Knife Scale Pins

**dai sensei** · 10th January 2017, 11:54 AM

I have been making heaps of knife scale blocks 50x25x150 (that also can be cut into large pen blanks) lately and decided to make some knives. I bought some Damascus steel knife blanks online and decided to make some mosaic pins to go with them. Basically these are tubes and rods of aluminium/steel/brass arranged within a 6mm and 1/4" tubes and then filled with resin. I made mine 100mm long so make assembly a bit easier and these could be cut down after casting.

I started off making up some and then joining them with plastic tubes. I connected the vacuum at one end and a tap at the other. After achieving full vacuum I opened the tap whilst within some resin drawing the resin up the tubes. The vacuum was too powerful and tended to draw the resin up the easiest path and didn't fill all the gaps.

So I used a short piece of plastic tube either end of a length of pin. I then used a syringe to inject resin into the pin slowly until it appeared in the top plastic tube. I then folded over that tube and sealed it before turning the pin upside down and removing the syringe to leave over night. This seemed to work a treat and here's the result.

IMG_2329.jpg

**NCArcher** · 10th January 2017, 12:11 PM

They look great Neil.
Can we see some pics of the finished knives when you get them done.

**Sawdust Maker** · 10th January 2017, 12:49 PM

cool

**Ironwood** · 10th January 2017, 01:21 PM

Looking good Neil.

**cava** · 10th January 2017, 02:32 PM

Always wondered how they were done. Well done Neil.

**dai sensei** · 10th January 2017, 06:16 PM

Originally Posted by NCArcher

They look great Neil.
Can we see some pics of the finished knives when you get them done.

Will do.

I got my knife blanks today, 3 similar to this one, 4 days from India (I've got things ordered from Aus I'm still waiting on)
damascus blank knife skinner-1.jpg

**dai sensei** · 15th January 2017, 01:09 PM

Cast up some more pins yesterday using some of the new hex and square tubes I got. I used neon green and orange (although hard to see neon colours in photo) epoxy resin this time to match some of the Peach Stone and Cholla Cactus scales I cast the other day. I also cast up some smaller pins, as I will be only using the mosaics on the handle's 2 central pins, I'm using these smaller pins near the blade.

new pins.jpg

So here are all of them
all the pins.jpg

Now to make the knifes, although I am still waiting on some brass and some carbon fibre filler plates (for between the blade and the scales).

**Bushmiller** · 15th January 2017, 01:27 PM

Neil

It looks as though these pins are for locating rather than holding as with the cutler rivets.

Watching with interest as from what you are saying these pins will be almost like the medallion on a hand saw.

Regards
Paul

**dai sensei** · 15th January 2017, 01:33 PM

Originally Posted by Bushmiller

Neil

It looks as though these pins are for locating rather than holding as with the cutler rivets.

Watching with interest as from what you are saying these pins will be almost like the medallion on a hand saw.

Regards
Paul

Yes mate they hold via the area of epoxy not via clamping action. I cut them with a metal cut off blade on the Dremel and then just sand to shape (when you do the final shaping of the scales after gluing) . The steel piano wire is the hardest and I have to be careful when sanding with the sparks (definitely no dusty on)

**flyinlee** · 17th January 2017, 01:32 PM

Hi, I'm using Alumilite for my casting and looking for something more reasonable. What are you using?

**dai sensei** · 17th January 2017, 10:21 PM

Originally Posted by flyinlee

Hi, I'm using Alumilite for my casting and looking for something more reasonable. What are you using?

Here in Aus, Alumilite is almost impossible to get but there are other polyurethanes about, but mainly ~6x the cost of PR. I use Casting Epoxy (Megapoxy HX) that works out now ~2.5x PR cost but sticks like, well, epoxy

. I also prefer the epoxy, as it gives me more time to get the majority of bubbles out before placing in the pressure pot, plus the only resin (to my knowledge) that can be used in vacuum casting. I also prefer Megapoxy HX as it is a water clear (and is one of the slowest to yellow), low exotherm, and does not react to moisture like PR and Polyurethane. Epoxy is terrible for plain mixed resin blanks though due to the long working time and does not polish as well (usually needs a finish).

**dai sensei** · 29th January 2017, 09:35 PM

Cast a few more pins yesterday, including using some of the new copper tubes that finally arrived from China, all with black epoxy resin fill

mosaic pin set 2.jpg

**Sawdust Maker** · 29th January 2017, 11:11 PM

cool

Thread: Knife Scale Pins

Thread Tools

Search Thread

Knife Scale Pins

Similar Threads

Pins?

Roll pins vs taper pins

pins and tails

Pins & Needles

Posting Permissions