Hmmmmmmm, bout time for a picture or sumpin, what's going on with the Ripster?
Parts and pieces Mem, parts and pieces are going on. After the Canoetripping gang selected Ironwood with brass I went to work on the handle parts. They all needed to be slotted to slide onto the knife tang from the rear of the knife. By the way, this type handle construction would be called a hidden tang style knife. As opposed to a full tang, a through tang, or a partial tang. For slotting I use a small milling machine pictured below. If you look close you can see a piece of brass in the vise. This will be the finger guard.
First I drill a series of holes where I want the slot to be. Drilling it first removes the bulk of the material.
Oops, this picture is fuzzy. Anyway you can see a series of holes where the slot is going to be.
After changing from a drill bit to an 1/8" end mill I am able to cut the slot.
Finished slot.
Next up are the spacer materials. I selected some spacers that I thought would go good with the Ironwood and give the handle a little extra trim. In this picture below you can see them stacked up in a fixture so I can mill them all at once.
Here the fixture is clamped in the mill vise. The spacer material will be drilled then slotted like the finger guard was.
There you go. Parts and pieces. As you can see I cut the Iron wood into two pieces and squared the ends for a good glue joint. If you are wondering about the spacers they are the vertical lines on the handle in the drawing. They are ornamental. I still have to slot the wood but it will be done in the mill in much the same fashion as the other parts so. Feel free to ask questions if you have any. Dave
) Thanks Rippy for taking us along.
