forgot a hole for handle pin

C

Cameron Wilcox

Well-Known Member
I sent off a batch of knives for HT but forgot that the drill bit I had been using gave up the ghost with 2 of 3 holes drilled on one knife. So I bought a carbide bit from Tracy but when I try to drill it (high speed w/ lots of cutting lube) my old drill press just begins to vibrate and the work table just slides down. The drill press is an old one that was given to me by my grandfather and he had gotten it from his father-in-law so I'm sure that is the issue but now I am faced with another problem, is two front pins enough? The handle is 4" and the holes are are 5/8" and 2 1/4" from the Ricasso.


This is how it looks
DSC_0540.jpg
It is dykem on the blade just pulled it from grinding to take this
 
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What type of steel is your blade ?

If it's not air hardening steel you can simply soften the tang with a propane torch to drill your hole.

I've never had a problem drilling hardened steel with a carbide bit which I have done on a few occasions.

FWIW I'd want that back pin on a knife I was making.

-Josh
 
The steel is 1084. How high would I need to heat the tang to sufficiently soften it and wouldn't it be easy to overheat the blade doing this?
 
You could overheat the blade but you would almost have to try to do it. The heat WILL bleed but not quickly or too far unless your dealing with a very thin section like the edge of the blade.

Clean your tang up with sandpaper until shiny so you can see the colors as you bring the heat up.

You can also hold the blade end in a bucket of water to protect from heat bleeding down to into the blade area if you want but probably not needed to just soften up the back of the tang. You'll see that you've really got quite good control of your heat and where you put it after you do this once.

Start heating across the butt end of the tang until you start getting color. Keep your torch moving back and forth. It'll quickly go through the "straw" range to a deeper brown and then a light violet followed by a deeper blue and into the grey range where you want to be.

Once you've got color across the butt end start dragging your heat down the tang to "pull" the color along. As you get to moving you'll get a "rainbow" effect with straw at the leading edge and grey at the back. Keep that flame moving back and forth painting the tang and working your way lower until you get where you want to be.


It's really as simple as this and something you shouldn't worry at all about. Take your color past the blue range to grey but avoid getting into any red color. It's not as hard as it sounds I promise.

Do this once then clean the color (oxides) off the tang and repeat a second time.

Now you should be able to drill your hole without issue.

-Josh
 
There are essentially two "simple" methods (although there are many ways) to get the hole finished....

1. Get a solid carbide drill bit of the correct size, run it at the highest speed your drill press will run, and apply a couple drops of cutting fluid. (the drawback is that solid carbide bits are not cheap)

2. (This is what I most often do)....using a common propane torch, hold the blade with the handle end up...start heating about where the center hole is. and work from one side of the handle to the other until you run through the tempering color spectrum to a sky blue or gray color. LET THE BLADE COOL NATURALLY...if you get in a hurry and dunk it in water, etc. to cool it, it won't work. Once the blade had cooled naturally, a sharp HSS or Cobalt bit should cut right through. I recommend a few drops of cutting fluid just for good measure.

(Guess I should have paid more attention to what Josh said....after I posted that, I realized that I'd pretty much repeated him.) :)
 
My first comment is that you may be running the Drill Press at too high of speed.

Put it on the slowest setting you can, About 600 RPM's or less it what you want. It should show the settings on the inside of the belt & puller cover.

High speed is for wood! Slow works best for steel. Hopefully you haven't toasted the carbide drill bit.

Iv'e made knives with only two pin holes, Four is better of course.

Another way Iv'e used a few times is to put a bigger drill bit in upside down and run it full speed until you have heated the area that you want to drill up to a light red color.
This should take out the hardening and you can then drill it with a HSS drill bit.

Keep your nose to that GrindStone!

Laurence

www.rhinoknives.com


Ed was writing at the same time and I just saw his post. I always have much better life and cutting with Carbide drill bits when I run it slow on a Hardened steel.

I read this about running slow in some literature that came with some Carbide bits.
 
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question dog,s ive made the mistake would haveing the blade covered in ash, water ore some kind of thick steel work as a heath sink to keep it hardened ?
 
Okay, I just heated the handle twice, waiting for it to cool, I just kept an ice cube on the edge due to being paranoid about messing it up. Will update once it cools and I can try to drill it.
-Cameron
 
I have had good results with putting the blade into a can of wet sand for a heat sink and heating the area that needed to drill with a torch. That won't do much if you have work hardened your steel where you want to make your holes but then work hardening shouldn't prevent you from drilling with a carbide bit. I use carbide spade bits for drilling and they come with the recommendation to be used at slow speeds.

As far as the number of tang holes are concerned two would be quite adequate for keeping the scales on an aligned. Aesthetically, it would look better with the three holes the way you have them laid out. Double pin holes would be laid out more on center. If you are talking about pinning a stick tang on a block handle then a single pin will give all the mechanical attachment that is needed.
 
For future reference, you can also use a carbide tipped masonry/tile bit, believe it or not. These are typically less than 5 or 10 bucks per bit, and widely available at any hardware store.

Set your drill to a high speed, use some cutting fluid, and start drilling. Just realize that a 1/4" masonry bit will likely yield a hole that's SLIGHTLY bigger than 1/4" in diameter, but as long as your handle scales are accurately drilled, this shouldn't be an issue.

Also be careful as your exiting the bottom side, you could have a little tearing/chipping out of the steel.
 
Glad to see this work out for you Cameron

You've just added a new technique to your growing toolbox of knifemaking !

Don't be in a rush but as Larry The Cable Guy would say- Git-R-Done

-Josh
 
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