Bocote and antler with leather and brass spacers - I like it. Now to test it on some hogs in 2 weeks on the Trad Bowhunter's of GA pig hunt! Steve (http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j87/SOS_321/000_0018.jpg)
Npw, that's a pretty knife!!
Great job.
Bob
WOW!!!!!! Great Job!!!!!!!!!!!
Nice Work!
That's my favorite of all the Helle handle jobs I've seen. I have the same blade but it's in the stock handle.
Great work!
That knife is beautiful, Steve! You should be proud of it.
Hope you get to bloody it up soon.
Dan
Thats one sweet knife.
Well Done!
excellent work!!!!!! wear that one with pride!!!!
Mountainken,
Wearing the knife may be the biggest problem! Won't fit the sheath I bought for it. Time for a little stretching (any hints?) or time to learn some leather working skills. Cheers - thanks for all the kind comments.
Wowzers!
Pardon my stupidity about knives but did/can you buy the blade already shaped then make your own handle? The knife looks increadable!(sp)
Pardon my stupidity about knives but did/can you buy the blade already shaped then make your own handle? The knife looks increadable!(sp)
GREAT LOOKING KNIFE. IF THE KNIFE FITS REAL SNUG IN THE SHEATH JUST SOAK THE SHEATH IN WATER AND TAPE THE KNIFE UP AND STICK IT INTO THE SHEATH AND LET IT DRY. IT SHOULD FORM TO THE KNIFE.<><
Great combo...well done.
Oh! I just saw the Helle Knifes sponsor highlight and checked out their site. I'm gonna hafta try this! Already have plenty of handle material lying around.
Bodork - that's the place! At least where I got mine. There are other knife places, but I don't know if they have Helle blades. One thing they don't have which would be nice is more "stuff" for making the handles like pieces of stainless or brass for guards, leather for spacers or sheet brass for accents, etc. I bought the knife, the guard, bocote and the end nut from them - got a belt from Goodwill for the spacers and a sheet of brass from the hobby store. The blade is incredible - hope to be skinning a pig 2 weeks from today! I used Devcon 2-ton epoxy, some use JB Weld.
Simply beautiful. Hope you get to try it out soon.
Can you show a picture of the brass end nut? Thanks
Bodork, here's a finished photo and one in progress. I tried to grind a flat on the antler to mate perfectly with the nut, but didn't go quite far enough. Hard to judge cuz the nut is a drive fit - I rounded off the tang to get it close and then once the glue up was complete and I felt everything was lined up just so, a little more epoxy then drove the nut on using a small socket and extension and a rubber mallet. No turning back then . You don't really need the nut, using it kind of makes the handle a touch short, but with the Veidemann sheath, it actually has a strap with hole the pulls up and hooks over the brass nut, really secures it in the sheath, so I decided to use it. Steve (http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j87/SOS_321/PHTO0009.jpg) (http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j87/SOS_321/000_0019.jpg)
Steve:
I sent you a private email. Your knife turned out so well was wondering if you could help me get started makiing a knife handle. I ordered a Helle kit just recently also.
I'm working on a detailed set of instructions with pictures but not sure when they will be ready. The old saying "too many irons in the fire" applies to me.
A drill press helps but is not necessary. Don't force the bit in to the block or it will try to wander and could cause problems or overheat. Back the bit out a few times as you drill to allow the flutes on the bit to clear the chips.
In about a week we will be adding flat brass in 3 different thicknesses, brass tubing for those that want a lanyard, and brass rod. Also will have leather spacers soon.
Be aware that oily woods such as Cocobolo and Bocote may not absorb the finish and will take longer to dry.
Let us know what other items you would like to see on the website.
Very nice indeed.... :thumbsup: :notworthy:
SOS, working on a knife handle for my helle also and have a couple of questions about the handle. Did you glue the leather, wood, antler all together (did you use epoxy)?
Thanks,
Joe
WOW......that's a beaut!!!!!
I ordered two blades yesterday. I think this could be the start of something fun! The instructions would be helpful for us first timers. Thanks, Mike
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SOS Steve has been out of town, he should be back soon.
Dan
All right, Guys. After 12 hours in airports today, I'm back. I got several PM's with questions, I'll try and answer here. If I was a lawyer, I would write some kind of disclaimer like, "This was my first knife - use my advice at your own risk."
Question: "Shape the handle before or after gluing to the tang?" For the built up handle I did, I think you pretty much have to make the holes in the different layers - including drilling the wood or antler - first and then glue them on the tang before shaping. And you put glue on the tang and between each layer. I sanded the sheet brass before glueing. I also sanded the leather spacers I cut out of the Goodwill belt to get any polish off of the glued surfaces. Do a bunch of dry fits before gluing. Unless you are better with the drill, give yourself a little extra material to get the wood and antler pieces square to each other as you are mating the surfaces together. My belt/disc sander I got for Christmas was a real help for this. I suppose for a one piece handle you could drill the hole, shape it then glue it on.
"Do you need the brass nut?" Nope, if I knew how to work leather, may not have used the nut. The sheath I bought has a strap that pops over the nut to lock the knife in securely so I decided to use the nut. If you use the nut, it limits the length of your handle. My knife is really comfortable in my hand, but I might have liked it to be about an inch longer. If you build up the knife with several layers and don't run the tang thru and use the nut, one fellow said he glues and extra rod in the handle - I guess so end piece is less likely to snap off if you are putting some pressure on it. I'll give the address to that thread at the end.
"Did you drive the guard piece on?" The guard I bought from darktimber is made for the Helle #99 blade, so I needed to do a little file work to get it to sit the way I wanted it to on the Veidemann blade I used. I filed the guard (rather screw up a $1.50 part than a $22 blade) but you can shape the blade to get the fit you want. If you used brass stock, you'd have to drill and fit it from scratch.
"Can you use smooth-on?" Beats me! Some of the bowyers might be able to answer that better. A lot of folks said they use JBWeld but I only know the gray-looking JBWeld. I used Devcon 2-ton epoxy since it is pretty clear. The glue joint are almost invisible.
"tools?" As I said, put my belt/disc sander to a lot of good use - did the majority of the shaping with it. The rounded end of the belt sander worked great for rough shaping the hollows for my thumb and finger near the guard. Probably the best tool for shaping would be one of those narrow 1" belt sanders - but don't have one of those. Put my dremel tool to good use for fine finishing. Used primarily a small sanding drum, a conical grinder bit and a buffing wheel with polishing compound to brighten up the guard once done. One thing I did a little different is I tried to shape the handle to the antler burr. Instead of sanding the transition smooth and knocking off the pearling, I used a small grinder tip on the Dremel to shape the wood/leather/brass to match the antler as best I could. Came out pretty good. If it's a smoother part of the antler, would be easier just to sand it smooth. Also used some files for a little shaping and my 4-in-1 rasp a little. I bought a 3/16" long drill bit for about $3 to drill and rout out the tang. Try as I did, my drilling really sucked. Luckily, I had enough wood to work with. A drill press would have been nice, but note on some of the blades, the tang is angled so draw a bunch of pencil marks to make sure you know exactly where you want to drill.
"Finish" I used wipe-on poly instead of acrylic. I think the water based stuff gets milky looking when wet (bloody?). Just avoid the mistake I made and know the wood you used. The bocote is oily and it was difficult to get the poly to try.
I think I answered most of the questions. Let me know if not. Here's a good thread off the ***********:
http://***********.bowsite.com/TF/lw/thread2.cfm?forum=23&threadid=147520&messages=117&CATEGORY=9
Steve
Steve offers some good info here.
There are several ways to do this depending on your skills/experience, tools and handle materials used. It is not that difficult and once you have been through the process the clouds will lift and vision will be clear.
For those using the guthook be sure to get and keep the guthook as sharp as possible.
Here's a photo of the knife in the Helle sheath that uses the end nut to hold it in place. That's one reason to use the nut, another is just a little more assurance that you won't pop the end piece off, I guess. Took me a little work to stretch the sheath to fit my handle, but it is like a perfect custom fit now. Steve
(http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j87/SOS_321/101_1899.jpg)
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