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The Newbies Arena Are you new to knife making? Here is all the help you will need.

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  #1  
Old 07-21-2005, 01:30 PM
bunghole bunghole is offline
 
Join Date: Jul 2005
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Attaching Bolsters

I'm making my second knife at the moment out of O1 steel and will be attaching nickel silver bolsters. I've got them profiled and dry fit with nickel silver pins and they have a nice snug fit right now. I will counterbore and peen them after heat treating, but I'm wondering what the best adhesive/attachment method is. Is soldering and pins better than epoxy and pins?

Also, what tools are required to do a good peening job and do you have any tips on that process?

Thanks.
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  #2  
Old 07-22-2005, 07:43 AM
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Ed Caffrey Ed Caffrey is offline
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Attchment method is purely up to you. Solder, epoxy, or JB weld. They all will work, it's a matter of what you prefer.

As for the pinning method..... make the pins approx. 1/8" longer on each end, and dome the heads. Using a small ball pien hammer (polish the pien of the hammer as this prevents pins from splitting) and some type of anvil or backing plate/
You'll have to support the knive so that about 1/8" or so of the pin(s) stick out on each side of the bolsters. Using the pien side of the hammer, start by lightly hammering on the pin, in a circular pattern. The idea here is up upset the pin, causing it to completely fill the hole. Continue hammering lightly, switching sides until the pin expands and fills the hole. You will have to increase the power of the hammer blows as you go through the process.

One key point is to NOT make the counterbore/countersink too large. A few thousandths larger that the pin hole is all you need. (if you go too large the pines will not fill the holes and you'll have visable gaps.)

Hole size is also important. For 3/32" pine I drill the blade and bolsters with a #41 bit, and for 1/8" pins I use a #30 drill. For the counterbore/countersink go not more than one drill bit size larger, and about 1/3 of the finished depth of the each bolster. Sometimes that last can be a bit tricky, expecially if you wind up grinding a lot off the bolster thickness.


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  #3  
Old 07-22-2005, 11:21 AM
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Sean O'Hare Sean O'Hare is offline
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I do what Ed just described. The only thing that I've recently changed is that I now use a tapered reamer to give the hole a very slight cone shape. That way the pin expands outward but not uniformly, ie. more epansion at the outer edge than closer to the tang. My thinking is that it helps push the bolster to fit more flush to the tang. Really both methods look the same when done well. With the tapered reamer you're still only talking about oversizing by a very small amount. You can't actually see a cone shape because it's only a few thousandths of an inch.

I start by drilling the holes with a 1/8" bit and then ream each hole with the tapered reamer.


I got the tapered reamer from Texas Knife. if you want to try that.

Good Luck,
Sean


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Old 07-22-2005, 03:12 PM
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Ed Caffrey Ed Caffrey is offline
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Sean: I like that idea very much! It's something I've never thought of doing, but it sure does sound good. I might just have to get my hands on a tapered reamer a give it a shot next time I make something with bolsters.


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  #5  
Old 07-23-2005, 12:18 AM
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Sean O'Hare Sean O'Hare is offline
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Hey look at that! I gave Ed Caffrey an idea! I joke only because he's given me tonnes of ideas over the past year. I actually was given this tip from someone else (Ed Halligan) but the more I thought about it the more it made sense to me to do this. You Ed's are always thinking I swear!

Sean


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  #6  
Old 07-23-2005, 03:06 AM
bunghole bunghole is offline
 
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Thanks for the great advice everyone. I stopped at Lowe's and then Ace on the way home tonight and nobody seems to carry tapered reamers, so I grabbed a couple of screw extractors. The are tapered and obviously designed to wreak havoc on metal, so I'm going to give them a try using the drill press and my bolsters. If all hell breaks loose, its back to the drawing board with the bolsters, but that's half the fun...right.

I just finished putting the final grind on my heat treated blade. I'm not sure if I ground it enough prior to sharpening. The edge width is probably 1/32" or so. I plan on installing the bolsters after I get the blade to the finish that I want. I'm using front and rear bolsters so once I get the bolsters epoxied and pinned, I am going to fit my scales through trial and error. I'll cut them to the approximate size and then sand....fit....eyeball....sand some more....eyeball...cuss....sand....drink a beer....take a nap....etc...etc. until it fits. If anyone has any tips or shortcuts...I'm all ears.

I really appreciate the helpfulness of all of you guys.
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Old 07-23-2005, 10:37 AM
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B.Finnigan B.Finnigan is offline
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"sand....fit....eyeball....sand some more....eyeball...cuss....sand....drink a beer....take a nap....etc...etc. until it fits."

That is the same exact process I use! Probably just a coincidence. The only variation with my process would be to add in ..... injure myself... and then add in the cussing right after the previous step.
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