aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!!!

[Luke Shearer]

While I was peening the tang on a dirk, my wooden grip seems to have checked. When I first saw it I screamed silently in my head for like 30 seconds the crack pasted through about 1 third of the handle. Is there any way to close it up/fill it in?

any answers would MOST appreciated.

[Charlie K]

There are wood fillers at Home Depot made just for this occasion. Nice carving, I hope you can fix it.

[Sam Salvati]

Sacrifice no performance, hate to say it but START OVER.

[Hessian]

I would see first how much of the crack can be removed by the old clothes iron trick. After that I would seal and wire clamp and leave for a week or so.

 

Or start over.

[Sam Salvati]

Like i think Mike Blue said, The house of success is built with the bricks of failure.

[Andrew C.]

It might have cracked, but dude, your carving rocks! What kind of wood is that?

 

I'll bet if you try again it will come out even better. Seriously.

[jake cleland]

if you really can't face starting over, you could file off the peened bit of the tang, fill the inside of the handle with epoxy (make sure it is completely filled), and reassemble it. then fill the crack from the outside with superglue (the very low viscosity stuff) and bind the whole handle up with string - the compressive force should be enough to close the crack. with the epoxy and superglue, i don't think the integrity of the handle will be compromised too much. nice shape to that handle. can we see a pic of the whole knife/

[Luke Shearer]

thanks for all the suggestions. Here's a picture

 

 

 

Edited December 6, 2009 by Luke Shearer

[John N]

that handle rocks! unless the blade is super special I would try and repair the crack, I think I would get some thin slow set expoxy in the crack, and then get some 'jubilee clips' (not sure if they will be called the same thing where you are, they are used on radiator hoses and tightened with a scewdriver) , wrap some rubber round the handle so the clips dont tear into the wood and gently, and evenly tighten them up.

 

I cant think of a way to 'unpein' other than fileing it off, and making the handle a bit shorter, or welding an extension onto the tang.

 

good luck with it, hope we can see some pics of it finished!

[Luke Shearer]

Forgefire, the wood is juniper(aka cedar) from a 4'log I found in a field. I still have most of it. I've used it for almost every knife I've forged(I did stock removal for the first few years )

[Luke Shearer]

could you post a picture of this "jubilee clip" please, I am not familiar with it

Thanks

Edited December 6, 2009 by Luke Shearer

[Luke Shearer]

While we're here I have another question. You know those filings on highland dirk's spines? Are they on both sides and what is there purpose? Are they just decorative?

[Cylvre]

could you post a picture of this "jubilee clip" please, I am not familiar with it

Thanks

 

I think what he's talking about is what I know as a hose clamp. Image attached:

 

The filings are on both sides of the spine only, and were originally to add some extra grip for fine control on the blade but are also oftentimes decorative.

[John N]

thats the fellas! thanks for finding the pics. I diddnt want to say hose clips as they are often spring loaded do-dahs

[Andrew C.]

Forgefire, the wood is juniper(aka cedar) from a 4'log I found in a field. I still have most of it. I've used it for almost every knife I've forged(I did stock removal for the first few years )

 

 

I thought so. Does it smell like a hamster cage? Cedar is awesome stuff.

 

Man, you are so far ahead of me. Keep up the awesome work.

[Kenon Rain.]

your 15? thats pretty good how long you been at it?

[Luke Shearer]

I thought so. Does it smell like a hamster cage? Cedar is awesome stuff.

 

Man, you are so far ahead of me. Keep up the awesome work.

Haha Thanks a bundle

[Luke Shearer]

your 15? thats pretty good how long you been at it?

Indeed I turned 15 this very day. I've been forging for about a year now, but did stock removal before that(I prefer forging by far)

[Kenon Rain.]

sweet, I started stock removal at 10 making arrow heads out of shelving supports, took a big break, forged at 13, break again, and have been doing it again ever since about your age. Your carvings are definitely better than mine were

[omalley]

i feel like an old fart all of a sudden. and yet strangely inexperienced.

 

 

i dont know how true it is, but the filemarks on the back of the dirk supposedly come from when it was done on the sgian dubh (and the preceding knife carried in the armpit the sgian dubh evolved from) when people would put file marks on one side so when you drew it in the dark you could run your thumb to the edge on the flat to figure out which end you should slice someone's throat with. you've gotta remember most of the modern scottish "ethnic knives" came from older weapons that were concealed carry weapons.

[Jim Kelso]

Luke, very cool carving.

Another option to consider doing before you trash it, would be lightly torching the whole handle, going slow, letting other similar cracks develop and go with it. It might work out to your liking or not. You can brush the char away as you go.

Try some test pieces first.

 

Jim

[Jake Powning]

While I was peening the tang on a dirk, my wooden grip seems to have checked. When I first saw it I screamed silently in my head for like 30 seconds the crack pasted through about 1 third of the handle. Is there any way to close it up/fill it in?

any answers would MOST appreciated.

Hi Luke,

that's a beautiful piece it's a shame that it checked. I think you've got some good suggestions about how to fix it from everyone.

I would add, one of the things you should learn from this is that wood that hasn't been kiln dried can warp and check, and break your heart. When I was first doing this I had some experiences with this sort of thing happening to cool pieces of wood that I had gathered, and since then I always use kiln dried wood, it's not very expensive in the sizes you need for grips, and getting to a good wood suply warehouse can be like being in a candy shop.

the other suggestion that I would make is to use a harder wood for handles, something like root stock from different types of bushes or hardwood/deciduous wood like maple, oak or tropical hardwood, these will be much less likely to check.

keep up the great work and don't be too discouraged, every failure is an opportunity to learn and improve.

[Luke Shearer]

Thanks for the advice, Mr. Powning; your work is very inspiring to me. If you didnt notice this blade was based on the design one of your knives. I hope you don't mind.

[Jake Powning]

Not at all, keep up the good work!

[Brian Vanspeybroeck]

My suggestion mimics others of the same mind. I'd mix up some clear, 2 part epoxy and fill the crack and clamp the wood till the crack disappears and the epoxy sets. Probably for 24 hours.

 

The handle will actually be stronger at the crack than anywhere else more than likely and does not represent any loss of performance or indicate a second class product (to me) in any way. Learning to fix/maintain things properly is a good skill to learn. I make handles and scabbards out of multiple pieces of glued woods and they perform just fine in destruction testing.

 

If it can be repaired and still maintain it's integrity I don't see any advantage to starting all over again.

 

Brian