Dirk blank source

**McCracken140** · 29th December 19, 10:26 PM

Originally Posted by Howling Dingo

One thing to say is full tang is much easier than a stick tang knife.It is a heap of work to do the bolster on a stick tang blade.

You are talking hours of work shapeing this bolster to fit the tang of the blade.

How would that work? On my Indian made dirk the bolster seems to be basically a ferrule closed off on the side towards the handle with a slit the blade comes through. Going off memory as I don’t have it with me.
On a quick internet search the bolsters look to be of the type on standard kitchen knives.

How should the bolster be made? Is it structural? What does the tang construction have to do with it? I’m doing a traditional hidden tang construction.

I don’t know too much about knifemakeing, so forgive my lack of knowledge of terminology etc.
Thank you all for your help!

**Howling Dingo** · 30th December 19, 02:17 AM

Originally Posted by McCracken140

How would that work? On my Indian made dirk the bolster seems to be basically a ferrule closed off on the side towards the handle with a slit the blade comes through. Going off memory as I don’t have it with me.
On a quick internet search the bolsters look to be of the type on standard kitchen knives.

How should the bolster be made? Is it structural? What does the tang construction have to do with it? I’m doing a traditional hidden tang construction.

I don’t know too much about knifemakeing, so forgive my lack of knowledge of terminology etc.
Thank you all for your help!

So you are looking at an factory made knife. You need to drill out and shape that small hole to a fine fit for the tang.I find this burns a lot of time to make this part.

Worth a look..

https://www.google.com/amp/s/chrismo...kko-knife/amp/

Few more of mine..

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**McCracken140** · 30th December 19, 11:59 AM

Howling Dingo, I see what you mean. Thank you!

**Howling Dingo** · 30th December 19, 02:22 PM

Originally Posted by McCracken140

Howling Dingo, I see what you mean. Thank you!

No worrys..Big subject for sure, I would do a bit of background reading. Hunt down a few good you tube video's.

Belt sander and drill press are great tool to have for knifemaking.

**McCracken140** · 8th January 20, 08:18 PM

Here are some photos of my progress on the handle of the dirk. It is made from Katalox. I turned it and then sanded it down to 600 grit (the finest sandpaper I could buy locally).
Then I rubbed it using the suede side of a loose piece of stamping leather— I used a mixture of about 10:1 water and oil which I polished into the surface of the Katalox using the leather. I watered down the oil, as I have previously used unadulterated oil on the “1.0” edition (read: failed trial run) of the dirk handle. I found that using only oil darkened the wood too much for my liking, so by adding water the oil will bring out the colour of the wood but the effect will be lessened, and the water evaporates off. That’s what I tell myself as my reasoning anyways haha.
I will finish it using shellac. This works good with oily exotic woods and I have no fears about putting it on after having oiled the handle.

I used a big ol pewter button from Ganderwick Creations as a pommel cap. I had bought a pair over a year ago and used one as a kilt pin and the other to replace a clan crest on a used sporran. Having since found a different insignia for the sporran I always thought this button would make a good pommel cap, and it will be cool to have a dirk matching my kilt pin. I may buy more for belt buckles, sgians etc— it will be quite the novelty to have a matching set of everything in my wardrobe lol.

Now just to carve/sand the shoulders and attach the blade and bolster when they arrive in the post. And I can’t forget to sew a sheath and matching belt!