bought a Helle knife blank, now what?

[amicus]

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.

[MI_Bowhunter]

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)

 

[amicus]

MIkeD, thats awesome. Thanks a lot. Gilbert

[Marblesonac]

NICE KNIFE!!!!

[the Ferret]

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

[amicus]

Thanks Ferret, Ive seen the first one but hadn't seen the other two. Very helpful. Gilbert

[Eric B.]

Yes they are fun to make and very functional as well.

[madness522]

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.

[SOS]

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