland - Tetnum Posted December 16, 2008 Share Posted December 16, 2008 i like 5 minute epoxy because it gives you some time to play with it and get it the way you like but it also cures in a short enugh time that you can watch it and make shure it dose not move around it usuaily takes me a few hours for a small knife and a week or more for a big blade beyond 10" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Sells Posted December 16, 2008 Share Posted December 16, 2008 the trouble with the 5 min epoxy's are they have a usable life of 5 years or so, then they start to let go. nothing worse than have most your blade return tor repairs 5 years after the sale. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dablacksmith Posted December 16, 2008 Share Posted December 16, 2008 ime a firm believer in a mechanical hold with epoxy to keep the handle from wiggleing.. i also dont use the fast cure epoxys (i worked at a hoby shop for years and saw many things come apart useing 5 minute epoxy) ive got a friend that likes acuraglass for handle glue ... it is a long lasting resin product used to bed rifle barrels for accuracy.i use ether slow cure epoxy or jb weld ... as far as time to make knife it varys wildly.. and its a real tough way to make a liveing ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Canska Posted December 16, 2008 Author Share Posted December 16, 2008 Thanks again for the kind words guys! I glued it together last night. First I carefully cut little notches in the tang, roughly as deep and wide as the width of a hacksaw blade. Probably about 8 overall, staggered and spaced apart down the length of the tang, with a few extra right at the tip of the tang to provide more anchorage. I went with Loctite "Professional" 60 Minute epoxy, as I've been reading that slower curing epoxies are generally the strongest and longest lasting. When I mixed it up and saw how runny it was (was expecting stiffer goo), I carefully masked off the wood handle, blade and other metal surfaces with masking tape, expecting I'd probably make a mess of it. I was right, in the end I had epoxy everywhere. In trying to make sure the handle void was entirely filled, I applied too much, which squirted out everywhere. But, because of the long cure time, I was able to get all the edges aligned just so and clean up most of the excess glue easily. After 3 hours it was work hard, so I carefully removed the masking tape before it ended up permanently attached. With the tape off, I was surprised at how clean a job I actually did. I'm still being gentle with it, full cure is 24 hours and its only been 11. Tomorrow I should be able to sand away the little bits of excess glue. Then I intend to mask off the metal parts and apply several coats of tung oil to the wood. Sorry these pics are terrible, only have my cell phone available at the moment. I should have some decent pictures of it completed by the end of the week though. Even if this epoxied knife stands up to hard usage, I'm pretty sure I'm sticking with threaded tangs from now on. The glue was a mess (ok, that was mostly my fault), and it was a very stressful hour, wondering if I was about to ruin the entire work or not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ross_lad Posted December 16, 2008 Share Posted December 16, 2008 looks great! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobDobbs Posted December 17, 2008 Share Posted December 17, 2008 Looks good. What are the specs on it? It looks like quite a handfull. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Canska Posted December 19, 2008 Author Share Posted December 19, 2008 (edited) Specs... the blade is 5160 coil spring, the handle is Honduran Rosewood, the guard and butt cap are mild steel. I don't have a tape measure, but I'll guess about 9.5" long overall with about 5" of cutting edge. It really is a handful though. This is my first completed knife in many years (about 12) and it hasn't been like riding a bike. I am figuring it out though. This is the last time I do just epoxy though! And I really need to work on my woodworking skills, the handles are pretty crude and too thick. Hopefully the next project will be better. If anyone has criticism or suggestions, I'd appreciate that greatly. So... I've been making a pair of these knives simultaneously. The first one is nearly done, got it epoxied and roughly cleaned up and the handle has about 5 coats of tung oil. It just needs another quick run on the buffing wheel and sharpening. The second one just got epoxied last night, it'll get cleaned up and tung oiled tonight. Tomorrow (assuming the oil dries in time) its getting Christmas gifted to my father. It still amazes me that a month ago, these knives were a coil spring on my car. Transforming junk into pretty shiny things is good fun. In the 2nd pic, the bottom knife is the unfinished one, and its slightly larger than the other. More pictures here. ps: Taking pictures of knives is harder than I would've thought :( Edited December 19, 2008 by Canska forgot something Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
walkerironworks84 Posted January 28, 2010 Share Posted January 28, 2010 Awesome looking blade, it really looks good Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Leppo Posted January 28, 2010 Share Posted January 28, 2010 Both knives look really nice. Considering what I've read here, and now that the knives are together... Seems like if one was going to use the epoxy it would be better to finish the wood first (trying to keep any finish on the outside so that the epoxy has bare wood to bond to on the inside) I'm thinking that this would make cleanup easier as the epoxy wouldn't have unsealed wood to soak into if one would get some on the outside surface. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.