Hey Jeff,
I would recommend the following: secure a source of sole leather. The reason: normal vegetable tanned leather tends to be 'soft' when compared to sole leather. Sole leather is hard and doesn't compress. Use contact cement vs. expoxy.. epoxy will work, however, a small bottle of Weldwood Contact Cement will do just fine and is available at your local Lowe's/Walmart/Home Depot. Make sure the tang is as w##e as practical.. prov##e something to keep the handle from twisting. Finally, you may want to cons##er either peening the tang end or weld a piece of bolt/all thread rod to the tang end and a nut of the same size to the pommel cap. Then tighted the pommel cap really really tight. All of those combined should do the trick and minimize leather shrinkage and ensure a long lasting knife handle. The Scandi style knives popular in the Scandinavian countries utilized a peened tang.. when it loosened, it was simply peened again to tighten up the handle.. nice and simple.
Randy, Thank you for taking the time to give me advice and making me laugh.
The only leather work I have ever done was making the tail and ears for a (Stacked Hair Mouse) BTW, that is a Bass or Trout Fly, made with stacked or compressed deer hair and trimmed to look like a mouse.
Do you know where I can find more info on making a original type of stack handle without the epoxy?
