Brownie Knife 3

Working with Wood Continued

To make sure my work piece didn't move I used some tape to hold it in place.

Now it was time to machine the handle profile to match my knife, but first I machined the surface of both pieces to get rid of the rough saw cut. Then I traced around the knife handle for reference prior to machining.

Here you can see the rough shape, which is close but not finished.

I used a wood chisel to cut away the corners between the two slot sizes, which worked great.

Next I cut a flat on the other side of both handles. This will make it easier to recess the rivet heads.

Working with Rivets

I had some brass rivets leftover from a pervious project so I decided to use them. This style of rivet press-fits together so you don't have to hammer one end and peen it over.

I figured out where I wanted my rivets and then drilled them using my milling machine.

Next I drilled the same pattern in the handles.

I needed to counterbore for the rivet heads so again I used my milling machine. But can you spot the problem in the picture below?

Take your time...I'll wait....

No?

Let me explain: When you're using a drill chuck you shouldn't put anything in them but drills or some kind of center finder. So if you see an end mill in a drill chuck (like you see below), you could potentially destroy its accuracy by doing this. However, I'm cutting wood here, I'm plunging straight down (not cutting with a side load) and I'm only going .050" deep.

So does this warrant doing something like this? No it doesn't. Then why did you do it? Because of the variables that I mentioned previously. Trust me, my drill chuck is just fine after all this because I wouldn't sacrifice a machine tool if I didn't think it would end up being okay. But at the end of the day, it's because I got a little lazy.

I'm using five minute epoxy on the handles which I've used in the past.

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