Fitting scales on my Sheepsfoot blade

I just got myself a camera and thought I wanted to share what I spent Saturday night doing:


Here is the start. The blade is handrubbed and I have flattened the scales and glued the liners to the wood.
Pins have been cut and the ends has been rounded.



The blade is covered by maskingtape. The "shoulders" are also covered. On this one the tang is not tapered but the following is no different than if it was.



The blade is placed in the special made vise. Using this vise insures that the midaxis of the tang is perpendicular with the drill.



Now one of the scales is attached with a visegrip leaving plenty of material on the sides and in the front.



The vise is taken to the drillpress and the holes are drilled. Note the vedges to avoid any flexing.



Now here is something abit unusual. I use pins that are 4mm ( approx 1/6"). The holes in the blade are also 4mm but to avoid trouble when inserting the pins I now drill the holes in the scales again with a drillsize 4.1mm (approx 1/25" bigger). Making the holes a bit bigger has made it a dream to put the pins in. No more cracks! The reason I don?t make the holes in the blade 4.1mm is that I will loose precision. In the wood the fit to the pin is very good with the 4.1 but in steel it is very sloppy.
To drill the holes I remove the blade and turn it upside down with the scale still on. Now I just use the holes made before to index the drill.



Now on side is done. I make the profile of the tang for easy spotting the right/left side. Note on the scale not drilled an arrow is drawn. This is pointed to the front and to the edge. I do this on both before any drilling. That way the scales match each other when the knife is done.



Now I take the project to the bandsaw. One scale is attached with two pins and excess material is removed. I saw very close to the steel to avoid to much grinding when glued up.



Here the scales are cut to profile. Note the fronts are not shaped yet.



With a can of beans for guide the rounded front is drawn on one scale. You can use what ever you feel like but this one suits me.



The one scale has been sawed to shape.



The two scales are put together with two pins and the front is sawed on the other scale following the first sawcut. Then I countersink the holes from the back and remove any burrs with a very sharp woodchisel.



With the scales put together again I grind an angle on the front with my diskgrinder...sorry the pic disapeared.



Be very carefull not to grind into the liner and into the other side.



Now I put the scales still with the pins intp my vise and handrub the fronts to final grit wanted on the handle.



I use a small piece of micarta or an erazor to back the sandpaper.



Lightly coat the front and the front ONLY with danish oil. Do not get any on the liners.



Now I buff the front to final finish.



On this stage I use a rough and a fine compound especially for wood.



The pins are taken to the vise and small notches are filed in the middle for better gluebond.



Now I mix epoxy. I use a magazine with smooth pages for this operation. I like it since I always get a new clean surface to mix on. I put the knife together one scale at a time with the pins. Then I put in the lanyard tubing last. I fill it up with maskingtape to avoid it getting filled with epoxy.



I put a clamp on it. I use visegrips but will change to Kant-Twis very soon. Much better control on the presure. Note that the excess epoxy just flows out. I wipe it of with a rag with alkohol. The I put some more clamps on to avoid any gaps. And finally vipe it with alcohol again.



Then it is put aside in a vise to dry up



And this is me all dressed up.

Another great tutorial, Jens! Thanks a lot. Looks like your new camera works just fine.

Thanks Jens,Excellent!!!!I like the bean can trick.:

Now there's a respirator!!!! I have a North that probably has a similar filter but it doesn't look nearly as cool as that one.
Like that drilling jig, gives me some ideas!
Nice tutorial. thanks Jens
Jon

Excellent tutorial, Jens, thanks!

Great tutorial! Looks as though we both do this procedure very much the same!

Having a little jig like that makes all the difference in getting good, clean, perpendicular holes. I am SO glad that I made one...I don't know how a guy would fit scales to a tapered tang without one.

Thanks for doing all that work so people can see and understand the process!

Nick

Very,very nice.BTW,what is the make of your Respirator.Thanks.

I belive it is a danish brand called Air-Ace.

That's a great tutorial, makes me want to record the steps on my next one. It was helpul to understand the 4mm holes vs. the 4.1mm in the scales. The Kant Twist clamps are great, when I used C clamps the liner would slide out of position while the epoxy was drying, but not anymore with the new clamps.