How to make a hilt

[bowser]

can anyone suggest a good book on knife making, what I am looking for is something that gives good coverage of making the hilt and bolsters etc.

I am a dab hand with metal, however you cant weld wood its bloody silly material but hey you really have no choice as a hilt material ;-).
I am looking to buy a blade blank and fancy having a go at making the hilt, but I want to end up with a usable tool not just a ornament.

I have seen lots of tutorials for blanks with full tang but nothing for the blanks available for a sgian.

Any advice greatly received.

[Kilted Rogue]

if your looking for Blanks for a Sgian Dubh, our own Rab Gordon sells them, and all the parts to make a sgian.http://www.rainnea.com/new-sgian-dubhs.htm

Atlanta cutlery has blanks as well http://www.atlantacutlery.com/atlant...il.aspx?ID=850

and a knife making book as well.

that should get you started.

[bowser]

I have had a look at Rab's site and I found a couple of other places, but I really am not much of a wood worker and was looking for some reading that would give as much details as possible on the hilt bit of the process, a lot of stuff I have seen concentrates on making the blade and very little on the rest or it concentrates on blade blanks where there is a full tang and it goes into scales etc, all of which is very interesting but of little value, to me at the moment.

[Mr. Woolery]

Off the top of my head, I would suggest three books. Tim McCreight's book "Custom Knifemaking" is excellent for a beginner. Covers a lot of information, but isn't really all that great once you master the basics. Bo Bergman's book "Knifemaking" is all about Scandinavian knives, where the long tradition (dates back to the middle ages, at least) is that the bladesmith only makes blades and the knife maker does the rest. So, he covers everything but the blade. This is with Scandinavian styles, so not all of it will be relevant to you, but he does not make a single knife in the book with a full tang. All narrow tangs. Wayne Goddard's book "The $50 Knife Shop" has good coverage of a narrow-tang project knife. It is a hunting knife, not a sgian dubh, but still a stub tang into a block.

In essence, you will be dealing with a block of wood with a hole in it to accept the tang. The simplest way to make to make the hole is to drill it. A guard or bolster will cover the unsightly hole when you assemble the knife. A good high-strength epoxy will hold things together. Then you have to shape the wood. Not really all that complicated once you understand the steps involved. Any of those books will show you what you need to know.

Good luck! And have fun with it! That's what DIY is all about!

-Patrick

[bowser]

Off the top of my head, I would suggest three books. Tim McCreight's book "Custom Knifemaking" is excellent for a beginner. Covers a lot of information, but isn't really all that great once you master the basics. Bo Bergman's book "Knifemaking" is all about Scandinavian knives, where the long tradition (dates back to the middle ages, at least) is that the bladesmith only makes blades and the knife maker does the rest. So, he covers everything but the blade. This is with Scandinavian styles, so not all of it will be relevant to you, but he does not make a single knife in the book with a full tang. All narrow tangs. Wayne Goddard's book "The $50 Knife Shop" has good coverage of a narrow-tang project knife. It is a hunting knife, not a sgian dubh, but still a stub tang into a block.

In essence, you will be dealing with a block of wood with a hole in it to accept the tang. The simplest way to make to make the hole is to drill it. A guard or bolster will cover the unsightly hole when you assemble the knife. A good high-strength epoxy will hold things together. Then you have to shape the wood. Not really all that complicated once you understand the steps involved. Any of those books will show you what you need to know.

Good luck! And have fun with it! That's what DIY is all about!

-Patrick

Thanks for the reply, I was fine with that up to the point at which we fill it full of high strength epoxy, I had sort of worked out that drilling a hole and filling it full of epoxy would do the job but it dont feel right, I want to try and find the "right" way to do it not the quick and easy way. Somehow feels like cheating.

But I will have a look at the books, thanks for the info

[Kilted Rogue]

you can use antler for a handle.
i belive the method is to soak it till the inside is soft. then push the tang in to the open end.

there are a few threads on here about that process

[Mr. Woolery]

Believe me do or believe me don't, the most common method of fitting a hidden tang is really to make the hole in the block fit as close as is reasonable to the tang, then to fill with high-quality epoxy. I like Devcon, myself. Not the stuff you get off the shelf at the store, but the stuff the knife supply houses sell as "industrial grade." Not sure what the difference is, other than the size of bottles, but I have been very happy with the strength and durability. Frankly, any properly mixed epoxy should be stronger than the wood is and able to put up with any amount of abuse you are likely to give it.

I've tried other bonding agents, including PL Premium Construction Adhesive and Gorilla Glue. Never on a knife I sold, mind you, as it was just for testing purposes. These are both strong glues, but they bubble enough that I am not sure about the porosity of the glued area, so keep those for shop knives (for abusive tasks that I don't want to use a good knife on). Epoxy works great. Hard to go wrong. And when someone like Wayne Goddard suggests it, it is hard to think it is a kludge. Sometimes the easy way is the right way!

But please make your knife any way you prefer. If you come up with a better way, please post about it and we can all have new ideas to work with. That's how we all get better.

-Patrick

[Howard Clark]

Mr. Woolery gives you sound advice. I have been full time making knives and bladesmithing for 21 years now. That is how I, and everyone I know, does narrow tang (or stick tang, if you prefer that term) handles, fit as close as you can, then use epoxy to hold it all together. Exception being a couple of real historical accuracy type, OCD afflicted individuals I know. They use pitch. Some also use a pin through the handle to further secure it with a mechanical fastener. I frequently (but not always) do both.

I guess I should note that I don't drill a great big round hole and fill it in. I cut a rectangular section slot, with a very sharp, very thin sawzall blade. But you have to start with a drilled round hole.

[liv2ryd94]

Two good knife making sites:

http://www.britishblades.com/forums/

http://www.texasknife.com/vcom/index.php

[Pleater]

One of the problems that has plagued mankind is finding a really good glue - in terms of evolution epoxy has only been around a couple of nanoseconds, but it resolves a lot of age old difficulties.

Getting from a stone tool in the hand to a stone tool firmly fixed on the end of a stick was - I suspect - what gave H sapiens the edge over all the other H types.

Take full advantage, I'd say, it is your birthright to pour two part epoxy and enjoy the results.

I grew up near Sheffield, in Yorkshire, England and that had a knife making industry for a long time. It produced steel, and all that implied, scissors, axe heads - but the trades of blade maker and handle maker were always separate. Sometimes a man would set up a manufactury of knives, but always there were two master craftsmen - one for the metal and one for the rest.

The Victorians combed the Empire for anything that would make handles - usually involving the death of some beast or plant and shipped it home tor processing.

There is a museum with parts of many endangered species, or some now extinct, showing the work of the Sheffield Cutlers.

Anne the Pleater