I bought a Safari Helle knife blade from Dryad bows. Very nice people. They have been there to answer all my questions. This will be my first attempt at customizing a knife. I love the blade but the finger guard dosent really fit it. So im a little stuck there. I have a horn antler that I want to use but it has a curve to it and Im not sure If I will be able to drill a hole in it the length ot the tang. Can I /should I cut the tang down a bit? Just trying to get some Ideas. Any suggestions would really be appreciated. Thanks. Gilbert.
I'm in the process of making another one myself.
I try to line the tang up as close to center of possible when drilling. If its curved, just try to keep it as far from the side as you can. I normally have to cut them down a little but try to keep around 2" or more to make sure that there is enough to hold it in there.
As for the guard, I had the same problem. I'm not experienced enough to know how to correct it so I made another. I bough some brass barstock and cut my own.
I normally drill the antler with a bit the size of the narrowest width of the tang and then file it out to make it fit. I can make it fit snug that way and I don't have to worry about it twisting when using it.
I also score the tang in a few places with a die grinder or file to give the glue something extra hold on to.
Here's one of the ones I made about a year ago. (this one did not have a Helle Blade)
(http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k102/tradhunter/TG/Knife_002.jpg)
MIkeD, thats awesome. Thanks a lot. Gilbert
NICE KNIFE!!!!
Here's some recent build alongs from the search engine that may help or give you some ideas
http://tradgang.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=047290
http://tradgang.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=042426
http://tradgang.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=046472
Thanks Ferret, Ive seen the first one but hadn't seen the other two. Very helpful. Gilbert
Yes they are fun to make and very functional as well.
You can do amazing things with a Dremel tool. Like square the tang so the guard will fit and also trim the tang to fit the lenght of your antler. I bought 4 Helle blanks awhile back and only have one almost finished. It had the rounded transition to the blade so I rounded handle to make a sort of guard. I'm really happy with the way it turned out but someone posted saying they were tired of seeing all the knive threads so I haven't posted pics of it.
You can do just about any thing you want with the tang except cutting it off at the blade and make it work.
Here's another thread for my first Helle knife. Got it bloody last Saturday. Have fun!
http://tradgang.com/noncgi/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=040911;p=1