Home Made Sgian Dubhs and Kilt Pins

[Thorin]

Hi All,

Thought I needed to post something here by way of giving back to this community; and to open channels for future learning. Having battled so hard in South Africa to find sgians and kilt pins for my groomsmen when I got married I decided to try my hand at making them. And it was lochnessorigins.com and this site that I visited repeatedly to try and get a sense of how these knives were best made. For my 30th I ordered components from Rainnea, and I thought it would be fitting to post the results here.

Thanks for all the DIY post contributers!

... I get this far and realise I have no idea how to post the pictures in this thread. Alas, I will figure it out eventually.

[Donnie]

[McMurdo]

Thorin
from Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

To post pictures you will need an account somewhere to host your photos, I would suggest

www.photobucket.com

Once you have registered and have followed their instructions on uploading your photos, to get them over here you simply paste the IMG code from photobucket into your message. Here is a screen shot showing where the IMG code is found over at photobucket.



I hope this helps.

[K. MacRuadh]

Welcome! I have recently started carving some handles for myself and I would love to see what you are doing.



Kev

[Mael Coluim]

from the Old Dominion State!
Look forward to seeing your blades and pins.

[The Barry]

From the emerald city!

And please post some pics, I'd like to see how it's coming.

[Thorin]

Hey All,

Thanks for the advice on uploading the pics and the words of welcome.

Here goes - these are my first two wood working and knife making attempts, and one of the pewter kilt pins I have made.

I bought some Red Ivory wood and Tambuti from a local lumber yard last week and I will post some pics later of the handles I'm busy turning out of them.

[IMG][/IMG]

[1MUNK3]

Nice work ! The sgians came out great. What type of moulding did you do for casting the pins? Everything turned out great. You must be proud.

[Thorin]

Hey 1Munk3,

I cheat a little bit with the pins. I ordered the pins we wore at the wedding from a Scottish shop, but at the price I think it is safe to assume they were brought in from somewhere in Asia. They looked alright and did the job, but they were a cheap electroplated metal. Anyway I made a plaster of paris impression of the pin. Then I poured melted pewter into the mould and got a very rough casting of the typical claymore design kiltpin. I used this as a blank (for a rough sword shape) which I then hand carve, file down and polish until it becomes a unique product of my labour.

I battled with the attaching the actual pin to the sword at first because it was an absolut mission to solder. Being so small the smallest amount of excess heat would warp and ruin the whole cast. I now use epoxy or contact adhesive to secure the pin mechanism - but hope to improve on this somehow in the future.

Hope this answers your question

Thorin

[Mipi]

Good! Keep on working!