pin question

[walkabout]

im working on my first knife, an antler handled skinner with a shirt tang that i plan on attaching with friction fit and epoxy, and considered putting one pin in it for insurance. my question is this; awhile back i read that placement of the pin is important because of forces upon it,would it be best to put the pin close to the blade where the leverage wouldnt be able to be exaggerated by the pin acting as a fulcrum? i hope this makes sense to someone, and any feedback will be appreciated.

[beaver#1]

i like to place my pins about a third down from the guard. with the expoxy you should not have any movement at all anyway so i dont think the placement (ehere ever you put it)would make a difference in that matter . but you dont want the pin the look out of place.

[walkabout]

lol i meant short tang. thanks for the reply beaver, im not yet sold on putting a pin in it but after having alot of knives fall apart im more inclined to overbuild.

[Lin Rhea]

I have to agree with Dustin. The idea of a fulcrum implies that there will be movement within the handle. There should be none at all since you are using epoxy, thus once the pin is in place, it's location is cosmetic. I also agree that if I were to use a single pin, I would locate it slightly forward of halfway. Even so, this takes planning to make sure your tang is long enough especially if you are intending on using spacers. If this is a small to medium sized knife, you should be fine. Good question.

This is your first knife, right? That's good. I'll be the first to encourage you to keep it up and be sure to show us your work.     Here is something to think about. If this method of handle construction was in question in YOUR mind, why not build it with another method that you're more confident of? I look forward to seeing it. Lin

[Ragnarok Forge]

I would say pin it for sure.  I have seen a lot of scales that we epoxied on pop off from either being dropped on a hard object or being torqued by someone trying to use the knife as a pry bar.  The pin is cheap insurance that the scales will stay put.  As Lin mentioned if the scales are installed properly the pin is cosmetic.  If the glue is bad, the knife is abused, etc... then the pin is cheap insurance.  Just my 2 cents for what it's worth.

[walkabout]

actually the antler was hollowed to allow for the tang to fit in it, not scales. i had planned on making it full tang with scales but decided to use the antler from my first deer so switched the design to the half tang. ive tried dry runs with pins and mock scales and had some trouble getting them to line up due to bad clamping in the drill press, but since i moved im setting up my shop to better accomadate what im doing. also im going to make a saw of sorts shaped exactly like my tangs for future projects such as this, read about it somewhere while researching knifemaking. i dont doubt so much the design in general i just want to be sure my first knife will last for some time.lol. ill be sure to post a pic up when i get to the next step in construction. thanks for the replies.