bolt on handles

[Massecar]

i know how to pin handles, but what about bolts? what kind do i use, and how do i do it? thanks.

[Ray Rogers]

Where do you buy your knife supplies? Where ever that may be, get a catalog from them. In fact, as general advice to all Newbies, I suggest acquiring a catalog from as many knife suppliers as possible. There is one heck of a lot of information in those catalogs. One look at the pictures of different bolts in the catalog and you would easily understand how they work.

The easiest bolts to use are the Loveless style. That's just a long screw with two cylindrical nuts on it. You counter sink a hole in the handle to recieve the nut and then run the screw through the two nuts. As the screw is tightened the two nuts are drawn together, pulling the handle slabs tight against the tang.. When everything is tight and the glue has dried just grind off the screw head and any extra material on the nut that isn't level with the surface of the slabs .....

[ErikD]

Do you mean bolt them on in a way that will allow them to be removed? If so then you could tap holes in the tang of the knife for torx screws. You could also use an arrangement similiar to a pivot pin on a folder, that is two torx screws one a bolt and the other acting as a nut.

If you don't need to be able to remove the bolts later you could do a Loveless style bolt. If you buy his book "How to Make Knives" he shows very well hoe it is done. Basically it is just a threaded rod with a bolt on either end. In finishing the handle the bolts and rod are ground down to the same level as the scales.

If you need more information I am sure someone else with more experience could help you out. Or I can be a bit more specific when I get home from work. HTH

[Massecar]

thank you very much, ive learned what i need to know.

thanks.

[JohnDavenport]

I have a few silly questions on making my first knife. It's not exactly a kit knife, I just bought all the pieces parts.

I have started a small library, unfortunately, I didn't see these topics addressed. (And as addressed earlier, I do have the "How to Make Knives".)

First problem:
Slight taper to tang (exactly 1mm per side on a 3/16"blade), which causes the bolsters to not sit totally flush. I plan on soldering the bolsters on, but, and here's the problem, it came with predrilled holes for pins in the bolster, and with the pins in, I can't get the second side of the bolster (bolster is 2 pieces) to sit flush against the tang. Should I bend the pins to get them to sit flush before I solder them? Or should I just clamp them in a vise and solder them? (The two pieces sit

Second problem:
Maybe I am just making too much out of this after my problem with the bolster, but there is a considerable hole (1/4") for my Loveless bolts. Is that going to matter? I plan on using epoxy to attach the liner and scales, so it is not like they will be bearing any real load, but it bothers me that the head of the nuts can almost fit through those holes. I saw a thread on drilling holes for tapered tangs with the blade clamped in a vice, think I will definitely go with that.

Any help would be appreciated. Since I have enough for 3, I plan on attempting to clamp them in a vice and solder that way tomorrow when I finally manage to get home from work.

On a side note, I went with black water buffalo horn for the scale material. All but two of the pieces (12 total, I made room for some error and an old Camillus boot knife I intend to make a new handle for) were warped. Should I wait to use them or assume that they are fully seasoned already? I would think that they would be ready to be shaped into handles, but just asking someone who might have experience in this kind of thing.

[JohnDavenport]

Ok, well, I wasted most of the day trying to solder the bolsters on. I should have started with scraps, but I don't think I would have run into my biggest problem.

I think that the problem is the size. Each half of the bolter takes up about .75 to a full square inch. By the time I get the peice hot enough to melt the solder, the flux just vaporizes. I tried heating then adding flux, but I don't think I got any flux to actually stick. If I did get flux to stick, it only went to one side or the other (bolster or tang), but never bonded them. I roughed the two surfaces with 100 grit sandpaper, and the most I managed was to flll in the scratches. If I didn't clamp it, I got nothing to go inside the joint.

When I did clamp it, it was so tight that nothing went inside. I was getting about 1/64 of an inch of bonding right on the outside, and that was as far as I ever got solder into the joint. I was expecting to see something like when you solder braided electrical cables, where the solder just sucks up into the joint. Never got it. I think it was just a matter of the size of the pieces. I don't think I was getting enough heat into it to melt solder along the length of the joint.

On that note, I was heating about 1/2" away from the bottom of the bolster, and I think I overheated it. I got discoloring about a half inch above the guard and to the first tang hole.

I think I am going to give up trying to solder unless someone has any idea as to what I am doing wrong. Hehe, I figured the same principles would apply as doing electronics, but I don't think I accounted for all of the extra metal involved here.

I'm looking at either trying to find someone to weld them after I clean the pieces up again, or JB welding the stupid things on there. JB welding is looking a lot more like what I need to do. Anyone have any thoughts?

[Terry_Dodson]

did you try tinning both areas before you tried soldering them together? that way the solder is already there and when you heat them they should melt and mold to each other.

[JohnDavenport]

No I didn't. I think I'll try that. It'll be my last shot at it though.

My only concern with that is that I am worried that I might overheat the solder that is on the tang if I do that.

Freaking huge bolsters though.
At the smallest point it is 9/8", 11/16ths tall, and 1 3/4 at the widest point.

Oh well, I am going to finish out the first of the 3, figure I can make as many mistakes on that one as I want now.

Thanks

[YAMAMA]

I am not sure what solder you are using but you might want to try some of the low temp solder. K&G sells some that melts at 450*.

[JohnDavenport]

I have feeling that I am not going to be able to solder these bolsters on.
I cut two pieces of 1/4 stock about the same size as bolsters and attempted to solder them to another piece of the same stock.

Time to melt solder with propane torch on just one piece of metal... about 45 seconds. (This is with torch on the exact opposite side).

Time to melt solder with one "bolster" on... 7 1/2 minutes.
Time to melt solder with both pieces (heating actually ON the point where I was putting solder)... never melted.

I think there is just too much metal to do it this way. Two square inch mating surfaces... 13/16ths thick.

Don't think I have a choice but to JB them. If anyone has actually soldered pieces that thick, please let me know what you did. (And I tried the tinning, but the solder made the pieces not mate flush, and I never got it to remelt all at the same time).

[JohnDavenport]

Got a very nice seal from JB.

Hehe, and talked my wife into a drill press.