Square one for DIY sgian dubh.

[AKScott]

WIP it is. Please do speak up if you have any suggestions along the way.

First I went through my knife collection looking for handles small enough to fit in a sock but big enough to be comfortable in my hand. I used a block plane and took a fair bit of material off both sides, that would be the face side and leg side, before I epoxied the blade in. I put a bit of taper in it, more narrow towards the bolster.

With blade epoxied in and well cured I drilled four pin holes through all the way through the piece, two of them through my cut down tang, the other two are just ornamental. In real time I planed one side, transfered my layout marks from the unplaned side and then planed the second side ~ that way I knew where the tang is/was when I drilled.

Then I cut a tenon at the bolster end of the wooden handle:



I made a mistake here, but I am going to be able to carry on. Joe Gondek says we ought to use 10 layers of masking tape when forming up for poor man's pewter, but my pours have never burned through three layers before, so I went with five layers of tape. I think I got away with that ~ it was on supporting the construction paper that I came up short.

I suspect I might try modeling clay next time (on top of whatever masking tape) to suport the construction paper. I formed the paper to the corners of the wood, but as the form filled with liquid tin, the top end of the construction paper form sagged towards round. I am going to have to shape an octagonal profile into the bolster:



I do have the blade face of the bolster shaped flat and took the liberty of applying 80grit sand paper to my file marks on that surface. Next I will file down the sides of the bolster, and do what I have to do to make it look like I meant to do that.

Once that filing is done I'll make the wood contour match the metal for a couple inches, then wet form the sheath, and then go back to shaping the handle.