TK Steingass
Plastic
- Joined
- Oct 5, 2010
- Location
- Bucksport, Maine
Hi fellas:
I'm a custom knifemaker and I want to reduce my hand fitting time and improve the fit where the knife handle meets the S-Guard. Currently, I make the guard, rough out the wood and inlet it using inletting black and tapping with a hammer, like a gunsmith does. Here's the picture - it's where the wood meets the metal guard:
In order to improve the fitup, I plan on using casting epoxy up against the metal guard and using the hardened epoxy as a template to machine the mating material with a drill press. I plan on running the tooling shank against the template. My questions are:
1)What epoxy system do you all recommend that will take the heat of the turning shank without collapsing? If there are none, should I use a high speed cutter with a bearing pilot?
2)Another knifemaker recommended a diamond type tool to sand the piece for a tight fit, but he never got back to me on either question. I imagine he was describing tooling like an end-mill but with small diamonds impregnated? Is there such a thing?
Thanks in advance,
TK
I'm a custom knifemaker and I want to reduce my hand fitting time and improve the fit where the knife handle meets the S-Guard. Currently, I make the guard, rough out the wood and inlet it using inletting black and tapping with a hammer, like a gunsmith does. Here's the picture - it's where the wood meets the metal guard:
In order to improve the fitup, I plan on using casting epoxy up against the metal guard and using the hardened epoxy as a template to machine the mating material with a drill press. I plan on running the tooling shank against the template. My questions are:
1)What epoxy system do you all recommend that will take the heat of the turning shank without collapsing? If there are none, should I use a high speed cutter with a bearing pilot?
2)Another knifemaker recommended a diamond type tool to sand the piece for a tight fit, but he never got back to me on either question. I imagine he was describing tooling like an end-mill but with small diamonds impregnated? Is there such a thing?
Thanks in advance,
TK