Book Recommendations

Gliden07 said:
My first book was "The $50 Knife Shop" great book but definitely not as deep into Heat treating as it seems you want to go! As far as steels however any 10XX Steels should serve you well!! 1075, 1080 and 1084 are fantastic steels for all makers, new or experienced (stay away from 1095 for now)!! As others have said especially being relatively new to this stay with known steels as they do increase your chance of success! I will modify my last statement with do use mystery steel for practice! It's great for messing around and trying ideas out without using your known steels. All that said ask questions, there are many well known makers here that are a wealth of knowledge and aren't afraid to pass it on!
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The “use mystery steel for practice” thing has been around forever, but it isn’t something I encourage. My reason is, many years ago when I was getting started, I used a lot of mystery steel, and the problem I ran into was sometimes my “practice” blades would turn out great, then I couldn’t use them because they were crappy steel, lol. For that reason I encourage people to always use new, known steel. It’s not terribly expensive, but if you do have a success, you can use the blade you made. Everyone is different, it was just my experience with it.
 
Edward, I have been using a drill press. The rivets are the two piece cutler rivets. They seemed like the type to start with but now I doubt that was a good decision. In your post at 6:47PM yesterday you mentioned using "regular pins." Is that the Corby type or Loveless type or could it be the peened type pins?

Your second post at 7:23PM ...WOW, that was concise and exactly what I really needed. The next knives I make I'll give your process a try. You mention spray glue to temporarily position the handle scales. I'm not familiar with that glue. Is there another name for it? You said you use Torx bolts? Is that a standard Torx bolt with a nut on the other side? Or is this special for knife making?
 
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The pins you might want to try would just be rod stock peened over. The spray adhesive is made by 3M, it’s just a run of the mill re-positionable spray adhesive I buy at my local Menards. The Torx bolts I’m using are 8-32 stainless bolts I buy from USA Knifemaker, and I screw them into a threaded collar that fits into the handle. I use them so I can disassemble the knife any time down the road. I wouldn’t recommend starting out using them because you do have to have all the other steps down pat before you use something like that. If you do try rod stock, I cut my pieces then anneal them before I install them. It makes it much easier to peen them. I cut them about .050 proud of the handle material and very carefully flare them out. Don’t make them too long or they will bend and just look terrible. After looking at your pins more, I suspect that they might have “bottomed out” and bent just a little when you installed them. Best of luck with your ventures, and don’t be afraid to ask questions!
 
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