Knife questions

[Runner]

I am getting to the point where everything fits. I have to shape the guard and I plan on a finger groove in the blade.
Two questions. One, what is the best way or ways to stain antler? Two, Should the guard be screwed to the front of the antler handle, or just sandwiched between the blade and the handle?
Thanks in advance for any help. Here is the project so far.

 

[bob1961]

i've darkened a set of antlers with min-wax stain before fer some one that had a sun whitened deer head that he found in the[url] woods....made[/url] look like they were just off a heed of a deer :v ..............bob

 

[Goldhunter]

Leather dye works well, so does Potassium Permangenate (Old Bones).

Just sandwich that guard between.

Looks good!

 

[Runner]

Well, I heat blued the blade and then cleaned it. I then heat blued it again and rubbed it back to a mottled appearance. At this point, if I took the hammer to it, it would be easy to make it look very old. So what do you think? Clean shiney blade? Black blade? Old looking blade?

The parts are pretty much ready to make finishing decisions on so I can do the final work and pin it together

 

[rich pierce]

Looks like a good stout knife. Depending on the timeframe, that hollow grind might be good. Most knives made before 1800 were flat ground, to be V shaped from the edge to the back. Some Bowies have a high grind that removes a lot of weight. Later stout knives were more hollow ground like that one.

When will you harden and temper and won't that give you a good color to work with? I'd finish bright then age it gently or aggressively. For gently, just put mustard on it overnight. If you want to go more aggressive, do the cold blue followed by bleach. This will pit the blade.

 

[Runner]

I was going for a broken sword made into a knife look Rich. That is why I used the tip form that I did also. It is not hollow ground really. I used a belt and it is flat. I don't know about the hardening/tempering right now. I was pretty satisfied with the fit, so I started drilling the handle and tang yesterday. The piece shifted in the vice and destroyed the antler handle. So now I have a hole in the tang that is going to be blind when I fit the next handle. I don't know if I should just abandon that hole or try to locate it thru the new handle material.
When this material is hardened, it produces a surface color that will polish right off. If I leave it bright, it will eventually look ok, but not fast without help. This material is funny. I stuck it in a potato to make it go gray the way carbon steel blades do. Had no effect at all on the blade. It acts like stainless in some ways. When hardened and polished, it doesn't even want to rust very easy. It is not stainless. It is a piece of track plate off an old crawler that has been used for weight on another crawler for years. I stuck it in the vinegar stain to see what would happen. I expected some pitting and dulling of the blade. No such luck. The vinegar took all the oxidation off the blade, but did nothing else that was visable. It will produce a nice blue when heated after being in the vinagar stain tho.
Once I fit another handle, I will harden it and then do my polishing. Then I will do a final hardening and tempering.
Thanks for the help! Sooner or later we have to actually meet. We live too close not to! I went to the shoot this weekend at Bloomsdale.

 

[paulvallandigham]

Runner: First when putting pins in handles, either use slabs and drill the hole in the tang first, and then use it to center the drill to drill each slab or scale, OR, drill the hole where you want to locate it entirely through the antler, or single slab. Then, use those holes on both sides of the antler, or slab, to mark a centerhole in the metal tang. Then back the handle away, and drill the hole in the tang separately. If you find out that the tang is hardened, clamp the knife's Blade in a steel vise, right at the base of the tang. Then heat the tang up to cherry Red/Orange, before drilling the hole for the tang screw. The jaws of the vise will act as a heat sink to draw the heat away from the Knife Blade, so it is not dicolored or annealed( softened ). That red hot tang will take a standard high carbon drill bit like you were drilling soft wood, so take it easy, and don't fall into that hot tang and burn yourself. If you drill the hole slightly off center, just use a larger drill bit to open it up. You can fill the gap in the tang hole around your pins with epoxy resin, which will give you a much stronger handle no matter what material you use for the handle, excepting metal of course.

 

[Runner]

I am not sure what I am going to use now Paul. Everything is kind of at a standstill while I make up my mind again. I have brass that is 3/8ths or so thick. I could clamp and inlett two pieces of the brass. If I go that way, I could mill a recess in each side and start looking for some wide pieces of bone so it could be scrimshawed. I have some Mulberry here that would make a tough hard handle. I really need to call Pecatonica and see about getting some hard curly maple scrap I guess. I am sure this is not the last one I will make, so even if I use something else like the brass, I still need to get some scraps just in case!

 

[Runner]

Any suggestions before I move to the make it pretty stage? I think it is going to make a very good working knife. Anyway, this is with the handle pinned on with one pin, the guard cut down to close to the finished size, and the finger groove added.

Thank