Pinning handles

[Beau Erwin]

I was curious how you all go about pinning your handles.

 

Are there some ways that work better than others?

 

Some special pins you might use that you feel work better for you?

 

Was just curious about gathering some info on it from those who would like to describe their method.

 

I think I made a booboo toda trying to peen a pin a bit into some blood wood, made a small crack, so I'm gonna bite the bullet and just make another handle, it'll allow me a chance to touch up another spot that didn't go as well as I would have liked.

 

Thinkin gI'm going to put some epoxy in the handle, place in the blade, let it set up a bit, drill the holes and just use some straight rod for the pins and rough them up slightly iwth sandpaper, add a little epoxy and tap them in and sand flush.

 

I think trying to peen them some was a bad idea.

 

Thanks!

[dragoncutlery]

your next try sounds like how do it i used to peen pins and such then i started craking handle so i went with non peend pins and then started taking a cutoff wheel and runing some groves around the midle of the pin (as fasr out from center as you think you wont go grinding so thay dont show up latter but enough to grip good) and ill tel you its a lot harder to remove a pin with some kind of perchas for the epoxy than with out sounds like your skiping some of the lerning curve good for you

[Bob Ouellette]

I lightly peen them then file them flush. I have more of a problem with a non associated part of the handle chipping then having to remove everything.

[Kristopher Skelton]

There's a how-to on here somewhere about making pins stay tight. You put the pin material through the handle assembly and then lightly clamp it in a POSTvise so the pins are keeping the jaws open (this won't work with a machinists/bench vise). Then tap the jaw that moves and slightly close the jaw each time. This is supposed to evenly flatten the faces of the pins and get them in real tight. I haven't tried it yet (because I haven't made anything with a pinned handle in a while) but it appears to be a sound idea and Don reallyliked it when it was posted.

[dragoncutlery]

you can use a bottle jack with some tight dies to get the same uniform efect but i would only use it on bolsters and mabe micarta if it doesnt brake when you do it it can latter on nothing like geting to the show and realising you have the pull the new knife off the table cuzz the handle went screwy on yah ( hehe i have a 300lb 1 1/2 ton foot arber press that i use for bolster pins squishes the bolsters to the taang and peens the pins at the same time never going to hammer them agen )

[Ron Hicks]

Not for sure but to peen the pins dont the holes need to be bigger than the pin stock ??

[Tracy]

Edgar,

I use this method for brass pins.

I drill the holes to pin size after the glue has set in the handle. Then use a slightly larger drill size to enlarge the holes just a bit deep (3- 4 mm or less) on each side of the handle. I cut the pins to protrude about 2-3mm on each side (Experiment!). Make sure they are smooth on the ends. Place on an anvil and carefully hit the pin with a flat hammer a few times and flip it over. Repeat this process and the pins will soon lock into the tang metal and spread into the oversized holes. File and sand to set flush. I've stopped placing glue on the pins because this produces a very tight fit without it and eliminates getting glue on the handle surface.

[Beau Erwin]

I did pretty close to wht you said tracy except for the end being perfectly flat on the pin and using a flat hammer rather than a ball peen which was probably a bit too big for what I was using it for as there wasn't a smaller one.

 

The wood was bloodwood, which might just be a bad wood to try it with. I saw in another thread where someone was saying not to peen pins in purple heart. I had peened the ones on my bubinga knife with no ill effects.

 

I'm thinking I'll just do what I had mentioned and rough up the pin, epoxy it some, and insert it into the hole with a few taps and let it set. I'm going to try to do the same end "cap" that I had done, but use a smaller countersink on the holes to get the pins to fill them up better. Was a method that was in a woodworkers. magazine. Guy was making a no mar hammer for tapping stuff. Was all a wood body and then the face of it was a plate of brass, drill the 4 corners, enlarge the hole a slight bit, and then insert brass pins (epoxy might be a good idea on the pins, rough them up coat with epoxy, tap in, and peen the ends to fill the slightly enlarged holes. I enalrged mine too much so there is a sligh bit they don't fill. So something else I can remedy.

 

Also maybe I just made the enlarged hole too large, and did too much peening.

Might be better to just goa tiny bit bigger and lightly peen as well like was said.

 

This one I'm working on is more of a learning piece anyway, but I've found I really like the blade shape so I'm going to try to recreate it as some point in highcarbon which shouldn't be too difficult, might even come out better. The full blade and handle is an S curve. Was my first forged piece and was just using a piece of scrap to practice, and it came out nice. Learned about spark testing and I believe it's stainless, but no idea what kind. Probably should have still tried to harden it, but since the edge is down to being almost sharp, I'd probably have to file it duller so that there wouldn't be any problems with cracking during a quench.

 

Any thoughts on that? Just thinking of learving it decorative, and doing another in carbon steel.

Edited December 9, 2005 by EdgarFigaro