Drilling holes for handle?

P

Pedro G.

Well-Known Member
I am really new to this knife making business and I have made some attempts at knives but the part that I find the hardest is making the holes for the handle. I don't have enough money for a drill press so I use a hand drill. My holes end up lop sided, in the wrong spot. Too big, and they take about an hour per hole on homedepot mild steel... ( my first test knife ).

Do you guys have any tips? I mean ive heard of some platic stand where you mount a handdrill to make it similar to a drill press and its like 20$. But I don't know the name of such thing. Anyways any tips would be appreciated :) ( Doesn't have to just be about the holes im mean knife making in general, ( I do both bladesmithing and stock removal).

Thank you.
-Pedro
 
I may not be of much help,but sounds like you have
drill bit problems.Try a new drill bit,or sharpen the one
you have.If that does not work,you have something
besides mild steel.
Good luck.

God bless,Keith
 
I second Keith's opinion. Start scouring Craigs List and local yard sales for a drill press. You should be able to find a used one at a decent price. Heck, I think I caught mine on sale at Sears for around $100, so you should be able to find a used one for half of that. As for the drill bits, make sure you are buying the correct bits. You may have picked up bits meant to drill wood and plastic as opposed to steel (I've made that mistake in the past).
 
Pedro,

+1 on Keiths comment.

Just wanted to add- be sure to center-punch the location of the hole before drilling and when using a hand drill it will be extremely helpfull even to use a c-clamp to clamp your work to a bench or 2x4 or something that allows two hands on the drill.

Just thought I might mention that although Harbor freight drill bits are pretty crappy they will still drill a hole. I get 10 packs of 1/16" 1/8" and 1/4" bits from them and use a bit to make a knife or two and throw them away. When I'm gonna drill something like Ironwood I grab a brand new sharp bit to make that handle then put the bit to general use afterwards.

I don't think this is THE BEST way to go with drill bits, but I do think it's a cheap and beginner way to have sharp bits on hand whenever you need one. At least it seems to work for me until I can upgrade.

Good luck, Josh
 
I found a small press in your area on Craigs List. I'm not sure if it is in your budget or not.

http://phoenix.craigslist.org/evl/for/1816569662.html

if you are interested in it, I'd do some comparative shopping. I'm not sure what these cost new. I couldn't find it doing a quick search (sorry, I'm on my phone, left my laptop in Mississippi).
 
Check out the 5speed small drill presses at harbor Freight,they are about 50 bucks and find a 20% off coupon brings it down to about 40. It's a good starter.
Stan
 
harbor freight has a great one for like 60 bucks. very reasonable
 
Thank you everyone for your help ^ ^ I really appreciate it and I wanna give a special thank you to you murphda2 for taking the time to find a good cheap drill press around my area. :)
 
I see you are in Pheonix, hope you aren't getting over-cooked down there this 4th of July!
A drill press and some decent bits are going to be worth every penny if you can get set up with them. When you start with high carbon and tool steels, be sure you get your holes drilled before heat treating.
The little Sears press in the Craigslist ad is priced so-so, I would say. You can pick up a bigger/more powerful Craftsman model new from Sears for around 100$, if you find them on sale. With the Harbor Freight unit being about 50$, it's kind of a toss-up.
 
Pedro,before I got a crappy lil' drill press,this is how I held my blades for drilling
(and hand-sanding the bevels).
The original one was longer,and I used C clamps to hold the blade to the jig.
IMG_0241.jpg
 
Pedro,

I'll second the harbor freight drill press. I have one that I paid about $60.00 for and it works great. Prior to that I was using a hand held drill that had a built-in bubble level which helped keep things straight, but not really straight enough for certain things.

So until you can afford a drill press you might consider getting a small bubble level. That might help
 
Thanks for your help, I ended up scraping some money from my savings and such and I invested in that 120$ SEARS 2/3 HP drill press. Thanks again everyone :).
 
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