Looking better

[RCKnifeworks]

This is my first knife with good metal (1095). I have only practiced so far with mild steel. Still need to be sent to heat treat, and all the finishing/handle work completed, but I am happy so far. I had the drill bit walk on me on the lanyard hole but I will be able to salvage that.

[ricky_arthur]

Looks good, Should be a nice knife.

[BCROB]

You have a nice pattern going there, any idea for scales ?

[Ray Rogers]

Make sure your drills are sharp and use a spotting drill before drilling the hole and you won't have that walking problem anymore.

Looking good so far ...

[Cthulhu]

Ray, can you expand a bit on the "Spotting Drill" thing? I'm guessing that it means using a smaller bit to drill a smaller hole to fit he tip of the regular bit into?

[Ray Rogers]

Not exactly. You can use a smaller drill to drill a pilot hole for a larger drill and that helps quite a bit but the smaller drill can also wander off center. When you have a situation where you want precise placement of the center of your large hole then it is more accurate to start out with a spotting drill.

A spotting drill is a drill that is made for the purpose of precisely placing the starting point for a hole. They are very stiff drills and they don't have flutes like regular drills. Their purpose is to simply create a dimple in the steel - they won't 'walk' or slide around on you, they drill where you put them. Then you change out to your regular drills and either go straight to the biggest drill you want (usually works) or play it safe and start with a pilot hole from a smaller drill.

You can find spotting drills at MSC or the other tool suppliers. Another drill that works almost as well but far cheaper and easy to get is a set of countersink drills from Harbor Freight. These are intended for countersinking holes but they are very stiff, have only two flutes, and they have a tiny spotting drill built onto their tip. These will work fine for most of what a knife maker would need. If RC had used one of these to start his lanyard hole his larger drill wouldn't have wandered like that ...

[RCKnifeworks]

Thanks for the comments. Ray is right I should have used a pilot drill first. Unfortunately I did not, and I did not tighten my chuck tight enough either. When I got about half way through the bit stuck and the drill press kept on going, which gave me the little problem.

[Crex]

Spotting drills are nice, but expensive as Ray said. I just measure twice, check my mark, then center punch. Not had a problem with wandering bits in a long time. Take your time with the drill press and chucking your bits. That buggar will bite you if you're not careful as will most power tools. Easy enough to get in the habit of test spinning a chucked bit before actually shooting your hole. Also always securely clamp your blade before drilling.....be safe (keep them fingers intact).

Blade looks pretty good by the way.

[RCKnifeworks]

Thanks! I was going to use some water buffalo horn scales, but after reading on here as well as another forum it sounds like they have a tendency to warp. I have some black palm, exhibition grade walnut, and micarta as well so I have not decided what handle material to use. I also plan on using some red spacer material if I go with the buffalo horn.

What do you guys think of the water buffalo horn? When I bought it they said it was stabilized, so I figured all the warping issues would be taken care of.