Need Help with my first knife making project...

So, I have decided to jump into the world of knifemaking, and I am working on 2 knives as Christmas presents- 1 for my Dad, and 1 for my father-in-law.

So, far its going well. I started with a couple of pry bars, and have grinded and grinded for 2 days now and have a couple of full tang blades that I am happy with their shape. Sort of shaped like a classic puukko bush knife.

Anyway, I want to split a deer antler in half and mount the antler halves to the tang. What is the easiest way to mount the handles? I have looked at several different rivet/fastner kits but i don't know which will work best and it easiest to install. I just have basic tools. Thanks for any advice- please post links to what you'd recommend. Any installation tips will be appreciated.

Also, I have been doing this bare handed, and anytime the steel started to warm-up and get a little hot, I have dropped the steel in a bucket of cold water. I've been doing this so, hopefully I wont have to re-temper the blades. Is this a sound practice (i.e...will this work)?

The old grind and dip method should be fine as l;long as the steel is heat treated where it needs to be for a knife blade. For fastening the handles I would use some brass brazing rod for pins and some 5 ton epoxy.

Dogman - the most difficult part of your handles will be splitting them. Make sure they are perfectly flat on the cut sides that will attach to the tang of the knife. As Randyt said, brazing rods work well. Here's a vid I did quite a while ago. It's about making micarta, but at about 4 minutes in, it shows one way to attach handles. I do it a little differently now (small bandsaw makes it sooooo much easier), but it will give you a good idea on at least one way. After you split the antlers you may want to trace the outline onto your tang and grind or file away the excess. In the vid I use Gorilla Glue, but Devcon epoxy works very well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfT8O6FPhIQ

Here is my first and only full tang antler scales. I'd say it is the most challenging scales you could make. Take a look at this "old" thread WOW almost 20k views! Is that a forum record? One other tip is something new I have played with and that is leather liners stabilized with permatex gasket shellac, works for sclaes that ain't dead flat. Good luck!

http://www.wilderness-survival.net/f...f+spring+knife

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