AmericanLongRifles Forums
General discussion => Contemporary Accoutrements => Topic started by: T*O*F on January 08, 2009, 09:41:56 PM
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I am making a dagger and am thinking about doing a traditional, twisted wire, wrapped handle. These are seen on many early knifes as well as on swords.
Leather is wrapped around the grip, and twisted wire applied in a pattern resulting in overlapped diamonds on the grip. Very similar to a caned chair seat except they are not interwoven.
My question is how to terminate the wire. It should probably be tucked and then soldered, but how to do this without burning the underlying leather. Any thoughts.
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I have not seen this type of grip with twisted wire applied in a diamond pattern over a leather wrap.
The ones I've seen, have the wire applied in a simple spiral pattern.
The book "The Master Bladesmith- Advanced studies in steel " by Jim Hrisoulas has a chapter where he describes how to make this grip in detail. The ends of twisted wire are not soldered, but tucked into holes on the ends of the wooden core. Bolsters of sheet metal are then press fit over the grip ends.
You can't solder metal after it's applied to wood, horn or leather. When I make a knife hilt, all the metal filligree work is done first. The wooden handle is fitted to the metal parts and attached with rivets or glue.
Best regards
Rolfkt
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