Mini-sgian dubh kilt pin in progress

[jmercier]

I saw some of those sgian dubh kilt pins on another thread, with the ugly leather sheathes and the gimpy looking blades... but i thought the concept was nice. So Iv'e gone and made myself one. It's not finished yet, but the mini-sgian dubh is done now, so I'm starting this thread.

I wanted to make a useable / good knife, not just something for decoration. I chose to forge this from some O1. The only O1 I had was a 3/4" round piece of drillrod. I took forever just to forge the rod down to a reasonable width at the end



I forgot to take a picture of the blade after I forged it. After forging it and grinding it, I hardened it in a vat of canola oil I've got, and then chose a wood for the handle and sheath. I split the piece of wood in half, and then drilled out the area for the tang to go. Then i filed out the rest of the slot for the tang.



it took a long time to get the wood to meet back together flush without any gaps, with the grain matching again. here was ensuring the final fit before mixing some epoxy.



I then filled both sides and the surfaces of the matching wood with long set epoxy, clamped it, and let it dry over night.



in the morning I took the blade with block and the dried epoxy out to my grinding station and shaped the handle.



here's a link to a larger picture of it. http://www.tharkis.com/images/minisgianlarge.jpg

Now I've got to drill and file out the center of 2 pieces of wood for the sheath, and shape it to match the top. I want it to not be distinguishable as other than a hardwood pin when worn. The pin for attaching it will go on the back of the sheath, and I want the sheath to be tight so the top will stay put. I may cut out a bit extra from the inside of the sheath and line it with a little bit of leather so that it will grip the blade better.

I'll update this thread later as I finish the sheath!

Overall length of blade + handle is 4 inches, the sheath should make the kilt pin total length 4.5 inches, a little longer than i wanted, but that'w how it turned out =)

[BEEDEE]

If you use rare earth magnets to fasten the pin to the kilt you may be able to use one magnet to hold the blade in the sheath.

Brian

[McMurdo]

It looks very good, thanks for the pics of your progress, hope to see it again when the sheth is done.

[James MacMillan]

If you use rare earth magnets to fasten the pin to the kilt you may be able to use one magnet to hold the blade in the sheath.

Brian

Aw - I was getting ready to say that.......... Still a good idea, even if you use pins to attach it to the kilt. You could imbed (place inside) a magnet in the sheath to hold it.

In fact I did this years ago with a small knife that I routinely wore upside down.

[jmercier]

That's a good idea! i hadnt actually thought about using magnets =) Guess i'll have to hit radio shack or whatever and see if htey've got some.

[James MacMillan]

That's a good idea! i hadnt actually thought about using magnets =) Guess i'll have to hit radio shack or whatever and see if htey've got some.

For that application - inside the sheath - just garbage a flexible refrigerator magnet!

[O'Neille]

Engraving shops have very strong name badge magnets.

[keepoffgrass]

wow, that is really cool. really cool. an actually knife even. I bet you would have a market for those in here

[Rab Gordon]

That must have taken a lot of pounding of the O1 bar !
I look forward to seeing it finished.

In my wooden sheaths I use Neodymium, 1mm thick 10mm in diameter disc magnets that can be had off ebay at pretty good prices and are easily recessed into the inner wall of the sheath.

Rab

[jmercier]

Thanks Rab, I'll look those up later. I want to finish this one before work on thursday since I'm leaving directly from work up to the NH Highland games this comming weekend, and I'd like to have it done before then, so I may just chop up a cheapo kitchen magnet or such as suggested above for this one, but I'll want to do better quality than that in the future.