Two tone knife handle question

[Knife Nut]

I would like to do a knife handle made up of two types of materials or two types of wood.

Once cutting the wood , how does one put a spacer, like nickle silver or bone between the different materials or woods on a full tang knife with scale handles so the spacer doesn`t pop out? Using Nickle Silver , pinning is not an option due to the narrow width.

I would appreciate any help Thanks

 

[Dwane Oliver]

Great question. I have done it in the past , there may be better ways , but this worked out good for me.
I drilled some small holes in the spacer , so the glue would bond through it to each handle slab. Be sure and keep the holes close to the tang so you dont sand into them when finishing the handle.


Dwane

 

[James Terrio]

I imagine you could do about like Dwayne said, but also actually use a small pin or two to keep the spacer from slipping out between the two pieces of handle material.

 

[Knife Nut]

Thank you for the replies, I never thought of doing the spacer with holes or pins, I was considering dovetailing, but wasn`t sure if the spacer would still slip out.

Again , thank you gentlemen for the help.

 

[Doug Lester]

As said there are many way. One would be to dovetail the wood scales and the insert slightly to give the joint some mechanical support. Another would be to clue the spacer or contrasting material into a block of material before cutting it into scales. Of course that would be the same as a simple glue joint between the sections of wood that have already been slabbed into scales but it may be the way to go to creat more complex designs.

Doug Lester

 

[SBuzek]

Great question. I have done it in the past , there may be better ways , but this worked out good for me.
I drilled some small holes in the spacer , so the glue would bond through it to each handle slab. Be sure and keep the holes close to the tang so you dont sand into them when finishing the handle.


Dwane

I do the same,drill some small holes in the spacer material and handle scale so the epoxy will bind it in.
Stan