Making a handle for my knife

[Mark]

Pran,

Another thing you can if you want, when you are drilling the hole in the handle, is to drill a small hole crossways in the handle that will fill up with metal as well, so it appears there is a pin going through the handle.

Should you decide to do this, do not do it by eye! Use a ruler and mark off where to drill the hole. Do that to both sides, and only drill half way in (so the drill does not go through the other side.

If you eyeball it, when you are done and finishing the knife you'll notice one side will be slightly off-center. It happens most every time.

[penpusher]

At the risk of sounding stupid,can somebody tell me what pewter is called in Hindi/Punjabi?

penpusher

[Pran]

Mark,
Mark,

drill a small hole crossways in the handle that will fill up with metal as well, so it appears there is a pin going through the handle.

Is this what you meant?

[Pran]

penpusher,
Pewter is an alloy of mostly tin and small amounts of lead and antimony.It is used to form a thin layer on the inside of brass utensils that are used for cooking.Around here the local name for it is 'thalai'.

Pran

[kanwar76]

At the risk of sounding stupid,can somebody tell me what pewter is called in Hindi/Punjabi?

penpusher

I think you must have got it by now from pran's post but still to make it more clear

Phande kali Karalo....

-Inder

[Pran]

Found time to make the handle for my knife

Broke two handles before I fixed this one.The hole drilled in the first one was not perfectly vertical and the hole for the second one was too small-the handle broke while I was driving the handle smeared with epoxy on to the tang with a mallot.

Mark,
Have left a little hole on one side of the handle for the pewter to fill in and harden.Roughened the inner side of the handle before I drove the tang in.
Will a layer 2-3 mm of pewter be sufficient?

Pran

[Mark]

Mark,
Have left a little hole on one side of the handle for the pewter to fill in and harden.Roughened the inner side of the handle before I drove the tang in.
Will a layer 2-3 mm of pewter be sufficient?

Well there is only one way to find out!

However, I'd be a little concerned about the hot pewter reacting with the epoxy, at this point I think I'd make a bolster either from a little sheet of brass, silver, or copper or instead of pouring pewter I'd pour some epoxy, maybe mixing up a little carbon from a finely ground piece of charcoal to turn it black. Never done this, but you could try using some aluminum powder mixed in as a pigment. Whatever you do, mix up a small test batch first.

[Pran]

Will a layer 2-3 mm of pewter be sufficient?

Well there is only one way to find out!

Meant to ask what the thickness of the bolster should be.

>I'd make a bolster either from a little sheet of brass, silver, or copper or instead of pouring pewter I'd pour some epoxy, maybe mixing up a little carbon from a finely ground piece of charcoal to turn it black.

But then I can't insert a sheet of brass/copper now that I've fixed the handle.Will try mixing epoxy with carbon to make a bolster.

Pran

[Mark]

You can solder a small nail (here we call them "brads") to the back side of a piece of brass and carefully tap it in. put a layer of epoxy down first, and the brad only has to stick up 3-5 mm. To tap it in, I would use a piece of wood an inch longer than the blade, then tap that with a hammer.

[Mark]

....Or you can just do the epoxy thing! It will look fine that way.

[Pran]

Mark,
A brass holster sounds like a good idea.Another knife's in the making.Have room for more bolster suggestions
Pran

[Pran]

Here's another blade!

Planning to use a broken nunchak for the handle.The handle OD is 3cm and tang width 1.5cm.Not sure if it'll look good.Please give me your suggestions(Mark u there )

Pran

[sudhakardm]

Heat the handle area of the knife before drilling if the material is SS ! other wise you will loose a drill bit.
sudhakar

[Mark]

Here is an embarrasing pic of a very early knife that I made with a cast pewter bolster and pommel. I am putting it here to show you the holes I was talking about, they are drilled through the handle and it serves to lock everything in where it never can loosen up.

Material is pewter, handle is cherry wood, and blade is forged from 420 stainless steel. Also did some file work in the spine of the blade too.

And this knife is a couple of years older than you are Praveen!

[Pran]

Sudhakar,
The material is spring steel(probably 1065)

Mark,
Wow! and it's still in a great shape! Do you use it for skinning?

Are all the holes through the handle filled with pewter or have you put in some rivets? Did you use epoxy to fix the handle to the knife?

btw, mixed epoxy with finely ground charcoal to make a bolster for the other knife.looks pretty good.will post pics once I'm through with the finer details.

Pran