As I wrote in an earlier post, I want to start making knives, or assembling them, as the case may be. After seeing Bernard Ten Bears' tutorial, I thought I'd try it myself with some elk antler.
Check out this bone. Weird, huh? Maybe they're fat heads?
No chainsaw for me. I fouled a plug about a year ago and I'm too lazy to change it.
BTB says it stinks when you boil the antler. I think it stinks more when you cut it. Smells like dog food.
Isn't that beautiful? Almost like a snow flake.
That's about the right size for my hand....
I cleaned up the rough edges with a little sand paper.
Now for the next handle. The bone was harder to saw through than the antler.
Made a mistake on the cut. I'll clean that up later.
This is about what the should look like when they're done.
Stuck 'em in to boil. On the grill. Mrs. Hotel didn't even scold me.
Threw in two mint tea bags to keep the stink down.
I cut a bit of tang off of this Mora blank. In hindsight, I shouldn't have. Ahhh, the process of learning.
I literally just pushed it on. No need for tapping. Now I'm wondering if I had too much pith in the antler?
The handle is fairly large for the blade, but it is good and sturdy.
The finished product. I'm at about 24 hours now on letting the pith dry. The Moras are holding okay, but are a bit loose. If I would have known how easy it was to drive the tang into these large pieces of antler, I would have left the tang intact.
Overall, this was really, really fun. I have a feeling I didn't get everything quite right, but that gives me a good excuse to try again. I can't wait!
Stay tuned....next comes the blade patina - there will also be a post from bmatt this week. It's a great one!
Pax Domini Sit Semper Vobiscum,
Mike, Oscar, Hotel.....out.
Looking good! Nice project, Mike.
ReplyDeletebmatt