I've been working on a bowie knife for about a week now... all finished except the handle. I got it all together, glued and all... I looks great. But I noticed the handle was a little on the large side. Upon trimming it down, I fell into the tang slot revealing an ugly, but small hole. This happened not once, but TWICE! Now the beautiful bowie handle has two ugly holes on both sides. I think my drill bits strayed a little during boring out the handle for the tang, so maybe that is why I have these holes? Is your preference to drill it out, or do the two slab work that comes together to form the handle?
Lastly, how do I fix these holes? The whole handle is rock solid- there is no way it could come off. I was thinking of drilling a hole into the opening (which is tiny) and glueing a little piece of antler in it... but that just seems to be too random :-/ Ideas/advice?
Thanks so much- any help is much appreciated!!!
Joseph, Unless the holes are in a natural place for an inlay of some kind you probably should bust it off and put another one on. If they are where escutcheons would be naturally, that might be an option, of course. But I encourage you not to make a wrong choice out of desperation. We all make mistakes and some of them are costly. I've done it myself. <img src=' http://www.americanbladesmith.com/ipboard/public/style_emoticons//smile.gi f' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' />
Joseph,
I agree with Lin, better to make it right than mess it up worse. I cracked a piece of stag tapping in the last pin. Tried to figure out a way to fix it. I finally just popped it with the hammer and put new scales on.
What happened to you, happened on a small hunter I finished not long ago. I ground the pommel end down a bit much and hit the glue! Started over on that one.
After reading all the comments and tutorials on making handles that were posted last month, I've gone back to mortised tang, and I'm going to do as much finishing off the knife as possible!
Good Luck!
Bob
Joseph, same advice here. Take it off and make it right with a new handle. Chalk it up to a learning experience. Been there. We all probably have.
Brion
Brion Tomberlin
Anvil Top Custom Knives
ABS Mastersmith
Robert- youch! That sounds frustrating. I have to wonder when I'll stop making mistakes... I've made a total of about 70 knives so far, and as soon as I conquer one mistake, the next knife I make ends up with yet another blemish!! How long does it take before you can make knives without having to improve on the next one majorly?
Okay, thanks.... I'll do that. :-/ I suppose that it cant get very good from here if I try to fix the errors, which will get worse if I try to fix them. Starting over....
I have a different bowie knife I just finished...once sheath is done, I'll see if I can post pics! <img src=' http://www.americanbladesmith.com/ipboard/public/style_emoticons//smile.gi f' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' />
Check out Lin's mortised handle tutorial. I think it is on the main web page here. In that technique, the handle slab is split and mortised out. For me this has a couple advantages over drilling out the handle. First is that you end up with a bookmatched handle. Not a big deal but it does add a nice touch. The next is that because you are cutting the tang cavity to the exact shape of the tang you get a perfect fit, no slop and no extra space. You also know exactly where the tang and cavity are. The next and my favorite reason, is that since the fit is so good, you can finish the handle before gluing it to the knife. Personally this has helped me tremendously with handle symmetry, and with the finish quality (ever try to polish a spacer, and the handle at the same time?). The last reason, is that it results in a rock solid connection. My first impression was that since the handle would be split it wouldn't be as strong but my own testing has shown otherwise. I have never had a mortised handle fail, a drilled out handle on the other hand I have had crack because of extra space.
Any-way, check it out, and as for this knife either chalk it up to learning and keep it as a user or if you really like the blade grind off the handle and try again.
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Check out Lin's mortised handle tutorial. I think it is on the main web page here. In that technique, the handle slab is split and mortised out. For me this has a couple advantages over drilling out the handle. First is that you end up with a bookmatched handle. Not a big deal but it does add a nice touch. The next is that because you are cutting the tang cavity to the exact shape of the tang you get a perfect fit, no slop and no extra space. You also know exactly where the tang and cavity are. The next and my favorite reason, is that since the fit is so good, you can finish the handle before gluing it to the knife. Personally this has helped me tremendously with handle symmetry, and with the finish quality (ever try to polish a spacer, and the handle at the same time?). The last reason, is that it results in a rock solid connection. My first impression was that since the handle would be split it wouldn't be as strong but my own testing has shown otherwise. I have never had a mortised handle fail, a drilled out handle on the other hand I have had crack because of extra space.
Any-way, check it out, and as for this knife either chalk it up to learning and keep it as a user or if you really like the blade grind off the handle and try again.
Awesome, thanks justin!! I watch any videos I can get my hands on... references like this really help me out. You've also convinced me to move to mortised handles... unless it's a stub tang knife, count me in!! <img src=' http://www.americanbladesmith.com/ipboard/public/style_emoticons//smile.gi f' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' />
I had that on one once, I filled it with epoxy putty then sanded smooth and continued with my over wrap. I was making a full wrapped handle so this wasnt a deal breaker in my mind since it would never be seen and the cord was later epoxy covered anyway so itd never come apart. Wouldnt recommend doing that for uncovered handles though.
