Pin Before or After Heat Treat?

johnnyjump

johnnyjump

Well-Known Member
Well, you know you're in a fix when it's 2:00 AM and you still can't decide th best course of action on your latest knife build. My concern has to do with whether I should pin my deer antler crown to the knife tang before or after I heat tray the blade, which is A2 tool steel. The consensus of opinion seems to be drill the hole at the dry fit stage prior to heat treat to avoid any possibility of breaking the bit in the middle of the handle and creating a whole new set of problems. On the other hand, I am very concerned that with all the moving parts, such as antler, guard, ferrule, and even the thickness of the epoxy between the parts will throw the pin hole alignment off even a fraction of a millimeter when I go to pin it at the time when I epoxy it all together. So what should I do, pin before or after heat treat? Thanks in advance for any experienced points of view. I've attached a few photos so you can see what I'm talking about.
 

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johnnyjump said:
Well, you know you're in a fix when it's 2:00 AM and you still can't decide th best course of action on your latest knife build. My concern has to do with whether I should pin my deer antler crown to the knife tang before or after I heat tray the blade, which is A2 tool steel. The consensus of opinion seems to be drill the hole at the dry fit stage prior to heat treat to avoid any possibility of breaking the bit in the middle of the handle and creating a whole new set of problems. On the other hand, I am very concerned that with all the moving parts, such as antler, guard, ferrule, and even the thickness of the epoxy between the parts will throw the pin hole alignment off even a fraction of a millimeter when I go to pin it at the time when I epoxy it all together. So what should I do, pin before or after heat treat? Thanks in advance for any experienced points of view. I've attached a few photos so you can see what I'm talking about.
Click to expand...

The way I would do is drill your hole it the stag 1 size smaller than pin size, put a release agent on blade and apoxy it into the stag and clamp let it cure, then drill blade 1 size smaller than pin size remove blade go ahead and heat treat your blade maybe even add some clay to pin hole location temper. Then remove release from inside stag with a brooch making sure not to change the demention of the epoxy sleeve flush with lawyer thinner several times. Then epoxy blade into stag, let cure, then ream hole the pin size and epoxy pin in. That is how I would do it if I was not able to aneal the tang with clay or a torch maybe someone has a simpler route
 
Not sure I am following part of your procedure, Leeco. I get the 1 size smaller idea, which seems like a good way to maintain a tight pin hole diameter for the pin, which happens to be 1/8". What do you mean by a release agent? Is that something that attaches to the tang or inside of the stag? Could you also explain a bit more what you mean by being careful not to change the dimension of the epoxy sleeve and lawyer? Thanks so much.
 
Ok the lawyer is a typo. I a release agent stops the epoxy from bonding to the tang, I have a wax base release called renlease. You can use something like petroleum jelly or maybe even Pam cooking spray anything to stop the bonding ad the epoxy to the tang. After the epoxy is set up you remove the tang from the stag, now you have a exact mold of your tang shape so after heat treat it asures to have a exact fit and your holes will LINE up. But you have to remove what ever you use as release completely so after your holes are drilled you can epoxy the tang in. You want to ruff up the inside of the stag that has your molded shape of your tang so the epoxy bonds good and pour laquer thinner in the hole several times and blow it out with air hose
 
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Oh, I see! Thanks. One more question, when should I epoxy the ferrule to the stag? My original idea was to epoxy the ferrule externally around the lip of the stag where it fits on the shoulder, and internally as the tang is inserted. That way, the epoxy will fill up any gaps internally between the ferrule and the tang. It would be nice to have it set and secure to the stag beforehand for precision sake, but the slot on top of the attached ferrule would prevent me from loading the stag with epoxy and insert the tang. Any thoughts? Thanks!!
 
You may want to heat treat the blade then when you have things fitted up anneal that area of the tang for your pin.
 
For on you could put a small roll pin going fom your gaurd thru the ferrule and into the stag, that way you can use the pins to line it up corectly or you can put release on the inside of the ferrule and as you are molding the tang shape inside the stag place epoxy around the inside if the ferrule and clamp in the corect position you are looking for , and when it cures you can take it off untill you are ready to glue up epoxy the tang in and epoxy it on also
 
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