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opinel handle


hodge911
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after reading ditchies post on antler handle on an opinel i fancied giving it go but after drawing a blank in the wanted section for a suitable bit of antler  a mate brought me a rams horn and a buffalo horn  so i deciced to have a try at doing it in buffalo horn . having never worked with buffalo horn i asked boo on how to finish it like he does and he kindly said .

so i cut a piece of the horn [as marked in yellow box in pic and set about shaping it ect i then sourced some 13mm thick ally plate and buffed it up to see what type of finish i could get on that [ see before and after pics so as of 6pm today I finished it .

its not anywhere near ditchies standard but i dont think its too bad for a 1st attempt.

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7 minutes ago, ditchman said:

i bet you are chuffed with that :good:

the begging letters are going to be coming thick an fast

Yea very pleased at my 1st go .

It's not up to your quality but I have a few ideas for the next one . What I had the most bother with was cutting the groove for the closed blade . It ended up slightly wider than I would of liked . And getting the blade to close .... 

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9 minutes ago, hodge911 said:

Yea very pleased at my 1st go .

It's not up to your quality but I have a few ideas for the next one . What I had the most bother with was cutting the groove for the closed blade . It ended up slightly wider than I would of liked . And getting the blade to close .... 

that is the most difficult thing to do.........i did make a machine to do it.....but found it was better to do by hand using an angle cutter.grinder....

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9 hours ago, hodge911 said:

Yea very pleased at my 1st go .

It's not up to your quality but I have a few ideas for the next one . What I had the most bother with was cutting the groove for the closed blade . It ended up slightly wider than I would of liked . And getting the blade to close .... 

I had the same problem with cutting the slot. In the end the only way was to do it by hand and eye with a Dremmel and cutting disc.

Lovely job though and something to be proud of. Well done.

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29 minutes ago, Dave at kelton said:

I had the same problem with cutting the slot. In the end the only way was to do it by hand and eye with a Dremmel and cutting disc.

Lovely job though and something to be proud of. Well done.

Firstly I used a 1mm thick cutting disc on my angle grinder but struggled getting the blade to close I ended up using a carbide cutting / reaming attachment in my dremmel but that also opened the width of the slot .

I think it was mainly down to the curvature ot the horn  making getting an even depth a bit harder.ll

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10 hours ago, ditchman said:

how did you attatch the pommel ?

Edited 10 hours ago by ditchman

I sort of copied you ...

With the ally being 13mm thick I drilled 2 holes about 10mm deep and tapped a thread into them screwed machine screws into them with locktite then put white paint on the ends of them lined it up with the end of the horn and marked it drilled slightly bigger holes in horn tapped them then filled with epoxy and coated the horn end and clamped until set

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13 minutes ago, hodge911 said:

I sort of copied you ...

With the ally being 13mm thick I drilled 2 holes about 10mm deep and tapped a thread into them screwed machine screws into them with locktite then put white paint on the ends of them lined it up with the end of the horn and marked it drilled slightly bigger holes in horn tapped them then filled with epoxy and coated the horn end and clamped until set

that aint going to go anywhere..:good:

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I am one of the very lucky guys to be in possesion of one of Simons 'conversions' and , yes you would be hard pushed to match the quality BUT without actually handling that knife of yours it does look VERY nice.  I have an Opinel sitting on my desk which sometime in the future I plan to convert but doubt that my abilties can match either of you.  Well done.

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13 hours ago, Diver One said:

@hodge911I now officially hate you😂 As you have just opened  a new winter pastime for me when I am not attempting stick making 👍   And a local shop has just started stocking Opinel

Lol as ditchie says it's a bit addictive... I was up the estate yesterday having a catch up with my keeper mate .

I took it up to show him and came away with an old opinel of his to do for him 

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2 hours ago, ditchman said:

i think the reason why they make superb gifts is EVERY ONE IS DIFFERENT...............when you recieve it ....you know damn well that is the only one like it....and will never be copied..........its like a limited edition of one :good:

Spot on m8 .

I'm doing his with buffalo horn but obviously different to mine .

I'm thinking of maybe brass or copper  pommel and I've seen a mosaic pin with a deer head in the centre  

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53 minutes ago, hodge911 said:

Spot on m8 .

I'm doing his with buffalo horn but obviously different to mine .

I'm thinking of maybe brass or copper  pommel and I've seen a mosaic pin with a deer head in the centre  

using copper was my next venture...and then bronze......but i found it difficult to find bronze plate the right size and thickness.....or phosphor bronze...........when i get moved (soon now)....i will start again   and try different bone/antler /horn....etc.............really like the idea and look  of the horn you did....i wonder how it would take chequering ?

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5 hours ago, ditchman said:

using copper was my next venture...and then bronze......but i found it difficult to find bronze plate the right size and thickness.....or phosphor bronze...........when i get moved (soon now)....i will start again   and try different bone/antler /horn....etc.............really like the idea and look  of the horn you did....i wonder how it would take chequering ?

I've got a mate that owns an old fashioned scrap yard and I just go see him and have a rummage .

That's where I got the 13mm ally plate that I used.

Hopefully he'll have some copper buzz bar lying around 

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