Wasn't real sure where this belonged, but figgered here as good as any...

Drilling out stag and sheep found to be a problem early on because of the irregular shape of the outside. Johnny Stout showed us this and it works like a champ. Will be old hat for most, new for some I hope.

http://albums.photopoint.com/j/View?u=1485139&a=11328874&p=45364255

Get a piece of channel iron. I found some 316 SS and make sure the underside is parallel with the legs of the channel. You can take a piece of mild steel and fly-cut or surface grind until parallel. Then clamping your scale as shown will assure perpindicular holes. Also handy on the disc grinder grinding dovetails on scales. Hope someone finds it useful.

Great tip! These are the sorts of things where we can really learn from each other. Some jobs just make you crazy, and when someone figures out how to do them simply, it's great to be in on the sharing!

great idea. Now i know why i check CKD each day.....carl

Yes Jason,
This is the place for tools and tricks.
I use a piece of 4 inch channel iron with a 1/2 inch hole in the middle.
Putting pressure in the center is more stable and safer too.
Drilling on the end of the jig tends to make the work pivot when pressure is applied. I'll try to post a pic later today.
Keep those tips coming!!! Thanks.

whenever I drill holes in handlematerials I clamp the blade with the tang exposed into my horisontal homemade vise. (learned this from the loveless book). Since most of my knives has tapered tangs thos keeps everything in line. No pics..sorry. Even with the blades with full thickness tang I use this setup since it is so handy.

Jens, how do you move your horizontal vise into allignment with your drill press?

it is mounted on a aluminiumplate that I just place on the drillpress table. The blade is clamped where it is parallel.

The vise is really nothing more than pieces of aluminiumplates boltet together. My scanner is out of order but as soon as I get it rolling I will post a pic.

Thanks- I'd like to see it. I have cobbled up a couple of fancy jigs to hold the axis of the knife perpendicular to the drill bit, but have never been particularly happy with them. Some method of retaining that right-angle relationship is just about essential on tapered-tang knives.