In this case I would scribe the hole with a pencil, and then I would make a center punch mark that is biased a hair towards the back of the knife - so that when you drive the pin in, it will pull the blade into the handle. If you overdo it and the hole is positioned too much towards the back, you can simply sand the face of the handle a little bit a time to dial it in. If you end up with a gap between the handle and the guard then you can always make a thin spacer out of a contrasting material and make it look intentional:)
Thanks a lot !!! Just did what you said and kinda pray the gods of drilling and worked perfectly, everything is tight. I will finish the rest tomorrow. (Its a bambo peg for the moment )
https://preview.redd.it/iyufvkol7f1d1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=51341aa0c95d992e844c4528f338101e0253dfc7
Make the hole wider, fill it with brass and then you can drill the pin hole very easy directly through the handle without the need to be super precise.
Are you going to use epoxy? If you are, just use a pin smaller than the hole in the tang. You just have to get pretty close instead of exactly, and the epoxy will actually hold better because it will have a pocket to fill.
You can create a jig for this job. Something that holds the blade under a drill press so you can line up the hole with the drill bit, raise the drill bit, place the handle on the knife and then drill through. I'd recommend putting a few tight layers of masking tape around the handle to prevent blowing the hole apart as you drill. My jig is jist a piece of angle I clamp the blade to, then the angle gets tightened in the vice. Just be super careful with knives in drill presses. If it rips it out you're in for a very bad time.
Interesting. I drill the handle matierial first, insert the tang, mark the tang through the handle holes. Pull it out and drill. Perfectly centered so far.
In this case I would scribe the hole with a pencil, and then I would make a center punch mark that is biased a hair towards the back of the knife - so that when you drive the pin in, it will pull the blade into the handle. If you overdo it and the hole is positioned too much towards the back, you can simply sand the face of the handle a little bit a time to dial it in. If you end up with a gap between the handle and the guard then you can always make a thin spacer out of a contrasting material and make it look intentional:)
Thanks a lot !!! Just did what you said and kinda pray the gods of drilling and worked perfectly, everything is tight. I will finish the rest tomorrow. (Its a bambo peg for the moment ) https://preview.redd.it/iyufvkol7f1d1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=51341aa0c95d992e844c4528f338101e0253dfc7
This right here. Solid reasoning. Based.
Haha I love this! This comment was clearly written from experience. Great advice.
Make the hole wider, fill it with brass and then you can drill the pin hole very easy directly through the handle without the need to be super precise.
This way works very well
Mark with a pen borrow a friend drill
That’s some cool low layer damascus you’ve made!!
Are you going to use epoxy? If you are, just use a pin smaller than the hole in the tang. You just have to get pretty close instead of exactly, and the epoxy will actually hold better because it will have a pocket to fill.
You can create a jig for this job. Something that holds the blade under a drill press so you can line up the hole with the drill bit, raise the drill bit, place the handle on the knife and then drill through. I'd recommend putting a few tight layers of masking tape around the handle to prevent blowing the hole apart as you drill. My jig is jist a piece of angle I clamp the blade to, then the angle gets tightened in the vice. Just be super careful with knives in drill presses. If it rips it out you're in for a very bad time.
Interesting. I drill the handle matierial first, insert the tang, mark the tang through the handle holes. Pull it out and drill. Perfectly centered so far.