My latest knife and help on the next?

[badgeringtim]

Im rather proud of my latest knife, ive only dont reqally basic wooden handles glued on before- This was recently given to a friend for their 30 th. It is a Sami style blade from Tromsa (although i dont think made locally) but a shorter stainless version for ease of maintenance as he is not much of a bushcrafter.
The pics i dont really think do it justice - although i cant quite manage to get them hosted at present so will hope to add some here soon.
The handle is (blade to but) reindeer antler and cherry with a wooden spalted beech sheath and leather strip/bely loop.





Any comments or improvements i would like to have them.

The hanbdle is finished with tung oil, which i didnt much get along with, the sheath dane oil and has a lovely lustre




As for the help, the next job (my full sami one) is a long tang ie one that comes complete through the handle and is then folded/bent over at the base to sandwhich the handle on although i think this is already glued together.
The question is how actually does one bend this over - i dont have a vice which might cause probems but am sure i have seen it done without one. and is it worth heating it to make it easy to bend over with the ball payne (pain)?

 

[leon-1]

Looks quite good mate, but bigger pictures would have been better,

Leon.

 

[badgeringtim]

Sorry the images were so small didnt want to crash comps etc - but think i overdid it.









hmm these images are still small and i have no idea why..the originals are big? (help?)

The only think i can find to do is put the link for the album - if people are interested the pics are big there..im sure there must be a way around this;
http://www.imagecraze.com/viewalbum.php?user=timbadger&album=Tim1

Im actually a bit dissaponted with the pics - the knife looks great, well to me anyhow it is possible that i am biased

Im still hoping that some of you might leave suggestions on improvements though and help with the tang please



cheers

 

[Pignut]

Hi, knife looks good!

As for the tang of the new one. leave 5mm proud of the top of the handle and using short sharp taps peen(SP) the end over (Just hit it square on the top and it will mushroom over) I normally hold the knife in a vice but if you are very steady and dont hit it to hard the point of the blade coulod be stood on a block of wood and supported that way

Hope that helps

 

[leon-1]

As for the help, the next job (my full sami one) is a long tang ie one that comes complete through the handle and is then folded/bent over at the base to sandwhich the handle on although i think this is already glued together.
The question is how actually does one bend this over - i dont have a vice which might cause probems but am sure i have seen it done without one. and is it worth heating it to make it easy to bend over with the ball payne (pain)?

Sorry Tim I completely missed that one, yes you can heat the end of the tang to make it easier to peen at a later date (the spelling on Ball pein differs dependant on your country).

You can make a knife vice with a couple of threaded metal bars and some plates, there are pictures of them on here, but you could check Brisa as they sell them and the pictures for the basic one are pretty self explanatory.

You could also thread the rear of the tang and then screw a metal butt plate to the rear of the knife.