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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 10-12-2003, 09:29 PM
gandalf23 gandalf23 is offline
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Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: Fort Worth, Texas
Posts: 64
splitting bone handle :(

Howdy all,

I'm working on a kitknives.com All-American Lockback. It's a gift for a buddy's wedding present. He picked it out and after talking with him about it I decided to make the handles out of bone.

I bought a couple of bones from the pet store, cut them into sections and have spent the last few weeks testing dying and jigging methods on them. Finally today I had everything figured out and bandsaw'd the proper sized pieces out, then went over to the drill press to drill the pin holes and....

CRACK!

The bone split! grrrrrr.

How do I stop this from happening? Can it be fixed if it happens again? (I went ahead and used the pieces for additional jigging and dying practice)

Thanks,

-Gandalf23

Last edited by gandalf23; 10-13-2003 at 10:34 AM.
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  #2  
Old 10-12-2003, 11:12 PM
Mail4Tim Mail4Tim is offline
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Location: Orlando, Florida
Posts: 171
Gandalf,

Make sure you are using a sharp drill bit and always back the material being drilled with a sacrificial piece, i.e. a piece of wood that you can drill into. Even then sometimes, some material will still crack. As far as repairing it goes, I believe you can, however it will look like a repaired piece. I?ve never tried it so I?d better let someone else supply those details.

Tim
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  #3  
Old 10-13-2003, 10:57 AM
gandalf23 gandalf23 is offline
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hmmm...

I used a piece of 1x12 to situate the bone pieces on. I think the drill is sharp, but I'll check this evening. Not sure if I can sharpen one that small. But that may just be an excuse to go to the tool store

If anyone was wondering, here's how I jigg and dye the bone: (no pics yet, sorry, my digital camera does horrible at anything closer than 4 feet)

For the jigging, I'm using a dremel with a dremmel high speed cutter in it. I hold the piece at a 45 degree angle from the dremmel, then when I press the dremmel into the bone I twist both wrists towards each other and move the bone back to 0 and move the dremmel to 45 degrees. This changes the look of the cut from a rectangle to kinda a U (or C) or J depending on how exactly I twisted. I try to mix up the shapes so there is not a pattern.

After I get the jigging to look right I brush on a coat of Potasium Permanganate (got a bottle from Sears for $4) mixed with water (two table spoons into a Mason Jar, then added water till it was about a quarter full, looks like it'll last a while) . Let it dry for 24 hours, then lighly sand it to take the color off the bone except in the jigged parts. Then I put it in a mason jar along with 2 table spoons of tea and cover it up with boiling water. I put a chunk of wood in to keep the bone from floating up. Let it soak for 24 hours, then dry for a day or three.

I think it gives it a nice multi-colored look. The edges that I sand on go back to white, the jigged holes are a dark brown, and everything else is kinda in-between brown from the tea.


-Gandalf23
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  #4  
Old 10-13-2003, 11:37 AM
Chris Bostwick Chris Bostwick is offline
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Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: Burlington,WI
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2nd knife

The second sllipjoint knife I ever made, I was nearing completion probably 20 to 30 hours of work and while peening the handle pins after the bone had been bonded to the piece mind you I hit the bone and put a hairline crack down the side. That was a bad day...I just recently sold that knife at a great loss to a nice guy for a user...
Just a quick story that came to mind.

Chris bostwick
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  #5  
Old 10-13-2003, 09:28 PM
DC KNIVES DC KNIVES is offline
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Both of the stories make think of too much pressure. As far as drilling try going down to the smallest drill bit you press can handle, usually around 1/16" and then work up to the final size in steps with light pressure. As for peening I use a 2 oz. ball pein for that so its hard to overhit. At this time in a knife, patience is an asset , guy's. A little time here will save hours of work, don't push it. Dave
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  #6  
Old 12-03-2003, 08:39 PM
tonyx tonyx is offline
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Location: Raleigh, Nc
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breaking/splitting bones

Part of your problem maybe, that the bone is not dry....any organic material in left in it (and pet bones are not cured (really) may cause problems. I use 'bone folders' available from art supply or book binding supply houses.

Also see my technique for drilling shell and pearls in response to 'pique silver' on most recent post page, as I use it for bone also.

Good luck
Tonyx


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  #7  
Old 12-04-2003, 08:22 PM
ragnik ragnik is offline
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I have yet to work with bone, but what about the speed of the drill press. Maybe it needs to be slower or faster.

Just my 2 cents

Ross
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  #8  
Old 12-11-2003, 08:53 PM
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YAMAMA YAMAMA is offline
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my guess is over pressure. Give the drill time to remove the material. If you are using a drill press the amount of pressure you are putting on the press handle may equate to much more on the bit end.

good luck.
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  #9  
Old 12-11-2003, 11:12 PM
LYNN DRURY LYNN DRURY is offline
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HEY GUYS, SPEED, A SHARP DRILL AND SOMETHING
TO BACK IT UP, SUCH AS WOOD, ARE A MUST IN DEALING WITH BONE.


LYNN DRURY
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