Drilling holes for 1/4 inch pins

I am working on my first knife and just drilled the pin holes in the laminated wood scales. My problem is the pins fit so tight in the scales that I'm concerned that I will not get enough epoxy in the holes during gluing. Can I use a 9/32 bit for the scale holes or will the epoxy be visible in the finished scales?

It may be visible if you overdrill. Depending on your handle material this may or may not be real noticeable.
First, I will assume you did NOT ream the hole after drilling. This can make a big difference when pinning later as the drill does not always drill exactly a .25 hole. A reamer may open it up enough to get things to work properly. If you do overdrill a little sometimes when you get an epoxy around the holes (filling the small extra space) and you buff, the little bit of epoxy gest dirty and really stands out. I think using a 9/32 may be too big (maybe).

Something else you can do is take a file and file little rings around the sides of the pins. This leaves some space for the epoxy. Just make sure you don't put a ring close to the height of your finished handle. You can put one ring in the center (so it will land in the middle of the tang) and one ring on each side of the center ring so that it lands just barely in the handle material. Get your pins covered well with epoxy and also put a little in the holes. I grind a slight bevel on the edge of the pins so they slide in easily and the epoxy acts as a lubricant as you put them in.

Some handle materials that are brittle like Mother of pearl and will not tolerate any real tight fitting pins and may crack so you will need to overdrill a little, but very little.

Hope this gives you an alternative.

The pin stock never seems to be exactly on. I recommend that you buy an 1/4" reamer and a letter F (0.2570) drill bit. I drill the holes in my tang with the letter F bit. When attaching slabs I use a sharp 1/4" bit followed by the reamer. You want a fit that is snug, but no so much that you have to force it in. If it is too tight, which it often is, drill with the letter F bit, as it is the next largest bit available. I haven't needed to go any larger than that.

Brett

Or just put your pin material in your drill press, turn it on and take a file to it. Bring it down a few thous and it will give you the same result without having to buy more equipment. Aw heck we all need more equipment!

I solved this problem together with avoiding splitting handlematerials by getting drills just 0.1 mm bigger than the pins. Thats 1/250" smaller....I drill the steel regular size and the handlescales the 1/250" bigger. The reason why most handlematerial seems to fit tighter is the added friction of the material and that it may expand from the heat generated by the drilling.

As Brett said, a letter "F" bit (.2570") is the correct one for drilling a hole for a 1/4" pin.

Thank you to everyone for the great info. This is my first knife but it won't be the last. This knife stuff is fun!!! I can't wait to do my first grinding.


Thanks again,
Mike

be carefull...!...you are about to be bitten by the bug!..there is no return if you make the second one.

Thanks for the warning Jens, but your too late. I already have the next one picked out. Now I've got to get to work on building some kind of grinder so I can grind my own instead of buying the ready made blades.

Thanks
Mike