A quick look at one of my projects...

Okay....back to work for Monday morning. I have all the fittings to final dimensions in place on the blade and fitting as they should. There is still rounding, polishing and filework to do but that is all cosmetic. It doesn't affect the final outcome at this point.



So it's time to start on the handle. After CONSIDERABLE deliberation this weekend and more this morning, I have chosen an especially nice piece of African Blackwood. I know Big Rick has an affinity for ironwood and a nice piece of ironwood was the runner up. I hope Rick will trust my instinct here. :) I chose blackwood for it's looks, both on it's own and how it will look with these fittings. But I also chose it for certain workability aspects for this particular handle and for strength and stability issues.

Here it is laid out next to a sketch of my handle.
 
I got the handle rough shaped and fit. This took a while too. This happens to be a frame handle but my process for fitting a frame handle or a solid handle is pretty much the same.

A quick peek inside:


Everything fit nice, all the angles right and no gaps:


After I pin the spacers and the buttcap to the handle and frame, (which is the next thing in the sequence) then I can finish the handle down to it's final dimension. That will let me see how much room I have to lighten the frame up by selectively grinding away steel in the open areas. Because right now, it weighs as much as a paver brick. :)

Frame handles always add a bit of extra weight, and that's okay, especially on a blade this large. It needs just a bit of a reduction to make it just right. As it is, the knife balances just about at the plunge line, which makes it feel just a bit handle heavy.
 
One other thing I was going to mention, I just plain don't have the time to do a detailed WIP on making a frame handle so that will have to wait for another day. I just wanted to give a quick look at how I put my handles together.
 
J. Doyle said:
And here's the hand filing I was talking about to make the slot's rectangle and nice and crisp in the corners. A good set of safe-edge and safe-face files are a necessity here.
Click to expand...

I cannot believe I have never heard of safe face files before. Any recommendations on types or preferred suppliers?

I would have asked the question many posts ago but i havent had time to keep up with the hot threads lately.
 
jdale said:
I cannot believe I have never heard of safe face files before. Any recommendations on types or preferred suppliers?

I would have asked the question many posts ago but i havent had time to keep up with the hot threads lately.
Click to expand...

Just make your own. I think you can probably get them somewhere but I just take some and grind the cutting teeth off the edges, then take others and surface grind the cutting teeth off the faces. That way I have some that cut only on the faces and some that cut only on the edges.
 
Hi John, will you show the method you use to locate and drill the guard/spacer pin holes into the handle scales?
I'm interested in your technique, i would try this: fitting temporarily everything with shorter pins (not going all the way to the spacers) superglue the spacer to the handle, and "extract" the handle/spacer ensamble, using the spacer as a drilling guide for the scales, would it work? and for the buttplate/frame?
 
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stezann said:
Hi John, will you show the method you use to locate and drill the guard/spacer pin holes into the handle scales?
I'm interested in your technique, i would try this: fitting temporarily everything with shorter pins (not going all the way to the spacers) superglue the spacer to the handle, and "extract" the handle/spacer ensamble, using the spacer as a drilling guide for the scales, would it work? and for the buttplate/frame?
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'll show pictures of that too but you got it exactly right. How you described is exactly how I do it.
 
Thanks John, i like very much following your project, also i appreciate your productivity, which provide tight posting over time :happy:
 
Thanks again for following along guys. I had to take some time today to finish another knife so I didn't make much progress on this today. I'll be back at it this evening and tomorrow.
 
Okay, back at this today:

I need to drill the pin holes to lock the spacers into the scales and frame. Using superglue again to capture the spacer into it's position with the face of the handle/frame. the c-clamp is only necessary on a frame handle. It just makes sure the scales don't separate from the frame during drilling. That would be disastrous. ;)


And chucked in a drill vise perfectly perpendicular to the bit. You need to make sure your drill press table is absolutely dead square to your chuck or else you'll have a myriad of problems.


With the holes drilled, now the handle has to reference the spacer in the same spot every time. Also, the fit of the pins ensures that now when assembled, the handle can't twist and the scales can't separate from the frame. I can trace my spacer now and see how much material I can get rid of now.


Now all the pins are in and it's ready to slide into place with 6 pins holding it in place. Two in each scale and one in the top frame and one in the bottom frame.


The same process is now repeated for the butt cap with the same result. Two pins in each scale and one in each frame.


The knife can now be locked solidly together with no slop, twist, pull apart or separation anywhere. Just as if it were all one piece. This is a very secure and strong way to build it but it must be precise and it is NOT fast. Now the handle scales and frame can be finished.
 
Hi John, are the pin holes in the butt cap blind or passing through? If they are blind how did you locate them without a spacer?
 
From the look of the positioning I would guess he used the same pattern as the spacer and just mirrored spacer side and butt side pin locations?
 
stezann said:
Hi John, are the pin holes in the butt cap blind or passing through? If they are blind how did you locate them without a spacer?
Click to expand...

They're blind. I had originally intended for the ones in the smaller end cap to cover everything but with the knife this big, I wanted the pins as far out as possible on the scales and frame.

Walt's right. I just used a temporary spacer (actually my pattern for the buttcap shape) drilled holes in it and glued it to, first the scales/frame and transferred the holes, then next to the buttcap and transferred the holes that way.
 
Lightening the frame with an endmill:


The frame all finished on the inside. This made a HUGE difference in the weight and balance of the knife.


Now I'll work in final dimensioning the outside of the frames and then it's on to shaping the scales.
 
And now the frame is finished, or very near. Close enough to start the handle. A little filework to match the spine of the blade:


And some initial rough shaping of the handle, heavy on the 'rough'. :D
 
That is the "rough" life of the knife maker. I had to make a funny. Seeing the file work your doing is making my brain spin on the possiblities to be done on a knife. Is smoothing itself into another work of art witb a sharp personality. Thanks for sharing.
 
It's coming along wonderfully!! It looks like (and i bet it is) you enjoy to put as many challenges upon your path you can think about...that is a precious lesson for us all!!!!
 
J. Doyle said:
Okay....back to work for Monday morning. I have all the fittings to final dimensions in place on the blade and fitting as they should. There is still rounding, polishing and filework to do but that is all cosmetic. It doesn't affect the final outcome at this point.



So it's time to start on the handle. After CONSIDERABLE deliberation this weekend and more this morning, I have chosen an especially nice piece of African Blackwood. I know Big Rick has an affinity for ironwood and a nice piece of ironwood was the runner up. I hope Rick will trust my instinct here. :) I chose blackwood for it's looks, both on it's own and how it will look with these fittings. But I also chose it for certain workability aspects for this particular handle and for strength and stability issues.

Here it is laid out next to a sketch of my handle.
Click to expand...
John, African Blackwood is fine by me. I think maybe I have a few too many Desert Ironwood knives now and like a change. The knife is looking real nice and the file work is pretty awesome.
 
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