Aces and Eights

Redmeadow Knives said:
The guard is Nickel Silver, the handle is Blackwood, any suggestions for the ferrule? Omit? Wrought Iron? More Nickel Silver? The plan is a grooved single piece.
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Without really knowing better... I really think wrought iron could look very cool. In my slipjoints, I have some with nickel silver construction and some with steel construction - I think they make for an interesting contrast. NS being bright, with an almost yellow hue in certain light, and steel being cold with a dull blue-gray look to it.

The transition from dark Blackwood, to wrought iron (that would darken with age and use), into the bright nickel silver could make for a really cool look.

But then again, maybe I'm just imagining things...
 
If we did a standard hidden tang, we could put double rows of pins but they would serve no purpose, strictly cosmetic. Cosmetic features are great but not when they pretend to have a structural purpose (does that make sense?).

A mortise tang gives us a reason for them to be there. Here's the plan anyways, cross your fingers. The piece off to the side will be slotted for the tang and all three will be put together to make a handle block that can be slid on from the rear. Those three pieces will have the double rows of pins through them to hold them together. Then it can be attached like a regular hidden tang with pins in the center that go through the tang. That gives us a functional reason for some double pins. I think we'll try the wrought iron for the ferrule by the way.

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Redmeadow Knives said:
If we did a standard hidden tang, we could put double rows of pins but they would serve no purpose, strictly cosmetic. Cosmetic features are great but not when they pretend to have a structural purpose (does that make sense?).

A mortise tang gives us a reason for them to be there. Here's the plan anyways, cross your fingers. The piece off to the side will be slotted for the tang and all three will be put together to make a handle block that can be slid on from the rear. Those three pieces will have the double rows of pins through them to hold them together. Then it can be attached like a regular hidden tang with pins in the center that go through the tang. That gives us a functional reason for some double pins. I think we'll try the wrought iron for the ferrule by the way.

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Thinking about this some more, do have a question. If you did the hidden tang, would you still use a slab on each side, or would it be a single thicker piece hollowed out? If a single piece then I would certainly agree the outer pins would only be cosmetic. But if separate slabs, wouldn't they help hold the slabs together, thus serving some structural purpose along with the center pins?
 
jlauffer said:
Thinking about this some more, do have a question. If you did the hidden tang, would you still use a slab on each side, or would it be a single thicker piece hollowed out? If a single piece then I would certainly agree the outer pins would only be cosmetic. But if separate slabs, wouldn't they help hold the slabs together, thus serving some structural purpose along with the center pins?
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A standard hidden tang would be a block with the center drilled out so you're right pins wouldn't do anything structural.
 
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