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Ed Caffrey's Workshop Talk to Ed Caffrey ... The Montana Bladesmith! Tips, tricks and more from an ABS Mastersmith.

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  #1  
Old 12-12-2008, 10:20 PM
brittgudowski brittgudowski is offline
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Question hollow handle knives

hi,
does anyone know the best and strongest way to join the blade(tang)to a hollow handle?
thanks,
britt
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Old 12-12-2008, 10:25 PM
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Cool define "hollow" handle

Please define "hollow" handle,, steel, aluminum, plastic-? If steel, like a thin wall pipe, you could weld it, then use a screw on cap or pipe fitting type thing. Some easy ideas. --JM


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Old 12-12-2008, 10:50 PM
brittgudowski brittgudowski is offline
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it would be an aluminum handle.
thanks jm
britt,
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Old 12-12-2008, 11:16 PM
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Ed Caffrey Ed Caffrey is offline
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In my experience, most knives of this type construction fail rather quickly. Anything you can do to attach the blade to the handle mechanically (nuts, bolts, etc) never seem to last very long. I've seen a couple that had been hard soldered, and they held up better, but its a very tedious task to hard solder the parts without wrecking the heat treat of the blade.

The strongest, longest lasting hollow handled knives I've seen over the years have been those such as Chris Reeve makes. He starts with a solid round bar of A2, then machines the knife/handle out of it, so that everything is one piece.

I'm sure thats not the answer you were hoping for, but its best to be honest and not give you false hopes,


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Old 12-12-2008, 11:30 PM
brittgudowski brittgudowski is offline
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ed,
do you know how jimmy lile did his?
also,thanks fr the reply...
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Old 12-13-2008, 02:42 AM
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B.Finnigan B.Finnigan is offline
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I posted on your other thread how I built mine out one solid piece of post hole bar.

http://www.knifenetwork.com/forum/sh...ad.php?t=48993

Last edited by B.Finnigan; 12-18-2008 at 11:48 AM.
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Old 12-17-2008, 01:39 PM
Dan Metsker Dan Metsker is offline
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I stumbled on a potential answer not long ago that I'll share with everybody. As Ed indicated the "hard" solder would work but then how do you keep from ruining the temper on the blade?

Not long ago I had hard soldered a 1/4" threaded rod onto a knife blank to make a hidden tang model. This blade had not been heat treated at the time. A week later I began heattreating some blades in my Paragon. The 01 steel hidden tang was one of them. It didn't dawn on me until after I removed it from the oven and dropped in the quenching oil that I probably weakened or "melted" the solder connection. Nope, the solder held beautifully through the heat treat. No lost strength through the joint.

Now in this case with the hollow handle, I don't think you can use aluminum for the handle and succeed in hard soldering and heat treating as I did. Maybe using a steel tube that is hard soldered to the blade a person can duplicate what I did by accident, thereby sending the blade with handle to the heat treating oven as one piece.

Just my two cents worth from what I learned from an "accident"--Dan


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Old 12-17-2008, 07:46 PM
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B.Finnigan B.Finnigan is offline
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The best way to join the handle and tang is to just use one piece in the first place.: When you fuse machining with forging the possibilities are nearly endless.


Last edited by B.Finnigan; 12-17-2008 at 07:50 PM.
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Old 12-18-2008, 10:30 AM
Dan Metsker Dan Metsker is offline
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yep, forging in this case would be a better alternative, but how do you forge the tubular handle? Remember there are some of us that don't forge, but use the stock removal method for making our knives.

just my two cents worth


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Old 12-18-2008, 11:37 AM
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B.Finnigan B.Finnigan is offline
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I used a 1 1/8" dia. chunk of post hole bar and bored one end out to 7/8" ID and 3 1/2" deep. Then cut 7/8" threads for the pommel/cap. Then I forged a regular integral from the remaining non-hollowed end. I had around 7"-8" of solid bar and was able to get 12" of blade post forging.

The bars that have the flared tamping end are usually over 1" in dia. and forge and HT real good.



There are alot of knives and hawk concepts that you could use both forging and machining to achieve a finished product. That is why I have never circled my wagon exclusively into one or the other camps. Why limit yourself and your creations? learn to do both!

Last edited by B.Finnigan; 12-18-2008 at 11:46 AM.
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